State v. Crenshaw

Crenshaw (defendant) beat, stabbed, and decapitated his wife after wrongly suspecting her of infidelity during their honeymoon, then fled, cleaned the crime scene, and later confessed to hitchhikers who alerted police. At trial he raised an insanity defense, testifying that his Moscovite religious faith required him to kill an unfaithful wife, and presented evidence of a history of mental illness; the jury was instructed that under the M'Naghten test, "wrong" meant legal wrong, i.e., that the defendant knew his act was contrary to law. Crenshaw was convicted of first-degree murder and appealed, challenging that jury instruction.