TU Tuesday

My Question: Are physical/mental disorders taken into account during a murder trial?

http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/6-jurors-picked-in-Pa-vet-s-double-murder-trial-3405369.php

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/l_to_o/mentally_disordered_offenders/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15176762

The Times Union article that I read was about a double murder trial in Hollisday, PA. The article explains that six jurors were selcted for this case. It then explains where and how the situation occured. "

Horner is charged with murdering 19-year-old Scott Garlick at the Subway sandwich shop where Garlick worked on April 6, 2009, and with gunning down 64-year-old Raymond Williams a short distance away. In the NCBI article it explains how specifically men who are Comorbid substance users are more likely to be the offender. "However, there are no published data from clinical interviews or lifetime objective documents on the prevalence of lifetime personality disorder (PD) or SUD among a comprehensive sample of mentally ill homicide offenders." This explains how there is no written saying that these "users" and their disorder is associated with the situation at hand. In Mentally Disordered Offenders, it explains that, "Each case must be considered on its merits, taking into account all available information about any mental health problem, and its relevance to the offence, in addition to the principles set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors." This says that if the offender does have a disorder, the court must investigate how the disorder affects the offenders decision making skills.