day no. 16,284: thoughts on trial

"By one of the monstrosities of the feeble-minded theory, a man actually acquitted by judge and jury could then be examined by doctors as to the state of his mind—presumably in order to discover by what diseased eccentricity he had refrained from the crime. In other words, when the police cannot jail a man who is innocent of doing something, they jail him for being too innocent to do anything." -- G.K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

To be judged not guilty by reason of insanity is to be determined too innocent to be guilty, but too bound up to be free. The man convicted of a crime may be detained to do his time, but a man considered insane may be detained until the end of time. Crime carries its sentence with it whereas crazy can run on and on indefinitely. A society interested more in eccentricity than guilt may end up doing to innocent people what they never would have done to guilty ones. Dangerous ideas residing inside the dark corners of the minds of men may end up being punished more severely than the dangerous actions of those done in broad daylight. As a result, the thought criminal may be more likely to receive life imprisonment than the murderer and the "violence" of disagreeable thoughts may be met with greater retribution than the violence of disagreeable behaviors.

All that to say, “crazy” is a more severe sentence than “guilty” since crazy can be defined as anything currently out of fashion.