Was Hamlet Insane? The Jurry's Still Out

This isn't comic book related, but it is interesting and fun, so I'm sharing it.

This past Thursday several professional lawyers and psychiatrists gathered to decide, in a mock trial, weather or not Shakespeare's character, Hamlet, was insane.

"After two hours of mock-trial arguments at the Kennedy Center -- presided over by no less a jurist than Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy -- a jury of Washingtonians deliberated over whether Hamlet was in his right mind when he stabbed Polonius to death. In elegant tribute to Shakespeare's enigmatic masterpiece, the jurors deadlocked, 6 to 6."

"The hypothetical placed "Hamlet" somewhere between Elsinore and the set of "Law & Order." The defense team -- trial lawyer Abbe D. Lowell and Court TV personality Catherine Crier -- had the familiar job of getting their client off, which in this case meant proving that he was mentally incapacitated and thus not capable of standing trial. The prosecution (attorneys Cristina Arguedas and Miles Ehrlich) was compelled to mine the "record" for evidence of Hamlet's soundness of mind -- that he was perhaps, as Shakespeare put it, "noble in reason."'

I found the article on the debate pretty interesting. Click here to read it. Although I do think that Justice Kennedy has more important things to do on the taxpayer dime. Still, it's kind of a fun thing to consider, and it sounds like the event drew quite a crowd.

To learn more about Hamlet, click here.