Legal Issues

How Brain SPECT Imaging Can Help with Legal Issues

SPECT imaging is a powerful, reliable tool to understand brain blood flow and activity patterns in the brain. It is being used increasingly in both clinical and legal settings to help understand complex people and problems. In the legal system it has been used to help judges and juries understand aggressive and impulsive behavior, understand the influence of substance abuse on the brain, show evidence of brain injury, potential seizure activity or toxic exposure that can affect the verdict (difference between first degree murder, second degree murder or manslaughter, life or death). Brain SPECT imaging offers a number of advantages for legal council, such as visually being able to show a judge or jury underlying brain dysfunction, rather than just depending on dueling psychiatric opinions without any brain information.

Legal Defense

• Defendants, lawyers, judges and juries are entitled to relevant information (the brain is relevant to behavioral problems)
• Imaging may help mitigate a sentence, lead to better treatment, give greater understanding
• Substantial imaging research on violence, toxic exposure, and brain injury
• Additional information to clinical and paper and pencil testing
• Help juries understand difficult behavior
• Use in civil litigation, such as brain injury or toxic exposure
• Helps everyone ask better questions

Imaging Cannot:

• Make a diagnosis — not a doctor in box
• Tell if someone is guilty or innocent
• Tell someone’s motivation
• Date a brain trauma or toxic exposure

Types of Cases Where Imaging Is Used

• Criminal
  • Verdict
  • Penalty phase
  • Mitigation
  • Help in disposition
• Civil
  • Brain injury
  • Toxic exposure
  • Dementia
  • Custody

The Case of Jose

In a very sad case from Healdsburg, a city about an hour north of San Francisco, a 16 year old boy, Jose, senselessly attacked another teenager, Dillon, because of the color of the sweater he wore. Referred to as the Red Sweater Case, the city was outraged. Jose had been smoking marijuana with a group of friends in a VW (hotboxing). Shortly afterwards, Jose saw Dillon walking his dog across the street. Dillon was wearing a red sweater. Jose, a wanna-be gang member whose color was red, confronted Dillon and asked him what color he claimed. Dillon said he didn’t claim any color and started to walk off. Jose said, “Wrong answer,” and senselessly beat him nearly to death. Dillon was in a coma for three weeks and ended up with serious brain damage.

As part of developing a defense, Jose’s attorney sent him for neuropsychological testing, which revealed probable damage to his prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in judgment, empathy, planning and impulse control. The neuropsychologist suggested the attorney contact Dr. Amen to scan Jose’s brain. The SPECT study was very abnormal. Jose had severe decreased activity in his prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes (implicated in learning disabilities and violence), and increased activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus, which is the brain’s gear shifter causing him to be rigid, inflexible and to get stuck on negative thoughts. See SPECT images below.

Clearly, Jose had an abnormal brain. He had suffered several brain injuries in the past, including being beaten unconscious by a heavy chain and he had experienced severe emotional trauma. His mother was murdered when he was eight years old and he had witnessed much violence. Even when he was not smoking marijuana, Jose suffered with a vulnerable brain. Put him in the wrong situation, under the influences of something that diminishes brain function further, even marijuana, and he is likely to explode.

The jury took the information into consideration, and instead of sentencing him to 25 years, what the prosecutor wanted, they sentenced him to 11 years, recommending he went to a place that would provide Jose with treatment.

Healthy Brain		Jose’s Brain Arrows pointing to the prefrontal cortex (top) and temporal lobe