Law Commons^™

Law On The Rocks: The Intoxication Defenses Are Being Eighty-Sixed, Meghan P. Ingle

Vanderbilt Law Review

The ever-controversial voluntary intoxication defense faces possible elimination by statutory abrogation. Originally developed by nineteenth-century common law courts, the defense recognizes that an intoxicated defendant may be incapable of possessing the mens rea specified by an offense. Increasingly criticized in recent years, the defense received a substantial blow to its continued vitality in the 1996 Supreme Court decision Montana v. Egelhoff. In a sharply divided opinion," a plurality of the Court held that a defendant does not possess a constitutional right to present evidence of voluntary intoxication in his defense. The Egelhoff decision has caused much commentary, both positive and …