I don't have an answer, but it's an interesting question to ask. I met a boy a few years ago who confided in my that he sleepwalks. Already sizing him up as my future husband, with this new information I thought, "Oh my goodness, he could kill me in our bed one day and blame it on sleepwalking." You would think that this would throw a wrench in the fairtale I was creating in my head, but I immediately let it go. I am only reminded of it now because I came across an article in New Scientist where a man strangled his wife while sleepwalking in their camper somewhere in the UK.
It was confirmed that the husband really does have a sleep disorder so the courts are debating how to hold him accountable, or even IF he should be held accountable since he didn't commit the crime of his own volition. And if that is true, that he wasn't in control, or cognizant that he was strangling another human being, doesn't that make him a danger to himself and others? And shouldn't something be done about that?
I keep going back and forth on the issue, but in the end, I am simply not sure if cupability for a crime such as murder should be attached with conscious motor control. If to be guilty you need to be fully aware of yourself, what about the mentally disabled or others that let their "emotions" get the best of them - to the point where there is a physiological change in the composition of the brain? What about them? Should they get off because they weren't fully aware?
And another thing with sleepwalkers, there is no way to prove what they are dreaming about. In this case, the husband said he was dreaming about intruders coming into their home and he was fighting them off, which explains the attack.
It's just a big cloudy mess and it's one of those things that make me go 'hmmm'.
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