Opinion ID: 1201575
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Dr. Scialli

Text: The state retained Dr. John V. Scialli, a psychiatrist, who also examined Defendant. Like the others, Dr. Scialli's testing also indicated that Defendant had  serious brain damage.  He concluded that Defendant suffered from dementia. At the sentencing hearing, Dr. Scialli described this dementia as: a neuropsychiatric condition. The cause of which is brain damage, either from a known cause or from a cause which is highly suspected and most likely to be a cause of brain damage. Dementia is a term that encompasses a number of different symptoms and refers to a general acquired defect in different brain functions ... which may include reasoning and judgment, of memory, impulse control, expression of personality. R.T., Nov. 26, 1990, at 15. [11] In response to questioning regarding how Defendant's mental illness may have affected him during one of the attacks, Dr. Scialli testified that when confronted by a victim, his impulse control is so tenuous, so hair triggered, impaired by his dementia, that he would have, I would suspect, flown into a rage at the time and not handled a situation that someone with more reasoning ability might have handled with considerably less force. Id. at 17 (emphasis added). When asked to explain this rage, Dr. Scialli testified: The rage as associated with dementia is typically those that are provoked by things which might not provoke rage in others. Usually a rage, which is relatively uncontrolled, or poorly controlled and not directed towards a particular  not necessarily toward a particular goal, there may be  there usually is a sudden acceleration of the rage, not a slow burn, as some people might have, but sudden explosive rage with a degree of violence. Id. (emphasis added). Dr. Scialli refuted any implication that organic factors caused Defendant's non-violent criminal behavior. Instead, he believed that Defendant's mental illness impaired his ability to carry out his criminal goals efficiently. Essentially, the impairment caused Defendant to murder when he originally ventured out to commit a much less serious crime. The murders, therefore, were the unfortunate result of his mental impairment. The dementia caused Defendant to [react] suddenly and overwhelmingly when he confronted and was confronted by his victims. [12] Like the other doctors, Dr. Scialli believed Defendant's boxing career could have caused his brain damage.