Breivik Likely Won't Be Declared Insane

Anders Behring Breivik, who admitted killing dozens in Norway last week, will likely not be declared legally insane because he appears to have been in control of his actions, the head of the panel that will review his psychiatric evaluation tells the AP. The July 22 attacks were so carefully planned and executed that it would be difficult to argue they were the work of a delusional madman, says the head of the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine.

In Norway, an insanity defense requires that a defendant be in a state of psychosis while committing the crime with which he or she is charged. That means the defendant has lost contact with reality to the point that he's no longer in control of his own actions, and that's not likely in Breivik's case. The forensic board must review and approve the examination by two court-appointed psychiatrists before the report goes to the judge hearing the case. The judge will then decide whether Breivik can be held criminally liable. Click for more. (More Anders Behring Breivik stories.)