insanity

• M'Naghten Rules


  D must be labouring under such a defect of reasoning from disease of the mind as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, he did not know he was doing what was wrong
• R v Clarke


  Moments of confusion or absent mindedness do not count as defect of reasoning
• R v Kemp


  The law is concerned with the 'mind' not the 'brain
• R v Sullivan


  It doesn't matter whether the disease of the mind was 'permanent or transient and intermittent' as long as it existed at the time of the act
• R v Oye


  The defendant must not know the nature and quality of their actions or not know that the action is wrong
• Steps for insanity


  1. D must be suffering from a defect of reasoning

  2. Defect of reasoning must come from 'disease of the mind'

  3. D doesn't know the nature and quality of their action or doesn't know that the action is wrong