Because you need to establish intent in order to be convicted and someone who is in a state of automatism can't intend anything at all.
This isn't talking about being drunk and having your judgment impaired and doing something criminal. It's well beyond that level. If you tried to get yourself drunk enough to get into a state where you might be able to avail yourself of that defence the most likely outcome is you would simply wind up face down in your own vomit, and you might die of alcohol poisoning. This isn't a common thing.
__________________
"The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
|