Ronnie Mackay - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Ronnie Mackay
Medicine, Science and the Law, 1990
International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 1986
The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 2007
This brief commentary compares the law relating unfitness to plead in England and Wales with that... more This brief commentary compares the law relating unfitness to plead in England and Wales with that of competency to stand trial, as reflected in the AAPL Practice Guideline. In so doing, it presents the argument that English law, with its adherence to a test of unfitness that goes back to the first half of the 19th century, may no longer be fit for the purpose. Unlike the test for incompetency to stand trial adopted by most of the United States, English law fails to incorporate decisional competence and consequently may be failing to protect vulnerable defendants. The commentary concludes that, despite the differences in law and practice between our respective countries, the AAPL Guideline contains much of value for psychiatrists and lawyers who have to deal with unfitness to plead, an area of the law that surely ought to be the subject of consideration for reform.
Medicine, Science and the Law
The automatism defence has been described as a quagmire of law and as presenting an intractable p... more The automatism defence has been described as a quagmire of law and as presenting an intractable problem. Why is this so? This paper will analyse and explore the current legal position on automatism. In so doing, it will identify the problems which the case law has created, including the distinction between sane and insane automatism and the status of the ‘external factor doctrine’, and comment briefly on recent reform proposals.
This is the author's draft of an article published in Criminal Law Review by Sweet & Maxwell ... more This is the author's draft of an article published in Criminal Law Review by Sweet & Maxwell www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk
British Journal of Criminology - BRIT J CRIMINOL, 2000
ABSTRACT Remand prisoners requiring urgent in-patient psychiatric treatment can be transferred fr... more ABSTRACT Remand prisoners requiring urgent in-patient psychiatric treatment can be transferred from prison to hospital under section 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983. During the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in the use of section 48. However, apart from this increase in numbers and the presumed clinical benefits it brings to transferees, to date very little has been known about the overall effect of the usage of section 48. The study presented here attempts to provide an overall picture of the patients transferred in 1992, the section 48 process and the effect this had on the ultimate disposal of transferees.
VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article by Mackay was to discover more information... more VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article by Mackay was to discover more information and insights about the Infanticide Act of 1938, which stated that in cases where the mother by any willful act or omission causes the death of her child under the age of 12 months permitted a charge of and conviction of infanticide instead of murder. METHODOLOGY: This study was quasi-experimental. Permission was obtained from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to examine the files of 36 females who had killed one of their children under the age of 12 months during the years 1982 to 1985. In addition, the files in a further 11 cases were made available. These cases consisted of three females who had killed one of their children over the age of 12 months, one female who had killed another person's child and seven males who had each killed very young children, two of whom were other people's children. It was hoped that an examination of these additional files might produce more in...
Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 1995
... Further unlike their English counterpart, the new provisions, together with recent case law, ... more ... Further unlike their English counterpart, the new provisions, together with recent case law, make important changes to the substantive law governing fitness to stand trial and the insanity defence (O'Mara, 1993; Davis, 1993). (a) The fitness issue (Davis, in press) ...
The defence of intoxication within the framework of common law criminal jurisprudence continues t... more The defence of intoxication within the framework of common law criminal jurisprudence continues to receive extensive criticism. The purpose of this article is not to add to these criticisms per se, many of which have been fully discussed recently in this Journal by Mitchell,’ but instead to consider the effect of the intoxication doctrine upon other criminal law defences. At present, many common law jurisdictions, including England2 and Canada,3 accept a rule which restricts the availability of the defence of self-induced intoxication to so-called specific intent crimes.4 This rule is built on policy and has the effect of convicting intoxicated defendants for crimes of recklessness and basic intent, by ensuring that evidence of intoxication is inadmissible to show lack of mens rea. In short, a plea of self-induced intoxication will often be fatal to the accused and may even be viewed as relieving the prosecution of its normal burden of proving mens rea for the offence. Certainly, on...
The automatism defence has been described as a quagmire of law and as presenting an intractable p... more The automatism defence has been described as a quagmire of law and as presenting an intractable problem. Why is this so? This paper will analyse and explore the current legal position on automatism. In so doing, it will identify the problems which the case law has created, including the distinction between sane and insane automatism and the status of the ‘external factor doctrine’, and comment briefly on recent reform proposals.
Remand prisoners requiring urgent in-patient psychiatric treatment can be transferred from prison... more Remand prisoners requiring urgent in-patient psychiatric treatment can be transferred from prison to hospital under section 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983. During the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in the use of section 48. However, apart from this increase in numbers and the presumed clinical benefits it brings to transferees, to date very little has been known about the overall effect of the usage of section 48. The study presented here attempts to provide an overall picture of the patients transferred in 1992, the section 48 process and the effect this had on the ultimate disposal of transferees.
The following article is an expanded version of a paper given during the 1986 W.G. Hart Legal Wor... more The following article is an expanded version of a paper given during the 1986 W.G. Hart Legal Workshop at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London entitled "Craziness and Codification-Revising the Automatism and Insanity Defences," see pp. 109-121 of Criminal Law and Justice (Sweet & Maxwell, England 1987) ed. l.H. Dennis. Much of the expansion resulted from an informal faculty presentation given at the University of Arizona College of Law in February 1987. 1 wish to acknowledge my gratitude to the Fulbright Commission for their continued support during my visit to the U.S.A. and to the Dickinson School of Law, both faculty and students, for providing me with such an excellent and intellectually stimulating working environment. I also wish to express my special thanks to my research assistant Kathleen Harrington whose comments and intellectual support have been of immeasurable value. 1. 672 F.2d 115 (D.C. Cir. 1982). For detailed analysis see P.W. Low, J.C. JEFFRIES AND R.J. BONNIE, THE TRIAL OF JOHN W. HINCKLEY, JR.: A CASE STUDY IN THE INSANITY DEFENSE, (1986). 2. CODIFICATION OF THE CRIMINAL LAW: A REPORT TO THE LAW COMMISSION (Law Comm'n No. 143) (1985). The Law Commission was established by the Law Commissions Act 1965 (1965 c.22) "for the purpose of promoting the reform of the law" and consists of a chairman and four other Commissioners appointed by the Lord Chancellor. In the case of this particular report, however, the work was "subcontracted" to four academic lawyers. 3. The Criminal Statistics: England and Wales consistently reveal that the insanity defense is only pleaded successfully in one or two cases each year, see e.g. the 1983 Statistics (Cmd. 9349). 4. See H. Steadman, Empirical Research on the Insanity Defense, 477 ANNALS 58-71 (1985), which reveals that the defense is raised in less than 2% of federal and state trials with approximately a 30% success rate. See further, B.D.
The Journal of Psychiatry & Law
This article contains a study of the first four years of the operation of the “guilty but mentall... more This article contains a study of the first four years of the operation of the “guilty but mentally ill” (GBMI) verdict in Pennsylvania. The authors found that the number of successful insanity defenses had been significantly reduced during this period. In addition, the majority of GBMI convictees received hospital treatment. Although the results of this study tend to confirm that GBMI is operating differently in states such as Michigan and Illinois, the Pennsylvania provision cannot be said to be working in a uniform manner, as there are major regional variations in its operation. The authors conclude that there appears to be little or no advantage to a defendant in using or pleading GBMI, but that more research is required to monitor the verdict's continued utilization.
The British Journal of Criminology
Abstract Very little is known about patients who have been the subject of long-term detention as ... more Abstract Very little is known about patients who have been the subject of long-term detention as a result of a finding ofunfitness to plead or legal insanity. In order to discover more about such patients permission was sought to examine Home Office files on all those who had been detained for 15 years of more up to December 1988. Permission was also obtained to interview a number of these patients who were held in three of the high security Special Hospitals. Two issues highlighted by the research were the use of 'common sense'criteria ...
Medicine, Science and the Law, 1990
International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 1986
The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 2007
This brief commentary compares the law relating unfitness to plead in England and Wales with that... more This brief commentary compares the law relating unfitness to plead in England and Wales with that of competency to stand trial, as reflected in the AAPL Practice Guideline. In so doing, it presents the argument that English law, with its adherence to a test of unfitness that goes back to the first half of the 19th century, may no longer be fit for the purpose. Unlike the test for incompetency to stand trial adopted by most of the United States, English law fails to incorporate decisional competence and consequently may be failing to protect vulnerable defendants. The commentary concludes that, despite the differences in law and practice between our respective countries, the AAPL Guideline contains much of value for psychiatrists and lawyers who have to deal with unfitness to plead, an area of the law that surely ought to be the subject of consideration for reform.
Medicine, Science and the Law
The automatism defence has been described as a quagmire of law and as presenting an intractable p... more The automatism defence has been described as a quagmire of law and as presenting an intractable problem. Why is this so? This paper will analyse and explore the current legal position on automatism. In so doing, it will identify the problems which the case law has created, including the distinction between sane and insane automatism and the status of the ‘external factor doctrine’, and comment briefly on recent reform proposals.
This is the author's draft of an article published in Criminal Law Review by Sweet & Maxwell ... more This is the author's draft of an article published in Criminal Law Review by Sweet & Maxwell www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk
British Journal of Criminology - BRIT J CRIMINOL, 2000
ABSTRACT Remand prisoners requiring urgent in-patient psychiatric treatment can be transferred fr... more ABSTRACT Remand prisoners requiring urgent in-patient psychiatric treatment can be transferred from prison to hospital under section 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983. During the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in the use of section 48. However, apart from this increase in numbers and the presumed clinical benefits it brings to transferees, to date very little has been known about the overall effect of the usage of section 48. The study presented here attempts to provide an overall picture of the patients transferred in 1992, the section 48 process and the effect this had on the ultimate disposal of transferees.
VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article by Mackay was to discover more information... more VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article by Mackay was to discover more information and insights about the Infanticide Act of 1938, which stated that in cases where the mother by any willful act or omission causes the death of her child under the age of 12 months permitted a charge of and conviction of infanticide instead of murder. METHODOLOGY: This study was quasi-experimental. Permission was obtained from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to examine the files of 36 females who had killed one of their children under the age of 12 months during the years 1982 to 1985. In addition, the files in a further 11 cases were made available. These cases consisted of three females who had killed one of their children over the age of 12 months, one female who had killed another person's child and seven males who had each killed very young children, two of whom were other people's children. It was hoped that an examination of these additional files might produce more in...
Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 1995
... Further unlike their English counterpart, the new provisions, together with recent case law, ... more ... Further unlike their English counterpart, the new provisions, together with recent case law, make important changes to the substantive law governing fitness to stand trial and the insanity defence (O'Mara, 1993; Davis, 1993). (a) The fitness issue (Davis, in press) ...
The defence of intoxication within the framework of common law criminal jurisprudence continues t... more The defence of intoxication within the framework of common law criminal jurisprudence continues to receive extensive criticism. The purpose of this article is not to add to these criticisms per se, many of which have been fully discussed recently in this Journal by Mitchell,’ but instead to consider the effect of the intoxication doctrine upon other criminal law defences. At present, many common law jurisdictions, including England2 and Canada,3 accept a rule which restricts the availability of the defence of self-induced intoxication to so-called specific intent crimes.4 This rule is built on policy and has the effect of convicting intoxicated defendants for crimes of recklessness and basic intent, by ensuring that evidence of intoxication is inadmissible to show lack of mens rea. In short, a plea of self-induced intoxication will often be fatal to the accused and may even be viewed as relieving the prosecution of its normal burden of proving mens rea for the offence. Certainly, on...
The automatism defence has been described as a quagmire of law and as presenting an intractable p... more The automatism defence has been described as a quagmire of law and as presenting an intractable problem. Why is this so? This paper will analyse and explore the current legal position on automatism. In so doing, it will identify the problems which the case law has created, including the distinction between sane and insane automatism and the status of the ‘external factor doctrine’, and comment briefly on recent reform proposals.
Remand prisoners requiring urgent in-patient psychiatric treatment can be transferred from prison... more Remand prisoners requiring urgent in-patient psychiatric treatment can be transferred from prison to hospital under section 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983. During the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in the use of section 48. However, apart from this increase in numbers and the presumed clinical benefits it brings to transferees, to date very little has been known about the overall effect of the usage of section 48. The study presented here attempts to provide an overall picture of the patients transferred in 1992, the section 48 process and the effect this had on the ultimate disposal of transferees.
The following article is an expanded version of a paper given during the 1986 W.G. Hart Legal Wor... more The following article is an expanded version of a paper given during the 1986 W.G. Hart Legal Workshop at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London entitled "Craziness and Codification-Revising the Automatism and Insanity Defences," see pp. 109-121 of Criminal Law and Justice (Sweet & Maxwell, England 1987) ed. l.H. Dennis. Much of the expansion resulted from an informal faculty presentation given at the University of Arizona College of Law in February 1987. 1 wish to acknowledge my gratitude to the Fulbright Commission for their continued support during my visit to the U.S.A. and to the Dickinson School of Law, both faculty and students, for providing me with such an excellent and intellectually stimulating working environment. I also wish to express my special thanks to my research assistant Kathleen Harrington whose comments and intellectual support have been of immeasurable value. 1. 672 F.2d 115 (D.C. Cir. 1982). For detailed analysis see P.W. Low, J.C. JEFFRIES AND R.J. BONNIE, THE TRIAL OF JOHN W. HINCKLEY, JR.: A CASE STUDY IN THE INSANITY DEFENSE, (1986). 2. CODIFICATION OF THE CRIMINAL LAW: A REPORT TO THE LAW COMMISSION (Law Comm'n No. 143) (1985). The Law Commission was established by the Law Commissions Act 1965 (1965 c.22) "for the purpose of promoting the reform of the law" and consists of a chairman and four other Commissioners appointed by the Lord Chancellor. In the case of this particular report, however, the work was "subcontracted" to four academic lawyers. 3. The Criminal Statistics: England and Wales consistently reveal that the insanity defense is only pleaded successfully in one or two cases each year, see e.g. the 1983 Statistics (Cmd. 9349). 4. See H. Steadman, Empirical Research on the Insanity Defense, 477 ANNALS 58-71 (1985), which reveals that the defense is raised in less than 2% of federal and state trials with approximately a 30% success rate. See further, B.D.
The Journal of Psychiatry & Law
This article contains a study of the first four years of the operation of the “guilty but mentall... more This article contains a study of the first four years of the operation of the “guilty but mentally ill” (GBMI) verdict in Pennsylvania. The authors found that the number of successful insanity defenses had been significantly reduced during this period. In addition, the majority of GBMI convictees received hospital treatment. Although the results of this study tend to confirm that GBMI is operating differently in states such as Michigan and Illinois, the Pennsylvania provision cannot be said to be working in a uniform manner, as there are major regional variations in its operation. The authors conclude that there appears to be little or no advantage to a defendant in using or pleading GBMI, but that more research is required to monitor the verdict's continued utilization.
The British Journal of Criminology
Abstract Very little is known about patients who have been the subject of long-term detention as ... more Abstract Very little is known about patients who have been the subject of long-term detention as a result of a finding ofunfitness to plead or legal insanity. In order to discover more about such patients permission was sought to examine Home Office files on all those who had been detained for 15 years of more up to December 1988. Permission was also obtained to interview a number of these patients who were held in three of the high security Special Hospitals. Two issues highlighted by the research were the use of 'common sense'criteria ...