insanity

• insanity

  insane automatism - d's act is involuntary

  insanity - d's act is voluntarily but doesn't understand nature of act
• to rely on insanity, it must be proves:

  d labouring under a defect of reason

  caused by a disease of the mind

  so that d didn't know nature of his act or that his act was wrong
• insanity 1

  defect of reason (d unable to use powers of reason)

  requires inability to reason

  must be complete loss of the power of reasoning (Clarke)

  evidence - irrational, strange or abnormal thoughts/behaviour
• insanity 2

  disease of the mind

  legal term, not medical

  permanent or temporary

  malfunctioning of the mind, memory and understanding

  minor epileptic fit (sullivan)

  arteriosclerosis (kemp)

  sleep walking (burgess)

  hyperglycaemia (Hennessy)
• insanity 3a

  d didn't know nature of his conduct

  in a state of unconsciousness or impaired unconsciousness is an automatic state

  d is conscious but does not understand or know what he is doing (d thinks he's slicing bread but he's slicing someone's throat)
• insanity 3b

  d didn't know what he was doing was legally wrong

  d knew nature and quality and that his act was legally wrong so couldn't use defence (windle)
• effect on pleading insanity

  if proven - special verdict given

  d not guilty by reason of insanity

  court may impose hospital order, supervision or discharge

  murder - must be hospital order restricting discharge indefinitely