The Conversation

The drugs made me do it: can prescription side-effects be an excuse for crime?

Author: Arlie Loughnan, Associate Professor in Law, University of Sydney

Are people who commit crimes under the influence still responsible?reidmix/Flickr, CC BY

This week, a man who murdered his wife while she slept and blamed his actions in part on the effects of a sleeping pill he was taking, was given an extra two years jail time – taking his sentence to 21 years.

The killer, Brian Browning, had pleaded not...

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