The insanity defence and legal burdens of proof come under the scrutiny of Simon Parsons, associate lecturer at Bath Spa University, in this week’s NLJ.
The defence of insanity makes frequent appearances in crime fiction and film. It is also the only common law exception to the Woolmington v DPP thread on presumption of innocence, from the famous case at [1935] AC 462.
Parsons makes the case for extending the thread, as ‘it seems morally wrong to impose a legal burden of proof on accused persons in respect of both limbs where they have an extremely limited grasp of reality’.
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