WIKIMEDIA; UPPSALA UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, MIKAEL HÄGGSTRÖMA group of men exit a city hotel and begin making their way to a waiting car. As they approach the vehicle, another man opens fire on the group from 10 feet away, intending to kill one of them. Four men are wounded before the attacker is subdued by bystanders.
Imagine you’re a juror in the shooter’s trial for attempted murder.
At trial, the shooter’s legal team pursues the insanity defense. The defense argues that, at the time of the offense, the accused—due to mental disease or defect—lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions or to conform to the requirements of the law. In support of this contention, the defense presents you and your fellow jurors with an image of the accused’s brain from a computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan. Accompanying this picture is the testimony of a defense expert, a neuroradiologist, saying that the shooter’s brain has relatively enlarged sulci and ventricles, signifying shrinkage and decay. A second defense expert, a psychiatrist, testifies that these characteristics are associated with schizophrenia.
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