Daniel Sickles Won “Temporary Insanity”

In 1859, U.S. congressman Daniel Sickles shot and killed Philip Barton Key II, his wife’s lover, outside the White House in broad daylight. Authorities held Sickles in custody, but he still kept his personal gun, and the jailor even gave him keys to his apartment so he could host a stream of VIP visitors. Sickles then took his case to court and argued that the betrayal had shattered his mind. A jury acquitted him using the defense of “temporary insanity.”

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