The arena of justice has been using medical field tools and techniques for judging the defendant of a case for a long time. The entire forensic work relies largely on radiology, brain imaging, brain mapping and more.
From fingerprint sampling to DNA tests, forensic procedures include the highest and the most sophisticated forms of medical investigations for surfacing the truth. With the advancement of modern science and technology, imaging the human brain with detailed outlines has now become possible.
The exact status of the suspect’s mind at the time of committing the crime helps understand the extent of impulse that was involuntary and beyond the criminal’s control. In many cases, if the lawyer can prove such a thing in court, the accused escapes the highest punishment.
Also, punishing a person with brain dysfunctions with the highest penalty is not a tenet that modern justice stands on. Therefore, medical reports of the convict can be a game changer for any case.
In critical cases like a brutal murder or serial killing, the psychological conditions of the convict need a deeper checking for true justice. However, people can also use these methods for discounting the penalty a convict is supposed to have.
The lawyers generally engage the best doctors and psychiatrists for conducting such medical examinations on the convict. The reports remain available to all the people looking into the case and everyone gets the chance to interpret the reports individually.
The prosecutors fighting the case against the victim also get their chance to involve other doctors and specialists for checking the reports. Therefore, the court listens to the interpretations of both parties before passing the verdict. This procedure keeps the entire trial fair and just.
Neuroimaging and Justice
While defending a convicted murderer, a Neuro specialist from New York cited a slide on Neuroimaging. It indicated severe dysfunction that could have triggered the numbness of the defendant’s “brakes of inhibitions”.
The convicted person here was Taylor Parker who was detained for capital murder. A group jury in Texas tried her case for the crimes she committed in the month of October 2020.
As the day of the penalty came close, the lawyer defending the accused presented a neuropsychologist with reports of the suspect’s neuroimaging exams. The expert conducted several such exams on the accused and presented the results in a court of law.
The Report Analysis
The expert was Dr. Siddhartha Nadkarni and he checked and analyzed the imaging and medical records carefully. He also conducted thorough research on these results individually.
The medical reports included an EEG and brain scan. Depending on his understanding and interpretation of Dr. Parker’s MRI, CT/PET and EEG exams, Dr. Siddhartha concluded that the frontal and temporal lobes of the defendant seemed to have serious dysfunctions.
He further added that according to many news outlets in Texas, people with such dysfunctions lack control over impulses. Therefore, the defendant is more likely to have a lack of brake of inhibitions and high sensitivity to sudden impulses.
He also clarified that the imaging showed signs of damage in several areas of the defendant’s brain. These were more like white matter atrophy in the parietal lobe of Parker and there were traces of damage in her cortex as well.
Dr. Siddhratha also suggested that regardless of the source of these damages in the brain, these could influence her behavior in more ways than one. He further mentioned that people bearing such damages have so been seen to be more prone to difficulties like irritability, troubled memory, consistency problems, and lack of inhibitions.
The Final Verdict
However, the prosecutors did their turn pleading against the defendant. They also referred to the opinions of several doctors who concluded the defendant’s imaging outputs to be normal after thorough consideration.
The neurologist interpreted this difference in opinion between different doctors to be a perspective difference. According to the expert, the doctors who checked the reports initially might have been looking for traces of stroke while he was more interested in finding the signs of brain dysfunctions.
Therefore, the objective of analyzing the reports was very different, for which, the interpretations might have varied.
After considering the points highlighted by both parties, the jury I all set to begin the deliberation at the end of the running week.
The verdict will decide Parker’s fate in the end. Based on the impact the neurological imaging cast on the jury, Parker will either face capital punishment through lethal injection or a life sentence.
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