Diminished responsibilty Flashcards
Recognised medical condition
Depression - Gittens
paranoia - Simox
BWS - ahluwalia
Irresistible impulses - Byrne
What is meant by substantial impairment?
Lloyd ‘substantial does not mean total, nor does it mean trivial or minimal’
Test - the impairment must be appreciable or significant but not necessarily total
Byrne ‘jury must decide’
Nature of his conduct
D does not know what he is doing eg suffers from delusions
Rational judgement
D has paranoia, schizophrenia or BWS
Self-control
Byrne - medical evidence to prove he is unable to control his desires
Provides an explanation for D’s conduct
Coroners act 2009 S2 - causes or is a significant contributing factor in causing D to carry out that conduct
Osbourne - the drugs and his anger made him kill not his ADHD
Intoxication alone cannot be used for DR
Dawds
Pre-existing abnormality and intoxication
Dietschmann- must be significant factor or the only factor causing D to kill
Intoxication and depression
Gittens - the medical condition alone must be a significant cause of the killing
Intoxication due to addiction/dependency
Stewart - 3 part test
Suffering from abnormality
Caused by the ADS
Mental responsibility substantially impaired
Criticisms
Burden of proof on D
Abnormality of mind - difference in opinions from doctors as to what falls into it.
Defence does not allow for development of immaturity as a medical condition
Reforms Law commission 2006 - prior to 2009
Definition should be modernised as to take into account changing medical knowledge - was then changed in 2009 by using the phrase ‘recognised medical condition’
The law stated nothing about what is involved in substantial impairment - but now it does eg rational judgement.
Abnormality of mental functioning
Byrne
