Insanity

• Insanity


  It is insanity in the legal sense and not in the medical or psychological sense and it must be an internal cause
• Special verdict


  Not guilty by reason of insanity
• Rules of insanity are based on M’Naughten

  • Suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and Prime Minister secretary
  • Defendant must be suffering from a defect of reason, caused by the sees of the mind and he must not know the nature and quality of the act was wrong
• 3 elements that need to be proved:

  • Defect of reason
  • As a result of a disease of the mind
  • The defendant did not know what he was doing or did not know the nature and quality of the act was wrong
• Defect of reason

  • This means that the defendants powers of reasoning must be impaired.
  • If the defendant is capable of reasoning but has failed to use those powers then this is not a defect of reason
  • was decided in R v Clarke
• R v Clarke

  • absentmindedly took items from a supermarket
  • Absent-mindedness or confusion is not insanity
• Disease of the mind

  R v Kemp:

  • suffering from hardening of the arteries which causes blackouts
  • Was within rules of insanity because his condition affected his mental reasoning , memory and understanding
• Disease of the mind

  R v sullivan

  • Injured friend epileptic fit
  • Included any organic or functional disease .it also applied even where it was temporary
• Organic Insanity


  When the brain has been damaged by physical course such as epilepsy or a degenerative disease like Alzheimer’s
• hennesy

  • Diabetic took a car after failing to take his insulin
  • If the disease affects the mind, then it is within the definition of Insanity
• Burgess

  • Injured his girlfriend while he was asleep
  • If the cause of sleepwalking is internal, then it is a disease within the definition of insanity
• External factors


  This is where the defendant is an estate where he/she does not know what he/she is doing due to an external cause
• Quick

  • diabetic, who failed to eat after taking his insulin
  • This was an external cause (effect of drug) and so was not insanity
• r v oye

  • Defendant did not know the nature and quality of his act
• Windle

  • was suffering from a mental disorder and killed his wife who had constantly spoken of committing suicide
  • Because he knew what he had done was legally wrong, was not insane by M’Naghten rules
• R v Johnson

  • defendant, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and hallucination stabbed his neighbour
  • Because he knew what he had done was legally wrong, he was not insane by the M’Naghten rules