Ramya Nagesh

He rose from his bed, he walked out of his house, got into his car and drove 23 kilometers to his parents-in-law's house.

Once inside their house, he arms himself with a kitchen knife and he brutally attacked his parents-in-law.

By all accounts, he was very close to his parents-in-law.

This wasn't one of those sort of stereotypical, you know, jokes where somebody has animosity with their parents-in-law.

He was very close with them.

And the attack was so severe that actually it left his mother-in-law dead.

He'd killed his mother-in-law by stabbing and his father-in-law did survive but was very badly injured.

Non-insane automatism is effectively when your body is doing something but your mind isn't in control of it.

And an example used in law school is...

You're driving along in your car.

You've got the window down because it's a hot day.

You don't have very good air conditioning.

And a swarm of bees flies into your car.

And they encircle your head so that you lose control and you crash into somebody on the sidewalk.

That's an example of what we call non-insane automatism because your mind isn't in control of what your body's doing.

But you're not insane.

You're not suffering from a medical condition.

So the judge directed the jury at trial that if they were satisfied that he was sleepwalking at the time, they could acquit him entirely.

So no punishment, no conviction on the basis that he was suffering from non-insane automatism.

And the jury came back and duly acquitted him.