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In English law, diminished responsibility is one of the partial defenses that reduce the offense from murder to manslaughter if successful (termed "voluntary" manslaughter for these purposes). This allows the judge sentencing discretion, e.g. to impose a hospital order under section 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983 to ensure treatment rather ...
In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental functions were "diminished" or impaired.
Under section 2 of the Homicide Act 1957 there are three requirements for the defendant to raise the defence of diminished responsibility. The defendant must have suffered from an abnormality of mind at the time of the killing caused by one of the causes specified by the Act which substantially impaired the defendant's mental responsibility for the killing.
One important reform, introduced in England and Wales by statute is the diminished responsibility defence. The requirements are usually more lax, for instance, being "an abnormality of mind" which "substantially impair[s] mental responsibility for his acts and omission in doing or being a party to the killing." [35]
The Homicide Act 1957 (5 & 6 Eliz. 2.c. 11) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.It was enacted as a partial reform of the common law offence of murder in English law by abolishing the doctrine of constructive malice (except in limited circumstances), reforming the partial defence of provocation, and by introducing the partial defences of diminished responsibility and suicide pact.
In legal systems based on common law, a partial defence is a defence that does not completely absolve the defendant of guilt. [1] A claim of self-defence, for example, may be a complete defence to a charge of murder, leading to an acquittal; or it may be a partial defence, which leads to conviction to a lesser verdict, such as manslaughter.
The findings are in a report into the progress of the merger of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.
There are three types of voluntary manslaughter: that resulting from loss of self-control; that resulting from statutorily defined diminished responsibility; and killing in perseverance of a suicide pact. [34] Loss of control is defined in sections 54 and 55 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. [35]