Tulsa Criminal Defense Attorney | Voluntary Intoxication
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Tulsa criminal defense attorney Stephen Cale explains that intoxication can be a defense in some circumstances. If you’ve been charged with a crime call the Cale law office at 918-277-4800 to set an appointment for your free initial consultation, and to get your free defense strategy plan.
Intoxication can be caused by any substance. This includes alcohol, drugs, and medicine. Evidence of intoxication may be raised whenever the toxic 18 intoxication negates the existence of an element of a crime. The law generally distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary intoxication.
Voluntary intoxication
Intoxication is voluntary or self-induced if it is the result of the intentional taking without duress of a substance known to be intoxicating. The person may not have the intent to become intoxicated.
Again, voluntary intoxication must negate an element of a specific intent, said Tulsa Criminal Defense Attorney Stephen Cale. For example, where voluntary intoxication is raised as a defense to first-degree murder, the court should.
In contrast to the defenses of insanity, the defense of voluntary intoxication is primarily a mitigating factor as opposed to negating criminal responsibility. Voluntary intoxication is available as a defense only when the crime with which the defendant is charged has a mens rea element of a specific criminal intent. In other words, voluntary intoxication is not a defense to crime except to the extent that they intoxication renders the defendant in capable of forming the necessary mental element. Voluntary intoxication is relevant to disprove the existence of a specific criminal intent and thereby the commission of the crime. However, voluntary intoxication does not excuse the defendant from criminal liability for a lesser included offense which does not have such a mens rea requirement. calle
As long as a homicide is committed with malice aforethought, the crime is murder even though the defendant was drunk. However of intoxication prevented the formation of these required specific intent to kill, then intoxication would be a mitigating defense, and the defendant would be possible for any appropriate lesser included offense. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has specifically ruled that the defense of intoxication is available in murder cases. It is also available for second-degree burglary, larceny of an automobile, and larceny of domestic animals. Voluntary intoxication is available as a defense as to any crime as a specific criminal intent is the mens rea requirement. In contrast, voluntary intoxication is not a defense the crime of rape because Ray does not have a specific criminal intent mens rea requirement. Voluntary intoxication is not a defense to a crime having a general mens rea requirement such as criminal neck negligence. Again, insanity and voluntary intoxication are separate defenses. However both defenses may involve the effect of alcohol upon a person’s mental abilities. There are some cases that have confuse the two defenses.
Tulsa Criminal Defense Attorney | Voluntary Intoxication
As mentioned above, voluntary intoxication is only a defense to a crime which has a specific mens rea as an element of the crime. The defendant is permitted to introduce evidence that his drunken state, or his toxic hated state, made it impossible for him to form the specific mens rea required for the crime charged. If the evidence indicates that the drug in this prevents the defendant from forming a specific intent necessary, then that element of the crime has not been established. Therefore as a consequence, the crime itself has not been proved. Since the defendant was only in a temporary state of drunkenness, probably voluntarily induced, he still subject to criminal liability for lesser included offenses contained within the crime charged.
Call the best Tulsa criminal defense attorney. In such instances, the defendant is still held accountable for these lesser included offenses which do not have a specific mens rea as an element. The effect is that the defendant claims that drug and is prevented formation of a necessary criminal intent for the crime charged but does not claim his mental faculties have been destroyed. Voluntary intoxication therefore is primarily a mitigating defense, meaning it prevents conviction for certain crimes but is not entirely get the defendant off the hook from criminal liability.
By contrast insanity is in exculpating defense. Meaning if the defendant can present evidence which establishes that he was insane during the commission of crime, the defendant is entirely free from criminal liability. Under the the insanity defense, the defendant claims that he is not accountable for the criminal law because his mental faculties were destroyed to such an extent they cannot know right from wrong. In other words the defendant claims that he is incapable of forming into a mental state concerning the right fullness or wrongness of his actions because of his insanity of time of the alleged crime.
And Sandy may be brought about by various conditions, including chronic intoxication. A person who uses alcohol so much and continuously that eventually the alcohol destroys the mental faculties of the alcoholic. This condition known as delirious determines the serves as an underlying cause of insanity. The defendant claims that his mental faculties have been destroyed by extensive alcohol use, the appropriate defense of insanity not the defense of voluntary intoxication. Call the best Tulsa criminal defense attorney for your case.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is role that intoxication caused by drugs, narcotics, or hallucinogenic substances is to be treated the same as intoxication caused by alcohol for purposes of the defense of intoxication.
The prosecutor has the burden of proof to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant formed the specific criminal intent in the crime charged. If the defendant if the jury finds that the state or prosecutor has failed to sustain that burden by reason of the intoxication of the defendant, then the defendant must be found not guilty. It’s important to note that unless the evidence of the prosecution has raised the issue, the defendant must come forward with evidence concerning intoxication in order to raise as a defense. If the defendant fails come forward with evidence of intoxication, or fails as a matter of law to come forward with sufficient evidence, the issue of intoxication is not race the trial, the trial judge will not allow this defense. Call the best Tulsa criminal defense attorney for your defense needs.
Drugs are defined as substances intended for the use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of diseases in a human or animal. Additionally, is defined as substances other than food intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of a human or animal. Intoxication is a state which a person is under the influence of intoxicating liquor, drug, or substance to such an extent that his passions are visibly excited, or judgment is impaired. A narcotic drug for purposes of voluntary intoxication, is opium, coca leaves, opiates, cocaine, and all isomers, compounds and preparations derived from such substances.
Call Tulsa Criminal Defense Attorney Stephen Cale at 918-277-4800.