 |
| Patrick Ducharme |
That focus should be on what occurred (if anything) what involvement there is on the part of the accused (if any), and, if the accused did play some part in the events, was he intending to commit the crime, cause the hurt, cause the damage or effect the result.
The intentional part includes a consideration of intention, thought process, mental illness, lack of awareness, insanity, and hundreds of other defences that spring from the mental capacity or incapacity of an accused to appreciate the consequences of his act(s).
This is admittedly an overly simplistic way of describing all available defences for an accused to defend himself against allegations of crime in Canada. Yet, as we discuss the available defences to crime allegations it will be easy to see how each defence fits within one of these three categories. One or more of them is the basis of the more formalistic descriptions of defences that follow.
Not all possible defences are going to be addressed here. However, just as the defences that are discussed here fall within the general parameters of the three broad descriptions above, all the rest of the defences available in Canada also fall within them:
it did not happen; (e.g. accident, consent, denial of conduct)
if it did; I did not do it (e.g., identity, alibi) and if it did happen and I did it, I did not mean to do it. (not criminally responsible mental disorder, necessity, intoxication, unintended act).
The above is the an excerpt of Patrick J Ducharme's book, Canadian Criminal Procedure, available at Amazon or in bulk through MedicaLegal Publishing along with Criminal Trial Strategies.
Subscribe to Patrick Ducharme's Youtube Channel