1. Action or conduct occurring without will, purpose, or reasoned intention, such as sleepwalking; behavior carried out in a state of unconsciousness or mental dissociation without full awareness. • Automatism may be asserted as a defense to negate the requisite mental state of voluntariness for commission of a crime. [Cases: Criminal Law 46. C.J.S. Criminal Law §§ 96–98, 113.]
2. The state of a person who, though capable of action, is not conscious of his or her actions. — automaton, n.
“How far is automatism a defence? It has been defined as involuntary action performed in a state of uncons-ciousness not amounting to insanity. Theoretically the defence is that no act in the legal sense took place at all — the plea is that there was no volition or psychic awareness.” George Whitecross Paton, A Textbook of Jurispru-dence 315 (G.W. Paton & David P. Derham eds., 4th ed. 1972).
ambulatory automatism. Automatism that consists in irresponsible or purposeless wanderings.
