Magic Mushroom Edition (with Steven Penney)

Stereo Decisis

On this, our first post-coronavirus pandemic episode, Hilary Young and Robert Danay are joined by Steven Penney, Professor of Law at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, to discuss R v Brown, 2020 ABQB 166. This was a case that gained national attention, in which a young man with no history of violence, consumed alcohol and magic mushrooms and went on a naked rampage in which he broke into strangers' homes and committed a brutal assault, all of which he did not recall doing after the fact. The discussion touched on the defence of extreme intoxication automatism, the constitutionality of section 33.1 of the Criminal Code and more.

In obiter dicta, Steven recommended The Goodness Paradox by Richard Wrangham, Hilary recommended another story involving magic mushroom fuelled naked criminality, and Rob recommended a fantastic online criminal procedure lecture by University of Arkansas Law School professor Alex Nunn.