CJS 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Verdict, Sleepwalking, Actus Reus
8 Dec 2020
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Parks stabbed his mother-in-law to death and severely injured his father-in-law while sleep- walking. Parks was going through a stressful time. Parks had a good relationship with his in laws (they planned a future dinner date) He has family history of various sleep disorders. Acquitted parks of first and second degree murder charges on the basis of automatism: appeal court: Non-insane automatism (vs. insanity: not technically a defense, crown has to prove an actus reas and a mens reas. In law, insane implies that you have a disease of the mind this defence doesn"t apply here, because the defendants mind here was completely normal (i. e. everyone goes to sleep) occurred voluntary acts. All the expert witnesses confirmed that parks was sleep-walking when the events. They also stated that a person who"s sleep walking cannot think, reflect, or perform. Sleep walking is common, no treatment for it. They found it significant that there were several sleepwalkers in the respondent"s.
