Insanity (MC) Flashcards
What type of defence is insanity?
-Relevant only at the time of the offence
What is the burden of proof?
-D must prove on balance of probabilities he was insane at the time of the offence
-If P wish to raise issue then must prove that D was insane beyond reasonable doubt
What is the main case for insanity?
-M’Naughten
-Suffered extreme paranoia, thought being persecuted by the ‘tories’ tried to kill member of the gov Robert Peel but killed his secretary.
-Bc of mental state he was found NG murder
-committed to mental hospital
What are the 3 rules set out for insanity in M’Naghten?
-D needs to be suffering from a defect of reason
-Which results from a disease of the mind
-Which caused D not to know the nature and quality of their act or as not to know that what he was doing was wrong (Loake)
Defect of reason and case name
-D’s powers of recognising must be impaired
-if capable of reasoning but failed to use then no defect of reason
-Clarke
Clarke
Absent mindedly dft took items from super market
-Mere absent mindedness or confusion is not insanity
Disease of the mind and case names
-Defect of reason must be due to a disease of the mind, legal term not medical. Disease can be mental or physical disease affecting the mind
-R v Kemp
-R v Sullivan
R v Kemp
Suffering from hardening of the arteries which causes blackouts
Within rules of insanity condition affected mental reasoning
R v Sullivan
Injured friend in epileptic fit
Insanity includes any organic or functional disease even where it is temporary
What is the difference between organic and functional insanity
-Organic: brain been damaged by physical cause like epilepsy or degenerative like Alzheimer’s
-Functional: no organic reason for damage to the brain
What else can be seen as a disease of the mind? 2 case names
-High levels of sugar for diabetic patients can amount to insanity
-R v Hennessy
-R v Burgess
R v Hennessy
-Took care of after failing to take insulin
-if disease affects the mind then within insanity
R v Burgess
-Injured gf while sleepwalking
-if cause of sleepwalking is internal then it is disease within insanity
Not knowing the nature and quality of their act (3 points and 3 cases)
D must prove any of:
-that he did not know what he was doing
-he did not appreciate the consequences of his act
-did not appreciate the circumstances in which he was acting
* R v Oye
* R v Windle
*R v Johnson
R v Oye
Dft very odd behaviour, attacked police as thought they were agents of evil spirits. Insanity as he had psychotic episode and didn’t know what he was doing or that it was wrong
