Where psychiatric evidence addressing an offender's mental state at the time of offending is available but not tendered on sentence (or tendered in redacted form without the psychiatrist's authority), and the sentencing judge's findings regarding the relevance of the offender's mental state are made on the basis of incomplete information, the sentence proceedings will miscarry. A plea of guilty does not render irrelevant psychiatric evidence that may establish a compromised capacity for judgment and self-control at the time of offending; such evidence remains relevant to moral culpability and the sentencing exercise.
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