AUTOMATISM Flashcards
what’s defined by
lord denning in bratty v AGR 1963
step 1
completely involuntary - must prevent d from forming mr
T
whooley
WHATMORE V JENKINS
what’s the characteristics of automatism ?
act fine by muscles without control of mind such as spasm reflex or convulsion
T
d was severely raped and suffered from PTSD causing disassociation, commuted robbery and assault.
involuntary so automatism
WHATMORE V JENKINS
had hypoglaicic seizures dropping in n out of consciousness over 5 miles/
failed as needs to be complete loss of voluntary control and had some comtrlll in
main A03
main issue is deciding on insanity and automatism and there are many crossovers, insane automatism or non insan automatism
external factor (diabetes)
same as insanity - hennessy and quick
external factors - disassociation
FALCONER
FALCONER
shot and killed husband but didn’t remember anything, previously been sexually abused by him and just found out he’d sexually abused
her kids.
extreme external case
so was allowed
DIABETES a03
extremely unfair as same medical condition can result in hospitalisation v complete aqquital depending on a tiny factor
self induced automatism
same as rules of imtoxication eg hardie or bailey ( reckless)
HARDIE
fire wardrobe valium
disassociation a03
confusion over am extreme external case, should this not class as loc and causes uncertainty as to what extreme cases are
burden of proof
defendant must produce medical evidence to support state of mind at time of offence
burden of proof A03
can be difficult for juries to understand medical evidence and
places unfair duty on defendant
