The Verdins principles regarding reduced moral culpability due to mental illness are capable of applying to premeditated offending, including sexual offences, and should not be artificially confined to spontaneous acts of violence. However, where the sentences on the affected counts are already at the low end of the range, an appellate court may decline to intervene despite identifying error in the application of Verdins. Arson with intent to endanger life and recklessly causing serious injury arising from the same fire are sufficiently distinct offences to warrant separate sentences with a measure of cumulation.
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