Editing Diminished responsibility (section)

==Australia==
At present, diminished responsibility exists as a statutory partial defence in most Australian jurisdictions. The defence is only available in cases of murder and serves to reduce the offence to manslaughter.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[Law Commission (England and Wales)]] |title=Partial Defences to Murder: Overseas Studies |url=http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/docs/cp173apps.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060110134623/http://www.lawcom.gov.uk/docs/cp173apps.pdf |archive-date=10 January 2006 |at=Consultation Paper No 173, Appendix A |year=2003}}</ref> In Australia it has been the subject of sentencing concerns specifically in relation to the weight attributed to protection of the community when sentencing offenders found guilty of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility<ref>{{cite AustLII|HCA|14|1988|litigants=Veen (No 2) |parallelcite=(1988) 164 [[Commonwealth Law Reports|CLR]] 465 |date=29 March 1988 |courtname=auto}}.</ref>

In NSW, the partial defence of 'diminished responsibility' was replaced by the partial defence of "substantial impairment" in 1998.<ref name="s23 NSW Crimes act">{{cite Legislation AU|NSW|act|ca190082|Crimes Act 1900|23A}}.</ref> The burden is on the defendant to prove the defence, on the balance of probabilities. There are three conditions that the defendant must prove. The first is the defendant must be suffering from an abnormality of the mind at the time of the acts/omissions causing death;<ref name="s23 NSW Crimes act"/> see also the case of Byrne for the definition of 'abnormality of the mind'.<ref>''R v Byrne'' (1960) 2 QB 396.</ref> Second, the abnormality must be the result of an underlying condition.<ref name="s23 NSW Crimes act"/> Third, the impairment must be so substantial as to warrant liability for murder being reduced to manslaughter.<ref name="s23 NSW Crimes act"/>