Quote:
Originally Posted by Logan
I heard a piece of that discussion this morning also as I was getting ready for work, and found it amazing that Golic's main point was that people who do this tend to be drunk, and people don't think logically or understand the consequences of their actions when drunk.
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I'm no expert on criminal law, but our system is set up to permit intoxication as a partial excuse. For specific intent crimes, evidence of intoxication can be used to negate the required specific intent, resulting in a defendant being found guilty of a lesser offense (i.e., instead of murder, manslaughter). It is not and cannot be a complete defense to a crime, and cannot negate general intent (so it's irrelevant against an assault charge, for example). But partially excusing criminal behavior based on being in an intoxicated state has long been part of our system.