Price v. Commonwealth

In this criminal appeal, we examine the insanity defense as established in the Commonwealth and determine whether the defendant must prove the elements of the defense in the conjunctive or disjunctive. Specifically, we must decide whether Virginia has adopted the actual rule of M’Naghten’s Case, 10 Cl. and F. 200, 8 Eng. Rep. 718 (1843), or some variation of that principle.

Indicted for murder and use of a firearm while committing murder, Matthadus William Price pled not guilty to both charges and asserted that he was insane when the oifenses were committed. Tried by a jury, the defendant was…