Montana v. Egelhoff

Egelhoff (defendant) was found alive with gunshot residue on his hands next to the bodies of Roberta Pavlova and John Christenson, both shot dead, with his own gun on the floor and a blood-alcohol content of .36 percent an hour later, after the three had spent the day drinking together. Charged with deliberate homicide, Egelhoff claimed his extreme intoxication made him physically incapable of committing the crime and left him unable to remember what happened, but Montana law barred the jury from considering his intoxication in deciding whether he acted purposely or knowingly, and he was convicted; the Montana Supreme Court reversed, holding the statute violated his due process right to present all relevant mens rea evidence.