Voluntary MS

Question 0

Recognized medical conditions include…

Answer 0

Serious depression – Lawson

Post traumatic stress disorder

Battered wife syndrome – Aluhwalia

Question 1

Diminished responsibility

Answer 1

S 52 Coroners and Justice Act 2009
S 2 homicide act 1957
- must suffer from abnormality of mental functioning (Byrne) – could cover uncontrollable urges
-abnormality if mental functioning must arise from recognized medical condition

Question 2

Abnormality of mental functioning must impair…

Answer 2

Defs ability to understand what he did
Defs ability to form rational judgements
Defs ability to exercise self control (Byrne)

Question 3

What Dietschmann case says

Answer 3

Alcohol is only capable of amounting to dim responsibility if it causes damage to the brain or produces an irresistible craving so that consumption is voluntary (ie alcohol dependence syndrome)

Question 4

Loss of control

Answer 4

S 54 and 55 Coroner and Justice Act 2009

Question 5

Loss of control includes:

Answer 5

1) loss of self control
2) loss of self control has qualifying trigger
3) a person of def age sex and normal mental state would have acted in a similar way in the same circumstances

Question 6

1) Loss of self control

Answer 6

Subjective test
Slow burn principle where there is a time delay between the qualifying trigger and the defs actions (Aluhwalia)

Answer standout point: concerns about ability of abused women who kill their a users to rely on the old law of provocation and was a significant issue of debate until the reform of the law. Emphasis placed on new law to be equal for both men and women in recognition that the two respond differently to provocation and kill in diff circumstances (Law commission no 304);

Question 7

2) Qualifying trigger

Answer 7

Section 55 coroners and justice act 2009

• fear if serious violence
• thing or things done or said – constituted circumstances of an extremely grave character and caused D to have justifiable sense of being seriously wronged (objective test for the jury)

Question 8

Section 55(6) serious violence is to be disregarded if…

Answer 8

Def provokes someone
Def partakes in sexual infidelity (Clinton)
Def takes vengeance on someone (revenge - not allowed)

Question 9

3) person of defs age, sex, and with normal degree of mental tolerance might have acted in a similar way in the same circumstances

Answer 9

• defs age and sex should be taken into account in assessing the power of self control (Camplin)
• short temper will not suffice ( AG for jersey v Holley)