The Diminished Capacity Defense

The Mecklenburg County Public Defender’s Office is hosting a free to attend presentation on The Diminished Capacity Defense: What it is and How to Use it in Criminal Defense. Pending approval by the NC State Bar, this presentation is for 1.25 other hours of CLE credit. If you need CLE credit, you must either complete the post-CLE form after you leave the webinar or the google form that will be emailed to you by Friday September 4^th. All online attendance is confirmed by what Webex provides. Please register below:

Click Here to Register for September 1st

When: September 1, 2026 at 12:30pm.

Where: Anyplace you have internet

What: The speakers will discuss the diminished capacity defense and how to use it in defense of specific intent felony cases and in first degree felony murder cases including the statutory notice requirements, the defense burden of production, and the requirement for consent from the client (in a Harbison hearing) if the defense is admitting any conduct. Further, the limitations on what an expert for the defense can and cannot say as it relates to diminished capacity.

The speakers will then focus on the diminished capacity defense to murder as it relates to the elements of specific intent to kill and premeditation and deliberation. The speakers will cover how diminished capacity relates to other fact patterns such as “impulse killings” and ordinary provocation, voluntary intoxication and unconsciousness; how to investigate this defense; how to deal with diminished capacity in jury selection; and dealing with lay witnesses.  Further, how the defense can use diminished capacity as part of statutory mental health mitigation; how to use diminished capacity in plea negotiations. Finally, the speakers will discuss crafting special jury instructions to better clarify the pattern jury instructions related to diminished capacity.

Who: Vincent Rabil is graduate of Davidson College where he obtained a BA in History and is a 1984 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill Law School where he served on the Moot Court and authored the J. Braxton Craven National Invitational Moot Court Problem dealing with the FCC Fairness Doctrine and the First Amendment; he served as an Assistant District Attorney in Guilford and Forsyth County for 17 years where he tried over a dozen capital cases to verdict before becoming a defense attorney in Winston Salem during which time he practiced in State and Federal Court and was a Private Assigned Counsel for the Appellate Defender’s Office. Vince is now retired after 15 years as an Assistant Capital Defender and is currently a Consulting Attorney on Capital Cases with NC IDS and the Trial Resource Unit. Vince has developed a specialty in psychiatry and the law of insanity and diminished capacity and has presented on these topics in numerous statewide conferences.

Daniel Spiegel is an assistant professor of public law and government at the School of Government, specializing in criminal law, procedure, and evidence. He joined the School’s courts faculty in January 2024.

Spiegel serves as a criminal law expert and teaches and consults with court actors on criminal justice issues, with an emphasis on public defense. Previously, he practiced criminal law in North Carolina for 13 years, serving as an assistant public defender in Mecklenburg and Hoke Counties, assistant appellate defender statewide, and assistant district attorney and policy counsel in Durham County.

Spiegel earned his BA from Johns Hopkins University, MA in Music from The Juilliard School, and JD cum laude from Harvard University.

Please email [email protected] with any questions.