Question

A person with epilepsy is brought to trial for assault. The lawyer argues that her client is not a criminal and that the assaults in question were psychomotor attacks. She points out that her client takes her medication faithfully, but that it does not help. The prosecution lawyer argues that the defendant has a long history of violent assault and must be locked up. Using information from your readings, what information would you provide the judge to help the person maintain innocence?

Answer 1

The defense for the person with epilepsy will be "Insanity Defense", under which the person accused of a crime is not legally accountable for the same under the assumption that the person was unable to understand the nature of the crime, along with the inability to understand right and wrong actions. A mental disorder is inadequate to prove insanity. An insanity defense will be made for a legal insanity by a “preponderance of evidence” which is usually done in a civil case. So, the lawyer of the person would have to prove the legal insanity of the person, not the medical insanity. The lawyer would have to prove the predominance of "insanity" over "sanity".

There needs to be the "mental status examination" of the person, following the legal standards and procedures for the evaluation of insanity defense. The information that can be provided to the judge to maintain innocence is the medical history of the person with epilepsy. The documented medical history can be testified by the doctors giving treatment to the person, if any. All the people who know about the psycho-motor condition of the person, and have witnessed the episodes can testify for the innocence of the patient. This will consolidate the medical records of the person.