Crime 33 - Diminished Responsibility 2

In R v Lloyd (1966) the accused strangled his wife. The accused was arrested and charged. At the trial, the defense brought to light the fact that the accused suffered from a mental abnormality but there was no evidence to indicate that the mental abnormality that he suffered from would impair his ability to reason.

The trial judge directed the jury to the effect that they should decide based on the evidence that was presented to them if the mental abnormality constituted substantial impairment or otherwise. If the jury found that the mental impairment was substantial then they should convict for manslaughter, otherwise they should convict for murder.

The jury convicted for murder and the accused appealed on the grounds that “abnormality of mental functioning” as per S. 2 (1) of the Homicide Act (1957) meant that the mental impairment should be more than trivial and not substantial in the ordinary sense of the word. His appeal was based on the premise that the level of mental impairment that was required to escape a conviction for murder need only be more than trivial and that the trial judge had erred in his direction to the jury.

The appeal was dismissed and it was decided that the trial judge had not erred in his direction. The jury is to decide whether the mental impairment that the accused in a murder trial raises on a charge of murder is substantial or sufficient to allow the accused to successfully raise the defense of diminished responsibility based on the evidence that is presented.

If the accused suffers from a long term mental illness like depression than that is sufficient to raise the defense of diminished responsibility and the accused will not be guilty of murder but rather of manslaughter.

In Price (1971), The Times, 22 December 1971, the accused allowed his terminally ill son to drown. The accused was arrested and charged but he was convicted not of murder but of manslaughter and the killing of his son was not seen as murder because the accused had allowed him to drown out of compassion and the accused’s decision was linked to his long-term depression.