Can you give us an example?
- Recently, in South Carolina a young boy murdered his grandparents.
- He took the prescription drug Zoloft for depression and he claimed
that the use of the drug caused him to kill his grandparents.
- In other words, he did not know what he was doing.
How did the jury respond to this involuntarily intoxication
defense?
- With the increased dosage of Zoloft, he changed and become very violent.
- The jury weighed this evidence, but finally concluded that
he was thinking clearly enough to know what he was doing at the time
of the murders.
- This was based on the evidence, that after the murder, he stole the
family car and money from the house, and then burned down the house.
So is being drunk while you commit a crime ever valid legal
defense?
In many states, including Missouri, some crimes have a different burden
of proof based on whether criminal’s intent was general
or specific.
In a rare set of circumstances, intoxication could be raised as a defense
in a crime that requires specific intent.
Can you give us a couple of examples of general and specific
intent type crimes?
- Assault for example, is a general intent crime. If you swing a club
at someone and hit them, it is assault.
- It doesn’t matter that you didn’t mean to strike them.
- 1st degree murder is a specific intent crime. If someone is drunk
and gets into a fistfight that results in another person’s death,
evidence of intoxication may result in the charge being reduced to
manslaughter.
Our legal system does not accept impaired mental abilities due
to drugs or alcohol as a valid legal defense, except in very rare circumstances.
Disclaimer
This information is general and may or may not apply to your situation.
The information contained on this web site is not to be considered as
legal advice. Since no two cases are identical, we recommend that you
contact an attorney in your jurisdiction to discuss the specific facts
of your case. Furthermore, since statutes and case law change so frequently
and due to information provided by other sources, we make no warranty
or guarantee concerning the accuracy of the content of this or any other
web sites to which we link.
|
