On October 7, mental illness was at the forefront of deliberations by the Supreme Court as it opened its term with oral arguments on the constitutionality of a state’s elimination of the insanity defense. Kansas does not offer the insanity defense; however, it allows a defendant to cite “mental disease or defect: as a partial defense, as long as the defendant proves that he or she didn’t intend to commit the alleged crime. Attorneys for a defendant convicted of murdering his family argued that their client was unable to receive a fair trial due to the lack of availability of the insanity defense.