Table Of ContentMinds on Trial:
Great Cases in Law and
Psychology
Charles Patrick Ewing
Joseph T. McCann
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
p
minds on trial
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MINDS
ON TRIAL
GREAT CASES
I N L AW A N D
PSYCHOLOGY
Charles Patrick Ewing
and Joseph T. McCann
i
3
2006
3
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ewing, Charles Patrick, 1949–
Minds on trial : great cases in law and psychology /
Charles Patrick Ewing and Joseph T. McCann.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13978-0-19-518176-0
ISBN0-19-518176-X
1. Forensic psychology—United States—Cases. 2. Forensic
psychiatry—United States—Cases. 3. Insanity—Jurisprudence—
United States—Cases. I. McCann, Joseph T. II. Title.
KF8965.A7E952006
614'.15—dc22 2005020568
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To Angelica:
“. . . happily I pass the while,
thinking of your lovely smile.”
(J. T. M.)
To Sharon:
With love and gratitude
from the rock.
(C. P. E.)
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preface
A
s forensic psychologists with combined careers in law and psychology
spanning nearly half a century, we have been involved in several thou-
sand cases in which we have been asked, in one form or another, to “get inside
the head of” a person who was (or might soon become) a litigant. In virtu-
ally all of these cases, the determining legal issue was the individual’s state of
mind at the time of—or as a result of—the event(s) that led the case to court.
In many of these cases, our assessments have played a major role in shaping
the legal outcome.
Of course we are far from alone in the infl uence our forensic work has
had upon the legal system. Our cases have been little more than the pro-
verbial grain of sand on the vast beach of law and psychology. Every day,
in courtrooms everywhere, people’s lives are touched and shaped by judg-
ments and verdicts infl uenced if not dictated by the fi ndings of psychologists
and other mental health experts. Our assessments, whether conveyed to the
courts through reports or testimony, help determine who is competent, guilty,
blameworthy, dangerous, entitled to compensation, fi t to be a parent, and so
forth. Outside the courtroom, our judgments about the mental functioning of
others have assisted the police, the military, and other governmental agencies
charged with maintaining public safety and security.
In our own professional work we have been blessed and burdened with
unparalleled access to the minds of some of life’s most fascinating and tragic
preface
fi gures. Having learned so much from the intensive study of these individuals
and their predicaments, we hoped to produce a book that would give others a
similar, albeit much more limited, “inside” look at “minds on trial.”
While many of our own cases have been both fascinating and high profi le,
for a variety of reasons we chose not to discuss our own work in this volume.
In many of our cases our role and opinions are a matter of public knowledge
because we have testifi ed in open court, but in most the details remain con-
fi dential and privileged. Moreover, it is often diffi cult to be objective and dis-
passionate in discussing one’s own work. Thus, instead of focusing on some
of the more interesting and notorious cases in which we have played a promi-
nent role, we decided to take a more objective look at the work of some of our
colleagues over the past fi fty years. Beginning with a collection of one hun-
dred cases, we narrowed our focus to a list of what we consider to be “twenty
great cases in law and psychology,” cases in which we are able to take readers
“behind the scenes” and explain what led these people to the attention of the
legal system and how psychological professionals, the courts, and the law have
dealt with them.
The protagonists in these cases range from household names such as Lee
Harvey Oswald, Woody Allen, Mike Tyson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Patty Hearst, and
John W. Hinckley, Jr., to others whose brief brushes with celebrity have long
been forgotten. But, regardless of notoriety or celebrity status, each of these
carefully selected cases teaches important lessons about the role that psychol-
ogy and the other behavioral sciences plays in our legal system.
Charles Patrick Ewing, J.D., Ph.D.
Joseph T. McCann, Psy.D., J.D.
viii
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contents
INTRODUCTION 3
1 GEORGE METESKY Profi ling the “Mad Bomber” 7
2 LEE HARVEY OSWALD The Formative Years of an Assassin 19
3 PATRICIA HEARST Uncommon Victim or Common Criminal? 31
4 THE GUILDFORD FOUR “You Did It, So Why Not Confess?” 45
5 P ROSENJIT PODDAR AND TATIANA TARASOFF Where
the Public Peril Begins 57
6 DAN WHITE The Myth of the Twinkie Defense 69
7 CAMERON HOOKER Judging the Experts? 81
8 JOHN W. HINCKLEY, JR. Shooting for the Stars 91
9 JUDAS PRIEST A Message in the Music 103
10 JOHN DEMJANJUK Is He “Ivan the Terrible”? 115
11 THE USS IOWA Equivocating on Death 129
12 JEFFREY DAHMER Serial Murder, Necrophilia, and Cannibalism 141
