J. Unconsciousness or Automatism

• Library: The Criminal Law of South Carolina (SCBar) (2014 Ed.)

J. Unconsciousness or Automatism

The defense of unconsciousness, sometimes labeled automatism, is discussed in State v. Price, 278 S.C. 266, 294 S.E.2d 426 (1982). In Price, the defendant was convicted of accessory after the fact to a murder allegedly committed by her 12-year-old son. She was frustrated in her attempts to introduce evidence of her son's unconsciousness at the time of the act which, if believed by the jury, might have precluded the conclusion that her son, the principal, had committed a crime. An accessory after the fact cannot be convicted unless it is determined that the principal had committed the felony (not simply the act) and that the accessory subsequently assisted the principal with knowledge of his commission of the felony. The accessory after the fact issue in Price is discussed in Chapter IV.E. Parties to Criminal Offenses.

The facts of Price indicate that Randy, the 12-year-old principal, and his brother had been playing with the victim, their cousin Tracie, when an argument developed between Randy and the victim. Tracie hit Randy's head with a bottle. He smelled an odor of alcohol, placed his hands on Tracie's neck and lost control of his body. When he removed his hands she did not move. The foregoing is based on the testimony of Randy and his brother. Price, at 268, 294 S.E.2d at 427.

The Court agreed with the trial court's refusal to allow the defendant to present the testimony of a South Carolina State Hospital psychiatrist to the effect that at the time of the act Randy was in the postical stage of a temporal lobe epileptic seizure and that a person in this situation lacks...