Insanity & Automatism Flashcards
What type of defence is insanity and what is the result of using insanity as a defence.?
General Defence
Results in a special verdict - Not guilty be reason of insanity - D is given a treatment order and can be held in a mental hospital
What case gave the rules for determining whether or not D can use insanity?
M’Naghten
What did M’Naghten say?
Presumes that D is sane, with D having to rebut this presumption in order to use the defence. In order to do this, D must show they are suffering from:
- A defect of reasoning coming from a
- Disease of the mind, so that the D either
- Does not know the nature and quality of his act
OR
- Does not know what he is doing is wrong.
What is a defect of reasoning?
The symptoms D is having in the situation. E.g. wrongly thinking they are being attacked.
(Very similar to the abnormality of mental functioning element of DR)
What is a disease of the mind?
Means a malfunction of the mind, including any internal causes that affect memory, reasoning or understanding. These can be both mental or physical condition, like:
- Arteriosclerosis - hardening of the artery
- Sleepwalking
- Epilepsy
- Diabetes
- Schizophrenia
What does Hennessy show?
D was suffering from diabetes and had not taken his insulin. This led to him being in a hyperglycaemic state, which was the internal disease. As it was this disease that led to D’s act, not D actively causing it, insanity could be used.
What does it mean for D to not know the nature or quality of his act?
D either did not know at all what they were doing (e.g. acting unconsciously) or had some mistaken idea of what they were doing (e.g. D thinking he is cutting bread when he is actually cutting his wife’s neck).
What does it mean for D to no know that the act is wrong?
Johnson showed that D must think what they are doing is both legally and morally right.
What is automatism?
A crime committed by an involuntary act caused by an external factor.
It is a complete defence.
What does it mean for there to be an involuntary act?
The act must be 100% involuntary, D must have no control over their actions.
What does external factor mean?
The cause of the automatism must be an external, covering examples such as:
- Blow to the head
- Hypnotism
- Medication/Intoxication
In Bailey (a case very similar to Hennessy) the cause was the insulin, rather than the diabetes.
What is the rule for self-induced automatism?
D will only have a defence is he lack the MR needed for that crime.
It works in a similar way to intoxication (the same cases can be used).
