General Defences Flashcards
Definition of insanity?
S.1 Criminal Procedure (Insanity & Unfitness to Plead) Act 1991.
M’Naghten defined insanity as having 3 stages.
What does M’Naghten say?
The defence of insanity has 3 stages.
What is stage one?
D must be suffering from a defect of reason, meaning that the Ds reasoning is impaired.
Clarke- temporary absentmindedness is not enough.
What is stage 2 of insanity?
The defect of reason must be caused by a disease of the mind.
What are the diseases of the mind under insanity?
Epilepsy- Sullivan
Sleep walking- Burgess
Schizophrenia
Chronic depression
Diabetes hyperglycaemia- Hennessy
What is stage 3 of insanity?
D must not understand the Natute and Quality of their act.
Window- the d must not have known what they were doing was wrong and what the consequences would be.
Definition of Automatism?
Lord Denning in Bratty- “an act done by the muscles without any control of the mind”
Automatism is caused by externally affected conditions.
What is stage 1 of automatism?
D must have lost full control of their actions. This means the D did the actus reus involuntarily (Broome v Perkins)
