Voluntary Manslaughter- Diminished Responsability

Question 1

What act

Answer 1

S52 coroners and justices act 2009

Question 2

Where a person who kills or is a party to the killing of another is not toby convicted of murder if that person was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning which:

Answer 2

Arose from medical conditions, substantially impaired d’s ability to do one or more of the following: understand the nature of his conduct, from a rational judgement and exercise self control Provides

Question 3

R v Byrne

Answer 3

d strangled and mutilated the body of a young girl, he claimed that he had suffered with perverted sexual desires from childhood which he found impossible to resist. Cannot exercise will power.

Question 4

R v fairweather

Answer 4

d committed 2 killings over a 3 month period. He claimed he was suffering a psychotic episode at the time and had heard voices telling him to kill. Had autism spectrum disorder, amounts to an abnormality of mental function. Jury did not believe he was psychotic at the time of the killings.

Question 5

R v Martin

Answer 5

d had been a victim of burglaries and was unsatisfied with the police response. He owned a shotgun. His house was broken into by 3 men and he shot one in the back- a 16yo. Suffering from paranoid personality disorder and depression.

Question 6

R v brennan

Answer 6

if 2 medical experts agree on the recognised medical condition- then murder has to be withdrawn from the jury

Question 7

R v brown

Answer 7

abnormality had to be more than a minimal or trivial contribution to the killing but did not need to be the sole cause

Question 8

R v golds

Answer 8

jury must’ve directed on how substantial should be considered

Question 9

R v simcox

Answer 9

jury need to decide if the impairment made a substantial difference or just made it harder to control themselves if just harder will still be found guilty

Question 10

R v osbourne

Answer 10

Not diminished responsibility as not based on mental condition but drugs and anger

Question 11

R v dietschmann

Answer 11

The effects of alcohol do not amount to diminished responsibility but brain damage cause by alcoholism could amount to diminished responsibility

Question 12

R v wood

Answer 12

Alcohol dependency syndrome is a recognised medical condition

Question 13

R v dowds

Answer 13

Voluntary and temporary drunkenness cannot be diminished responsibility

Question 14

R v Joyce and another

Answer 14

If someone is so drunk they could not have acquired the mens rea for the murder then they could plead intoxication as a defence and be convicted of manslaughetr