Feb 10, 2010
Banditing?!
A Toronto man was arrested, tried, and acquitted for sexual assault. How did he get off? He says he did it in his sleep. Sexsomnia, also known as banditing (?!), is gaining credence in the medical community as an unusual but medically accepted sleeping disorder. The defense has never been raised in the states, but as the Canadian legal system is based off the same English common law system as the U.S., it’s likely to work here. It goes back to the unity of act and intent which is necessary for the conviction of any crime. With sexsomnia while the actor has committed a guilty act (the sexual assault) he was unconscious at the time of the crime and thus lacks the requisite intent.
And according to one scholar at the University of New Hampshire it’s legit.
