How Brain Scans Can Lighten Sentences In Murder Cases
Go To Jail Dreamstime A prison escapee convicted of killing a vacationing couple in their 60s—for their trailer, according to a newspaper from the couple’s hometown—recently dodged the death penalty for his crime. Instead, John McCluskey, 45, will serve life in prison without parole. What may have swayed the jury against the death penalty were brain scans the defense presented, Wired reports. The scans showed that parts of their client’s brain responsible for planning and controlling behavior were smaller than usual, among other abnormalities. In recent years, judges and juries have seen more and more high-tech brain scans appear in court cases, NPR reports. Usually they’re used to argue defendants can’t bear full responsibility for their crimes because their brains are immature or impaired. For some scientists, this is troubling. “You...