Tennessee Code Annotated
Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-18-117 (2026)
Instructions concerning insanity
✓ current as of May 2026
In all criminal cases in which the trial judge charges the jury on the law relating to the defense of insanity, the judge shall also charge the jury that, if it should find the defendant to be not guilty by reason of insanity, that it shall so state in its verdict.
Acts 1977, ch. 228, § 1; T.C.A., § 40-2530.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2
cases, 1994–1997 · leading case: State v. Brimmer, 876 S.W.2d 75 (Tenn. 1994).
State v. Brimmer, 876 S.W.2d 75 (Tenn. 1994). “T.C.A. § 40-18-117 (1990). By requiring proof that the defendant could not conform his conduct to the requirements of law, supra at 13-14 , the majority seems to eliminate any mental condition less severe than insanity as a mitigating circumstance.”
State v. Dale Nolan (Tenn. Crim. App. 1997). “Nevertheless, the appellant contends that Code section 40-18-117, requiring the trial judge to charge the jury that a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity shall be explicitly stated, coupled with Tennessee Pattern Instruction - Criminal 43.”
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