State v. Congress

¶ 1. This case requires us to decide whether, in a murder prosecution, a jury can find a defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter, as opposed to murder, on the basis of evidence that the defendant’s actions were influenced by a serious psychological condition that does not rise to the level of insanity and does not negate the defendant’s specific intent to kill. It also obliges us to reconcile disparate strands of our case law concern*245ing the effect of what is often described as “diminished capacity” evidence in the context of a homicide prosecution. We conclude that the trial court…