Insanity

• What crimes is the defence of insanity available for?

  all crimes except crimes of strict liability
• What type of law is the insanity defence?

  common law
• Where has the defence of insanity come from?

  The M'naghten Case
• What are the M'naghten rules?

  1. a defect of reasoning
  2. resulting from a disease of the mind
  3. Causing D not to know EITHER the nature or quality of his actions OR that what he did was wrong
• What happened in the case of Clarke?

  D claimed she had not realised she had put items in a supermarket in her bag whilst depressed.
• What is the point of law in Clarke?

  The insanity defence applies to those who have their ability to reason deprived, not a failure to use it.
• is the reason of insanity internal or external?

  internal
• What happened in Kemp?

  D had a disease causing the hardening of the arteries, which affected D's blood supply to the brain. D attacked his wife with a hammer
• What was the point of Kemp?

  a disease of the mind includes physical diseases that affects the mind
• What happened in Sullivan?

  D suffered from epilepsy, and had an epileptic fit resulting in an attack against an 80 year old neighbour.
• What was the point of Sullivan?

  Epilepsy is treated as a disease of the mind by the courts
• What happened in hennessy?

  D was diabetic, failed to take insulin. Went into hyperglycaemic state and drove whilst disqualified
• What happened in Quick?

  D was a male nurse and diabetic - took insulin but failed to eat. Went into a hypoglycaemic state and attacked a patient
• What was the point of law in Hennessy?

  diabetes is an internal cause and fell within insanity rules
• What was the point of law in QUick?

  automatic state was not caused by the diabetes, it was caused by an external factor - insulin so insanity defence is not available
• What happened in Burgess?

  D tried to strangle girlfriend in his sleep. Evidence from doctor that this was due to sleep disorder
• What is the point of law in Burgess?

  D had a disease of the mind as the sleep disorder was internal
• What does the law state on voluntary intoxication and insanity?

  Where D suffers from a psychotic episode due to voluntarily taking an intoxicating substance, this would again amount to an external factor and insanity would not apply
• What happened in the case of coley?

  D had a bad experience on cannabis and attacked his neighbour with a knife
• What is the point of law of Coley?

  D was guilty of attempted murder and could not use the defence of insanity. His mental disorder had resulted from an external act of voluntary intoxication
• What situations does 'not knowing the nature & quality of the act' include?

  1. D was in a state of unconsciousness
  2. if conscious, D doesn't understand or know what they are doing
• What happened in the case of Oye?

  D attacked a policewoman believing she was a demon
• What was the ratio in Oye?

  Not guilty by reason of insanity as D did not know what he was doing
• What happened in Windle?

  D's wife constantly spoke of suicide so he gave her 100 aspirin tablets and she died. D also had a mental illness and he stated that he knew the consequences
• What was the ratio in Windle?

  even though D thought he was morally justified, he knew his actions were legally wrong so he could not plead insanity
• What are the three choices the judge can decide with the defence of insanity?

  1. Hospital order
  2. Supervision order
  3. Absolute discharge

  BUT: if D is facing a charge of murder, the only option is an indefinite hospital order