Opinion ID: 380839
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Seizure-Related Killing

Text: 50 Another aspect of defendant's insanity defense was that the killing of Scottie Abernathy may have been performed unconsciously while defendant was in the latter stage of an epileptic seizure. The experts agreed that defendant had regularly suffered epileptic seizures, the events of which he could not remember. These seizures would begin with a convulsive stage, which would last three to ten minutes. During this stage the defendant would be virtually immobile and incapable of directed conduct. During a subsequent, postictal stage, however, defendant would often perform complex activities. Of these activities, like those of the convulsive stage, defendant had no apparent consciousness. He could describe them only because others told him what he had done. This phenomenon of unconscious postictal activity some witnesses labeled psychomotor epilepsy. The testimony of expert and lay witnesses reveal the defendant had a long history of apparent psychomotor episodes. These episodes included turning off the cold water in a shower, walking out into the snow, walking along the river bank, jumping out of a window, climbing a piano, handing out money, playing with imaginary string, and playing with an imaginary fishing pole. 51 In none of these instances, significantly, did defendant direct violence toward another person. 10 Indeed, two of the government's expert witnesses psychiatrist Dr. Kennelly and neurologist Dr. Koob testified that in a psychomotor epileptic state a person could perform only stereotypic or automatic movements, not directed acts of violence such as beating someone with a baseball bat. To the same effect was the opinion of Dr. Isburg, the only other neurologist to examine defendant. 11 Two defense expert witnesses psychologist Drs. Lewis and Curran stated they would defer to a neurologist's opinion that directed violence was inconsistent with the postictal stage of an epileptic seizure. Another defense witness, psychiatrist Dr. Bean, stated that a person could commit a directed act of violence during seizure activity. But he acknowledged that planned, organized behavior, such as ambushing a person with a baseball bat, would be inconsistent with seizure phenomena. Only defense witness psychiatrist Dr. Lord, who acknowledged that he was not yet board certified, was willing to say that repeated flailing with a baseball bat could be consistent with the non-directed behavior of a postictal stage, and that he would disagree with the contrary conclusion of a neurologist.