Case Name: THE STATE vs. NEAL McGONIGAL
Court: Delaware Court of General Sessions
Jurisdiction: Delaware
Decision Date: 1854
Citations: 5 Harr. 510
Docket Number: 
Parties: THE STATE vs. NEAL McGONIGAL.
Judges: 
Reporter: Delaware Reports
Volume: 5
Pages: 510–510

Head Matter:
THE STATE vs. NEAL McGONIGAL.
Drunkenness as a defence.
Indicted for larceny.
The defence was, that the prisoner was so drunk as to render him irresponsible.

Opinion:
Judge Wootten
charged the jury, that drunkenness was no excuse or palliation for a crime; but drunkenness long continued produces the disease of mania a potu, which deprives the party of reason, and incapacitates, him from distinguishing between right and wrong. In this stage it becomes a kind of insanity. The jury woujd have to distinguish between the mere phrenzy of drunkenness, and the fixed insanity produced by continued dissipation. If the prisoner was in the latter condition, he could not be held responsible, otherwise he ought to be convicted. Verdict not guilty.