All posts tagged "law"

Murder and manslaughter and provocation

Thursday, July 09 2009

Hannah asked me yesterday what first degree murder was, and I explained that it was US legal terminology that doesn't apply here, where we do things differently and have murder and manslaughter. Both murder and manslaughter are unlawful killing. (Yes, there's lawful killing: for example, soldiers following a lawful order). Murder is distinguished by intent to kill.

We then began to talk about a case that's getting a lot of publicity at the moment, and in discussing it I realised something.

At first I felt that the defence line was frankly scummy, and I thought to myself "he must have given them instructions which they are forced to act on." Now I think it's a bit more complicated than that.

Insanity is a difficult defence to run. In New Zealand,  as far as I know, we still follow the M'Naghten rules, which require the defence to show that the defendant suffered from a mental disease that meant they didn't know what they were doing, or didn't understand that it was legally wrong. This is a tall order, and why we usually only see it succeed for people who hear God telling them to do it or were in some sort of fugue state. If you have a severe personality disorder, you may well be mad as a meataxe by anyone's estimation, yet you will still know the nature and quality of the act.

But anyway, I think this explains why we are hearing about narcissistic personality disorder, and why we are seeing a defence of provocation which seems ludicrous to the casual observer. What they are trying to do is effectively get their man a reduced sentence for being a nutjob without actually pleading insanity. They're going to say "sure, a normal person shouldn't have been provoked, but our man here isn't normal."

Responses: 3 comments Tags: speculationlawcurrent events

Making a citizen's arrest

Sunday, July 27 2008

A citizen's arrest of Condoleezza Rice is an attractive idea. And it's making international news. But unfortunately, the people who came up with this idea are victims of American cultural imperialism, because there isn't really any such thing as a "citizen's arrest" in New Zealand law.

You can detain people if you catch them committing a crime, if it's a serious one, or if it's night time. But you can't arrest someone for a crime they committed earlier—only the police have the power to do that. Unless you find Rice stealing your DVD player in the small hours of the morning, or assaulting a child in the street, you won't be taking her down while she's here.

Update: Sam Farrow posted to Metafilter about this. I agree with Andrew Stephens' comment on that thread:



Responses: One comment Tags: condoleezza ricelaw

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