Criminal defenses
[1] If one succeeds in being declared "not guilty by reason of insanity," then the result frequently is treatment in a mental hospital, although some jurisdictions provide the sentencing authority with flexibility.
[3][4] One may suddenly fall ill, into a dream like state as a result of post traumatic stress,[5] or even be "attacked by a swarm of bees" and go into an automatic spell.
[6] However, to be classed as an "automaton" means there must have been a total destruction of voluntary control, which does not include a partial loss of consciousness as the result of driving for too long.
[7] Where the onset of loss of bodily control was blameworthy, e.g., the result of voluntary drug use, it may be a defense only to specific intent crimes.
Therefore, a criminal defense lawyer would argue that the victim should not have said or done certain illegal actions that would make someone lose self control.
In some jurisdictions, intoxication may negate specific intent, a particular kind of mens rea applicable only to some crimes.
[9] On the other hand, involuntarily intoxication, for example by punch spiked unforeseeably with alcohol, may give rise to no inference of basic intent.
For example, a charge of assault on a police officer may be negated by genuine (and perhaps reasonable) mistake of fact that the person the defendant assaulted was a criminal and not an officer, thus allowing a defense of use of force to prevent a violent crime (generally part of self-defense/defense of person).
Similarly, most laws forbidding the discharge of firearms in public contain an exception for emergency or defensive use.
Necessity generally forms the basis for many other defenses and their favor, such as capacity of office, legal duty, and self-defense.
Such protection is generally limited to acts required in the course and scope of employment, and it does not preclude gross negligence or malicious intent.
Use of a firearm in response to a non-lethal threat is a typical example of disproportionate force; however, such decisions are dependent on the situation and the applicable law, and thus the example situation can in some circumstances be defensible, Generally because of a codified presumption intended to prevent the unjust negation of this defense by the trier of fact.
[15] The duress must involve the threat of imminent peril of death or serious injury, operating on the defendant's mind and overbearing his will.
[19] Age, pregnancy, physical disability, mental illness, sexuality have been considered, although basic intelligence has been rejected as a criterion.
