A Companion to Murder: An A-Z of Notorious Killers and Sensational Trials by Edward Spencer Shew & Theodore Dalrymple

Author:Edward Spencer Shew & Theodore Dalrymple [Shew, Edward Spencer & Dalrymple, Theodore]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs, Professionals & Academics, Lawyers & Judges, True Crime, Murder & Mayhem, True Accounts
Amazon: B00NAZ2172
Publisher: Monday Books
Published: 2014-09-02T22:00:00+00:00

I

I am in blood

Stepp'd in so far, that, should I wade no more,

Returning were as tedious as go o'er.

Shakespeare: Macbeth

Insanity as a bar to Execution . By a provision of the Criminal Lunatics Act, 1884, if it should appear to the Home Secretary that a person under sentence of death may be insane it is an absolute obligation upon him to appoint two or more qualified medical practitioners to examine the prisoner and report upon his or her mental condition.

(There is in Scotland no such statutory obligation upon the Secretary of State, but where there is any doubt about a prisoner's mental condition, two Medical Commissioners with special psychiatric qualifications and experience are appointed to hold an inquiry.)

The practice in England has been to hold an inquiry whenever there is anything to suggest that the prisoner may have been insane or mentally abnormal at the time of the crime or have become insane since his or her conviction, and in particular where a plea of insanity has been raised at the trial and rejected by the jury. Normally, these inquiries have been conducted by three mental specialists, usually including the Medical Superintendent of Broadmoor. They have had access to full reports of the case, including police reports, medical reports, and a verbatim record of the trial.

The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1949-53, pointed out in its report that for the purposes of their inquiries the specialists are not bound by the criterion of legal responsibility laid down by the M'NAGHTEN RULES, but are free to consider without restrictions the medical aspects of insanity or other mental abnormality, including psychoneurosis, psychopathic personality, mental defectiveness, or borderline states.

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