Is there any case law where a trial judge said that mental illness excuse guilt if you find there is guilt?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from R. v. Spence, 2017 ONCA 619 (CanLII):
Fourth, the trial judge’s statement that “[s]o, here it does not excuse guilt if you find there is guilt” was wrong. As previously noted, outside of the s. 16 framework, evidence of mental illness is capable of undermining the mental element for murder in s. 229(a) (thereby reducing liability from second degree murder to manslaughter). It may also undermine the added mental elements of planning and deliberation in s. 231(2): see More v. The Queen, 1963 CanLII 79 (SCC), [1963] S.C.R. 522, at pp. 533-535; and McMartin v. The Queen, 1964 CanLII 43 (SCC), [1964] S.C.R. 484, at pp. 493-495.
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