Diminished responsibility- Voluntary Manslaughter

• Diminished Responsibility

  • Partial defence to Murder
  • Homicide Act 1957
  • Then further amended by the coroners and justice act 2009
• S.52(1)


  D suffers from an "abnormality of mental functioning"

  • R v Byrnes- "inability to control urges
  • Lord Parker- abnormality is "a state of mind so different from that of ordinary human beings that the reasonable person would see it as abnormal"
• S.52(1)(A)


  Only acceptable if it arises from a "recognised medical condition"

  • Chronic depression- Gittens 1984
  • Mental Deficiency- Speake 1957
  • Pre-menstrual tensions- Smith 1982
  • Battered woman syndrome- Ahluwalia 1993
  • NOT ACCEPTED- morbid jealousy- Vinagre 1979
  • All of those found in the WHO list of classified diseases ICD-10
• The abnormality must have:

  S.52(1)(B)

  • to understand the nature of D's conduct
  • to form rational judgement
  • to exercise self control

  It has to be substantial impairment for the defence to occur

  • Egan (1992)- "substantial" is "more than trivial degree of impairment which does not make any appreciable difference to a persons ability to control himself, but it means less than total impairment"
• S.52(1)(c)


  the abnormality provides an explanation for D's acts and omissions.

  Also includes the problem of intoxication

  • Would the D's responsibility still be impaired if they were sober
  • separate the intoxication from the D.R (R v Gittens) (R v Diestschmann)
  • Drunkenness is not a case of diminished responsibility

  However,

  • Tandy (1988)- if alcoholism caused brain damage then that is a recognised medical condition
  • R v Wood (2008)