according to this thread people whom are on acid and detained almost invariably go violent. Could those people plead temporary insanity to the assault charges?
Depends, obviously, on where they’re being tried and what the local law says about a defence of insanity. A few factors tell against the idea of pleading insanity
(1) A lot of jurisdictions explicitly provide that acting under the influence of drugs which you have voluntarily consumed does not support a defence of insanity. Otherwise an awful lot of people would be acquitted of an awful lot of crimes.
(2) The practical consquences of being found to be insane may be less attractive than the practical consquences of being convicted of assault or resisting arrest.
(3) Most definitions of legal insanity focus on cognition; did you know what you were doing? Did you know that it was wrong. Some focus on volition; were you in a position voluntarily to control your own actions? From my (cursory) glance at the thread you linked to, the issue seems to be that LSD increases your tolerance of pain, and (possibly) lowers your inhibitions, so you fight, and continue fighting when somebody with a normal sensitiviity to pain would stop. I don’t know how true this is but, if it is true, it doesn’t help much. Lowered inhibitions and a high tolerance of pain do not amount to insanity either in common speech or in most legal insanity defences.
(4) Even if the insanity defence helped you beat the resisting arrest charge, the charge on which they sought to arrest you in the first place might be more serious, and you don’t have an insanity defence to that.
On the whole, best to go quietly when they come for you.
actually that thread says nothing of the kind. The OP suggests that, but it was comprehensively rubbished! I wonder if the OP is getting confused with PCP rage, in which extreme care should be taken in the arrest.
UDS covered the insanity aspects. However, If I went out and beat up 6 people I don’t know whether it would help in the sentencing to have been under the influence of say PCP at the time. I suspect it might be a mitigating circumstance, especially if you promised to go on rehab.
IANAL, but I suspect no. Impairing your own judgement by a voluntary action does not mitigate your responsibility for subsequent actions. Note that the decision to drink before driving does not relieve a person of the responsibility to not drive. I suspect that most courts would rule that your decision to use a substance which then caused you to break the law would make you liable. If I throw a dart off the top of a tall building with the expectation that it probably won’t cause any harm, I am still responsible for any damage caused by it’s impact with anything below. I wasn’t in control after the initiating event (throwing the dart or taking the substance) but I sure as hell am responsible for any damage that subsequently results.
I dunno if that’s a good analogy, but it’ll do. If you do something patently foolish, you’d have to prove that your insanity pre-existed and caused your foolish behavior, not the other way around.
–SSgtBaloo
yes but most people take PCP or acid without harm. Very occassionally PCP may make someone flip. So you your defense could be somewhat like the “Twinky” one - I done it hundreds of times with no problems - it was just an abberation this time
Well, IANA(US)L, but in the UK, voluntary intoxication or drug use can go towards negating intent, such as murder.
However, you will still be reckless in consuming the drug in the first place, so you still can be charged with (for example) manslaughter, or any other crime that can be committed by negligence or recklessness. Just not crimes with specific intent. Note that if you were given the drug involuntarily, or if you didn’t know that the drug had these side effects (valium may cause violence, for example), then you might have a better case.
Of course, assault can be committed by recklessness (actually, I think battery would be more appropriate in this case), so you are SOL on insanity.
Anyway, drug taking would not render you insane - it’s an external influence. Therefore, the defence would be automatism. Other examples of automatism would be if a swarm of bees got in your face while you were driving, and you hit someone. Literally, you were “not in control of your body”.