Unaccountability I: Man acquitted of attempted homicide

The Court of Appeal had set the penalty for, among other things, two violations of section 275 see section 16 of the Penal Code to eight years of imprisonment. The defendant had attempted to kill his spouse and another car driver in traffic by driving into another car from behind. The Supreme Court based its assessment of the defendant's accountability – see section 20 – on the Court of Appeal's finding that he was in a severely deviant state of mind, see 20 subsection 2 (a). In the unaccountability assessment, it was emphasised that he suffered from an acute paranoid psychosis around the time of the act, with a strong degree of failure in his perception of reality. The fact that the functional decline had been limited could then not be decisive. The Supreme Court handed down an acquittal, see section 345 subsection 2 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

Read the whole judgment (Norwegian only)

Area of law: Criminal law. Section 20 of the Penal Code.

Key paragraphs: 32−40

Justices: Øie, Falkanger, Bergsjø, Ringnes, kst. dommer Elsheim