Miller V Florida

805 So.2d 885 (2001)

Facts

D, an admitted heroin user, went to a clinic seeking treatment for his addiction and enrolled in a methadone program. D decided he wanted to be free of all drugs, including methadone. D turned to Neuraad, a clinic that offered a different type of treatment called opiate detoxification. Under this program, intense doses of numerous toxic drugs are introduced into the patient's system, following which the patient is sedated with anesthesia. The patient then sleeps during the period that his or her body undergoes the physical manifestations of withdrawal, thus greatly reducing the patient's conscious awareness of the most acute symptoms of withdrawal. Neuraad administered the medications and the anesthesia. Some twenty-seven hours later he was released, still under the influence of significant amounts of medication and with prescriptions for additional medication. Within three hours D went to the first clinic. It was closed. So D walked around the building, shooting into it several times. He then broke a window and climbed inside. D eventually surrendered to the police. D was charged with shooting into a building, burglary with a firearm, and aggravated assault. D raised the defenses of insanity and intoxication. For intoxication, he argued that he did not have the ability to form the specific intent to commit the offenses of armed burglary and shooting into a building. The trial court properly found that the evidence supported instructing the jury on both defenses. The trial court gave the jury an instruction of its own design, which failed to adequately instruct the jury. D was convicted and appealed.