Using Truth Serum To Confirm Insanity

xclr8r writes "James Holmes representation did not enter a plea today in with regards to the Aurora, Co. Movie theater shooting so the Judge entered a plea of not guilty for James that could be changed at a later date by Holmes' attorney. The judge entered an advisory that if the plea was changed to Not Guilty by insanity that Holmes would be subject to a 'narcoanalytic interview' with the possibility of medically appropriate substances could be used e.g. so called truth serums. Holmes defense looks to have initially objected to this but as the previous article seems to infer that some compromises are being worked out. This certainly raises legal questions on how this is being played out 5th, 14th amendments. The legal expert in the second article states this is legal under Co. law but admits there's not a huge amount of cases regarding this. I was only able to find Harper v State where a defendant willingly underwent truth serum and wanted to submit the interview on his behalf but was rejected due to the judge not recognizing sufficient scientific basis to admit the evidence."

Comments

Good luck for Holmes

[Anonymous Coward]

If he's willing to submit to drug-enhanced interrogation, he's certified crazy!

Re:Good luck for Holmes

[Alranor]

There's somebody called Yossarian on the phone, I think he wants to talk to you ...

Re:Good luck for Holmes

[artfulshrapnel]

I guess my biggest complaint would be: How good is truth serum at verifying the type of insanity claimed, and what qualification does the judge have to diagnose the suspect's mental condition? The human brain and psychoactive drugs are a horribly complex nest of interconnected issues, and even trained professionals can't always predict the effect they'll have on abnormal brains or in abnormal combinations

For example:
Let's say he really is insane, but the truth serum they use temporarily stabilizes him by suppressing an overactive region in his brain. Now during the test he'll be perfectly sane and normal, but as soon as the drug wears off he goes back to crazytown.

Re:Good luck for Holmes

[Kreigaffe]

Truth serum does not fucking work, period, at all. This has been known for many decades now. If it worked, we would've been using it against Bad Guys in Secret Prisons, and we're not. We're not because it doesn't fucking work and everyone knows that.

Except apparently the people in this court room.

Precedent...

[Anonymous Coward]

Neddy: "You're mad, mad I tell you!"
Bluebottle: "Little does he know that I'm as sane as the next man."
Eccles: "Little does HE know that I'm the next man!"

Re:Precedent...

[kramer2718]

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Scientific basis

[Dunbal]

Sure it's a pretty well known fact that the more I depress your CNS the less you are going to be capable of rationalization and higher thought to answer a question "creatively". However such an undertaking is not reliable or scientific at all, because there is a point at which I can get you to agree with and pretty much answer anything I want you to. Sigh. Americans and their obsession with torture. After all this is just torture in another guise, instead of using pain to interrogate, I am shutting down part of your brain. Either way you are being forced to confess and give testimony against yourself. Whatever happened to I dunno, finding EVIDENCE?

Re:Scientific basis

[Black Parrot]

Careful where you point your fingers or you might leave with fewer than you planned.

it sounds like you intend to pull his fingers off .... gasp ... torturer

Please, don't pull his finger.

Re:Scientific basis

[demonlapin]

I know one of the very few Americans who has ever actually gotten a not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict. Treating the florid paranoid schizophrenia that led him to kill his parents and one of his siblings is a very fine line: if it's undertreated, he becomes incredibly violent, but if it's overtreated, he becomes cognizant of what he did and rapidly becomes suicidal. He has to be left slightly insane in order to live.

This is crap. It's ineffective at best and profoundly evil at worst.

Questionable at best

[sjames]

How can he be meaningfully represented by an attorney when he's too stoned out of his gourd on pentathal to be sure which disembodied voice is the lawyer and which is the interrogator?

Are they willing to grant blanket immunity to anything else he might confess? Given that the doses of pentathal used make the person compliant, how do they distinguish an inconvenient truth he might tell from a fabrication he tells because it seems like what the interrogator wants to hear? There's a reason it's not actually used anymore. Perhaps the judge takes TV much too seriously!

I'd claim it undermines my faith in the criminal justice system, but that ship sailed long ago.

Re:Questionable at best

[demonlapin]

People who commit murder under the definition of legal insanity are dumb, violent animals; they have been absolved of their culpability for what they do, and thus of their humanity. I've worked at a psychiatric hospital and met them. "Dumb, violent animals" is a pretty accurate description. "Should never leave custody" is another one. They shouldn't be in jail, but they're not fit for society either.

In English, please

[wonkey_monkey]

Or at least with correct punctuation and grammar.

James Holmes representation

Sounds like the name of a law firm. I assume what was meant was "James Holmes's representation."

did not enter a plea today in with regards to the Aurora, Co. Movie theater shooting

Whut?

The judge entered an advisory that if the plea was changed to Not Guilty by insanity that Holmes would be subject to a 'narcoanalytic interview'

Too many "that"s.

with the possibility of medically appropriate substances could be used

Either "with the possibility that..." or "...being used."

Holmes defense

"Holmes's defense"

but as the previous article seems to infer that some compromises are being worked out.

This one's hard to parse. Is it "but as the previous article seems to infer, some compromises are being worked out."? Also, which "previous" article? I wouldn't be surprised if you've got "infer" and "imply" mixed up as well, but as I can't work out which article is being referred to, I can't check this.

This certainly raises legal questions on how this is being played out 5th, 14th amendments.

Err, yes, it does. Wait, what?

Slashdot. Unreadable news to annoy nerds.

Re:Yet we still don't know what really happened

[Black Parrot]

You can't seem to look into any infamous crazy serial killer without comments from shocked neighbors and friends who talk about how normal he seemed.

I always wonder whether the culprit in some infamous deed was also shocked. Could it be that any of us "normal" types could find ourselves committing an outrage, even though we think we really are the nice quiet boy everyone thinks we are? Or do cold-blooded killers know they are such, and just keep it hidden for years?