Ark. Code Ann. § 5-2-312

Lack of criminal responsibility — Affirmative defense

Applied in 35 court decisions — leading case Davasher v. State (1992)

Most recently applied in Tacori MacKrell v. State of Arkansas (April 2022)

Acts 1975, No. 280, § 601; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-601; Acts 2001, No. 248, § 1; 2017, No. 472, § 10.

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Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution that at the time the defendant engaged in the conduct charged he or she lacked criminal responsibility.

(2) When the affirmative defense of lack of criminal responsibility is presented to a jury, prior to deliberations the jury shall be instructed regarding the disposition of a defendant acquitted due to the defendant's lack of criminal responsibility as described under § 5-2-314.

(3) When a defendant is acquitted on a ground of lack of criminal responsibility, the verdict and judgment shall state that the defendant was acquitted on a ground of lack of criminal responsibility.

Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.