Voluntary Intoxication

I am sorry to inform you that this defense is only applicable to offenses committed BEFORE October 1, 1999. If it applies to your case, you must assert that your use of drugs or alcohol made you so intoxicated that you could not have formed the requisite mens rea (or mental state) necessary to convict you of the crime. If the jury believed that you were so voluntarily intoxicated (or if they have doubts that you were or not), they must find you not guilty of the crime.

Unfortunately, this theory of defense is no longer available to any new crime – or any crime alleged to have occurred after October 1, 1999.