Diminished Responsibility Flashcards
Definition
Amended in s52 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009
A person is not guilty of murder if he was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning that means he could not be held responsible for the actus reus
Elements
- Must have arisen from a recognised medical condition
2 must have substantially impaired D’s ability to
- understand the nature of their conduct
- form a rational judgement OR
- exercise self control.
- Must provide an explanation for D’s involvement in the killing
Abnormality of mental functioning?
R v Byrne, Lord Parker CJ defines abnormality of mind as “a state of mind that a reasonable man would find abnormal”
The law commission have stated that mental states such as anger, jealousy, temper, love and compassion are emotions which ordinary people are susceptible
Abnormality of the mind- cases under the old law
R v Tandy - d strangled her daughter, tried to plead alcoholism as a cause of DR.
Was held that DR is available where alcoholism has caused brain damage and the brain damage has substantially impaired D’s mental responsibility for the killing
R v Dietschmann - D May be able to rely on DR despite being intoxicated as long as the abnormality was still a substantial cause of the killing
- Abnormality must arise from a recognised medical condition
Defence will only be available if D was suffering from a condition recognised by medical professionals
This would include depression - r v seers
Paranoid personality disorders - r v Martin
D must have evidence to confirm this
- Substantial impairment of D’s ability
Abnormality of mental functioning must have substantially impaired D’s ability to:
- understand the nature of their conduct
- form a rational judgement
- exercise self control
- A significant contributory factor to the killing
Should cause or be a significant contributory factor in causing D to kill. If they killed them because they hated them and their mental health had no impact on this, the defence will not apply.
Burden of proof
It is up to D to prove DR on the balance of probabilities.
Effect
If successful, D is convicted of manslaughter instead of murder
