Excuses Flashcards
What is duress
Duress is an excuse to human threats
Requirements of duress
Immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury
Reasonable belief that the threat is serious
No reasonable means of escape
Insanity
M’Naghten Test
Cognitive incapacity
Moral incapacity
Irresistible impulse/ volitional incapacity test
Product of mental illness
M’Naghten Test
At the time of the committing of the act, was the party accused labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as
not to know the nature and quality of what he was doing; or
if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing wrong?
Cognitive Incapacity
Whether the actor knew the nature and quality of what he was doing.
Moral incapacity
Whether the actor knew that what he was doing what wrong
Irresistible impulse/ volitional incapacity test
Whether a person is so lacking in volition due to a mental defect or illness that he could not have controlled his actions
Product of mental illness
Whether a person’s action was a product of a mental disease or defect
Infancy and Capacity
Age Thresholds
Capacity presumed after a certain age. or
M’Naghten Test
Minor had capacity to know what they were doing was wrong.
