Murder

:For other uses of the word Murder, see Murder (disambiguation).

Mitigating circumstances

Most countries allow conditions that "affect the balance of the mind" to be regarded as mitigating circumstances against murder. This means that a person may be found guilty of "manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility" rather than murder, if it can be proved that the killer was suffering from a condition that affected their judgement at the time. Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and medication side-effects are examples of conditions that may be taken into account when assessing responsibility.

Related Topics:
Depression - Post-traumatic stress disorder - Side-effect

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A somewhat different defense is insanity, which is almost exclusively used in cases of psychosis such as that caused by schizophrenia. In some jurisdictions, the verdict "not guilty by reason of insanity" is used in these cases, leading to the odd circumstance that a victim was murdered, but the killer is technically not a murderer under the law. Some countries, such as Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and Australia, allow post-partum depression, or 'baby-blues', as a defense against murder of a child by a mother, provided that a child is less than a year old. Killers who have successfully argued the insanity defense are usually assigned mandatory clinical treatment for many years, rather than prison.

Related Topics:
Insanity - Psychosis - Schizophrenia - Canada - Italy - United Kingdom - Australia - Post-partum depression

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