Intoxication Evidence

Intoxication Evidence

RC Phillips, DDA (Ret)
October, 2021

I.  Relevant Penal Code Statutes

     Penal Code section 29.4  (former Penal Code section 22, amended)

     (a) No act committed by a person while in a state of voluntary intoxication is less criminal by reason of his or her having been in that condition. Evidence of voluntary intoxication shall not be admitted to negate the capacity to form any mental states for the crimes charged, including, but not limited to, purpose, intent, knowledge, premeditation, deliberation, or malice aforethought, with which the accused committed the act.

     (b) Evidence of voluntary intoxication is admissible solely on the issue of whether or not the defendant actually formed a required specific intent, or, when charged with murder, whether the defendant premeditated, deliberated, or harbored express malice aforethought.

     (c) Voluntary intoxication includes the voluntary ingestion, injection, or taking by any other means of any intoxicating liquor, drug, or other substance.

     Penal Code section 25  (Abolishment of Defense of Diminished Capacity

     “The defense of diminished capacity is hereby abolished.  In a criminal action, as well as any juvenile court proceeding, evidence concerning an accused person’s intoxication, trauma, mental illness, disease, or defect shall not be admissible to show or negate capacity to form the particular purpose, intent, motive, malice aforethought, knowledge, or other mental state required for the commission of the crime charged.”

     Thus, evidence of a person’s intoxication is not admissible to negate the “capacity” to form the requisite ....

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