Philosophy 2080 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Fagan Commission, Mens Rea, Sleepwalking
17 Feb 2016
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Went to bed, fell asleep, then sleep-walked/driving and killed his mother in law, gravely wounded his father in law, got back into car and drove to police station said that he thought he killed his in laws. Trial: sleepwalking is called automatism and somnambulism, calls it non-insane automatism. Means that he didn"t have control of his actions, was not the directing mind of what the body was doing: actus reas is a voluntary act, mens rea is intent, evidence. 5 experts were convinced that it was automatism. Got along with in laws, had problems at work due to gambling problems, stole money from his employer, he was quite stressed: don"t want to call him insane and say that he"s not criminally responsible. Not a conviction, but is declaration that you have a mental illness, are mentally incompetent. Would get put into an institution for a long time (15-20.
