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Diminished Responsibility - Coggle Diagram
Diminished Responsibility
General
Partial defence to murder, reduced it to manslaughter
Must be raised by the defence no other party - Erskine 2010
S.52 Coroners and Justice Act 2009, amended in s.2 Homicide Act 1957
Abnormality
Byrne 1960 - d’s mental functioning must be so different from that of the normal that the reasonable person would regard it as abnormal
D strangled and mutilated a young women, struggled with sexual desires that created uncontrollable urges since he was a child
There is no need for this to be permanent just apparent at the time of the killing
The d must have an abnormality of mental functioning
Recognised Medical Condition
This abnormality must arise from a medical condition recognised by doctors (Bunch)
Can be physical and mental condition
E.g. alcohol dependence (Woods), depression
Cases:
Martin - Paranoid Personality Disorder - shot two intruders who entered his house in the middle of the night, guilty of MS
Vinagre - Othello’s Syndrome - believed his wife was having an affair with a policeman and killed her, guilty of MS
Dietchman - Personality Adjustment Disorder - struggling after the death of his aunt, killed someone - ignore the effect of other factors like alcohol
Blackman - Combat Stress Disorder - British marine who shot dead a Taliban prisoner in Afghanistan, guilty of MS
Gittens - Depression - visiting home from hospital, argued with wife, beat her to death and raped her then killed his stepdaughter, was drinking and on drugs also, guilty of MS
Ahluwalia - BWS - d was abused by her husband for 10 years, threw petrol over him, premeditated, guilty of murder until BWS was discovered
Seers - Depression - d stabbed his ex wife, judge said must be bordering on insane, judge was wrong and so was guilty of MS
Substantially Impair
Golds - ‘substantial impairment’, this should be left to the jury, judge should only tell them that substantial is significant or appreciable, more than trivial or minimal
This must then provide an explanation for his action in killing the v
The AMF must substantially impair the d’s ability to do one of three things
Form rational judgement
Exercise self control
Understand the nature of his acts
There can be other causes as long as the abnormality significantly contributed to the killing