State v. Esser

The state requested an instruction defining insanity in terms of a mental condition rendering the defendant incapable of distinguishing between right and *571wrong.2 The language requested was taken from headnotes 18, 19, and 20 of Oborn v. State.3 The state contends here:(1) The right-wrong definition was part of the common law in force in the territory of Wisconsin at the time our constitution was adopted, and the constitution prohibits the courts from changing it. (2) This definition was in any event a common-law rule of criminal law in force here in 1955 when the legislature enacted the…