Ed Gein was a notorious criminal who took interest in skinning corpses and wearing them or using them as decorative items. He was arrested and tried in 1957. Gein pled not guilty under reason of insanity and was deemed legally insane (Yoong, 2012). Michael Hamilton was accusing of killing 49-year-old Robert Marcyan was involuntarily intoxicated at the time of the shooting (Salisbury, 2013). Therefore, Mr. Hamilton's lawyers argued that he was not responsible for the murder because he was not in a responsive state of mind. As you can see both of these men committed terrible atrocities which may seem inexcusable in the eyes of the public; However many people fail to realize the implications of one's state of mind in these scenarios. Both men were in an impaired state of mind at the time of the crime. Thereby making them innocent in the eyes of the law. Many people tend to point out horrible crimes committed by people such as the ones mentioned previously to reinforce their argument of human nature's cruel tendencies. Many of the examples used to support this claim cannot be considered as candidates for judging the principles upon which human nature follows because the people who committed the crimes lacked a clear perception of reality or experienced altered basic instincts due to the effects of mind altering substances or mind impairing diseases. While this may be true, people continue to bring up historic examples of people willingly committing atrocities. Let's consider the case of Adolph Hitler. In no way can Hitler's actions be excused or justified, but one must carefully examine the details of his motives before using his character to validate the presence of wicked intentions that surround human nature.
Many people ask why the Nazis directed all their anger against the Jews. "The answer to this question lies in the strong anti-Semitic tradition in Europe, which predated the Nazis' rise to power.