Stephen Silver is serving a life sentence for shooting Detective Garda Colm Horkan.
Stephen Silver’s lawyers have argued that his conviction for capital murder should be quashed because the jury wasn’t properly directed by the judge on matters of law.
Silver, of Foxford, Co Mayo, is serving a life sentence for shooting Detective Garda Colm Horkan in Castlerea, Co Roscommon almost six years ago.
At trial, the key issue for the jury to decide was whether Stephen Silver was experiencing a relapse of a mental disorder that reduced or diminished his criminal responsibility.
The defence called an expert witness who concluded that he was; while the prosecution’s witness was of the view that while a psychotic episode may have been developing, it hadn’t manifested at the time he disarmed and shot Detective Colm Horkan eleven times.
Today, his barrister, Dominic McGinn SC, submitted that the trial judge didn’t adequately explain the relevant law in relation to expert witnesses and psychiatric evidence.
Mr McGinn SC said the jury should have been better informed of the idea that a person can still appear to act purposefully while suffering from mental illness – their rebuttal of the prosecution’s expert evidence.
In response, the prosecution says the jury was correctly directed and the conviction is safe.
A decision will be given at a later date.
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