You\u2019ve been selected as a juror. A 4-year old boy smothered to death by his father. Two other kids attacked. One charge of first-degree murder and two of first-degree attempted-murder. The father is not denying that he physically did it. Open-and-shut case? \u00a0Think again.<\/p>\n
During the early hours of September 22nd<\/sup>, 2010 in Hillsborough, North Carolina, the 911-dispatcher received a call from a distraught man who claimed that his grandson needed urgent help. \u201cSend the police and an ambulance\u201d, he begged. Havoc could be heard in the back, while Christine, his daughter, tried to revive her son Blake, to no avail. Just after the attack, the father and alleged perpetrator \u2013Joseph E. Mitchell- had locked himself in his home office. The police arrived and Blake was immediately transported to the Duke University Hospital; in the meantime, an officer managed to open the door of the studio, but Mr. Mitchell\u2019s body apparently was leaning against it, making it difficult to get in. \u201cI saw him lying over a pool of blood and with a knife in his hand; I assumed he was dead\u201d, the officer said. After finding out he was still alive, another ambulance transported him to the hospital for surgery; he had stabbed himself twice on the torso and slashed his neck. According to \u201cLexi\u201d, his oldest daughter, she had woken up on the early hours of September 22nd<\/sup>, to his father \u2013who was wearing a yellow fleece jacket and garden gloves- trying to smother her; she was able to fend him off and \u2013thinking it was a nightmare- she passed out again, only to wake up to the screams of Blake, her youngest brother. \u201cI thought he was yelling because of his allergies, because he had done that in the past\u201d, said Lexi, until she heard Devon, her 10- year old brother yelling: \u201cStop! Get off me!\u201d When she ran towards his room, she saw her father on top of Devon, trying to cover his mouth as well. While trying to push him off of her sibling, her father grabbed her by throat, but she managed to bite him off, and he walked away. \u201cHelp!\u201d Lexi yelled at her mother. \u201cDad is trying to attack us\u201d. Devon will later tell police that his father had come and left the room repeatedly, and flicked the lights on and off several times. Christine asked Lexi to get her brothers and take them to her bedroom, so they could be safe while she figured out what was going on. She thought this was just a nervous outburst. Their financial situation had been strained for a while, causing stress to the couple, especially on Joseph.<\/p>\n Getting rid of the problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n The Prosecution submits that \u2013evidence will show- that Mitchell was up to his head in debts; his lack of luck on finding a stable job during the past 2 years, had ended in him spending most of his retirement funds and lying to his wife about the fact that they were going to be evicted from their home in a few days, due to foreclosure. \u201cHe had been living a lie and was about to be exposed\u201d, says the Prosecutor; \u201cso he decided to kill his children\u201d, maybe as a way to free-himself from the financial burden that \u2013under his eyes- they were causing.<\/p>\n The Sleepwalking Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time for the defense to present their case. They allege -and you will hear from the defendant himself- that when Joseph E. Mitchell awoke in the Hospital, the day after the attacks, he couldn\u2019t remember anything of what had transpired the night before. The last thing he recalled was going to bed and then waking up in the hospital, asking the staff what time it was, being assessed by a Clinical Psychologist and later, being informed by an attorney he might be charged with manslaughter for the murder of his son. Until then, he had no idea that he had put his family through a vicious nightmare.<\/p>\n As preposterous as the argument may seem, throughout the trial the defense will try to cast -at least reasonable doubt- on the accusation\u00a0that Joseph E. Mitchell had killed his son intentionally. They will rely on what is known as the \u201cSleepwalking defense\u201d. For the layman, this may sound like a blatant ruse, but attorneys have been using this defense for violent crimes from as early as 1846, when in Boston, a guy called Albert Tirrell killed a prostitute by slicing her throat and then set the brothel on fire. Tirrell\u2019s attorney alleged that his client was a chronic sleepwalker and successfully convinced the jury to find him not guilty. There\u2019s at least 6 more cases of this kind documented, with the one of Kenneth Parks, a man from Toronto, being a landmark, due to the fact that, after killing his mother in law and seriously injuring his father in law, he went to the police not noticing that he had severely sliced both hands, fitting the \u201clack of pain\u201d that characterizes most sleepwalkers.<\/p>\n It is argued in court that in order to secure a conviction for a criminal offense, two elements must be present: the guilty act itself (actus rea)<\/em>, and a guilty mind (mens rea),<\/em>which implies purpose, intent or negligence. Sleepwalking doesn\u2019t debate on the act itself, but on the argument that if the person committing the crime is unconscious, he\/she has no control over his\/her actions and therefore cannot be held accountable for them.<\/p>\n Convenient amnesia or a real sleep-disorder?<\/strong><\/p>\n Joseph Mitchell goes to the stand and testifies that he remembered nothing about the crime and he loved his family; he justifies his lies regarding their financial crisis as attempts to \u201cnot have them exposed to the kind of life I had as a child\u201d and talks about his depression, insomnia and stress during the years before the attack.<\/p>\n To support his testimony, the defense calls their star witness: Dr. George Corvin, a Forensic Psychiatrist who performed an extensive evaluation on Mitchell while he was at the hospital. He mentions that when Joseph was informed about what he had done, he barely reacted because he was in total disbelief: \u201cIt\u2019s surreal; I\u2019ll believe it when I see it\u201d, were his words. According to the Dr., when the defendant committed these acts, he was suffering from \u201cParasomnia\u201d, a cluster of sleep disorders, which include sleepwalking and Non-REM parasomnia. The scientific basis is that during sleep, the brain alternates between two main stages: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and Non-REM. The latter can go from light to very deep sleep. Most of the dreams occur during the REM stage, in which the brain stays active, like when we are conscious; blood pressure goes higher, breathing becomes sporadic and the brain paralyzes the body, so that we don\u2019t act up on our dreams. During a typical 8-hour sleep night, these two stages alternate around 6 times, but the transition isn\u2019t always subtle. In people with parasomnia, these two stages can overlap. In the case of Joseph Mitchell, Non-REM parasomnia is alleged, which usually happens in the first third of the sleep cycle. When this kind of disorder occurs, the brain parts that control our movements remain active, while the ones that help us recognize faces, are inactive. Thus, the person may have his eyes open, but be unaware of his\/her actions. When a sleepwalker is suddenly confronted by a person or a loud noise, violence can occur in the form of smashing objects or causing harm to themselves or the people around them; they don\u2019t remember anything the next day, because the conscious part of their brain was asleep the whole time. The fact that during sleepwalking episodes, people are unlikely to feel pain even while suffering an injury, might explainwhy Joseph was able to stab himself several times, which for a normal person would be excruciating. The expert goes on to describe that among the triggers of these disorders are acute stress and recurrent insomnia, which match Mitchell\u2019s state of mind at the time. \u201cWhen I interviewed Joseph, I could watch that his \u2018affect\u2019, meaning the range of emotions that an individual displays, showed someone completely disconnected with reality and the gravity of the situation.\u201d This whole \u201calways optimistic and conflict avoidant approach\u201d he had towards life, may have caused the accumulation of hectic emotions that led to his disorder, manifesting themselves in a heinous way.<\/p>\n The wrong charges?<\/strong><\/p>\n After hearing various witnesses, both the defense and the prosecution rest their case. Now it\u2019s your turn to work on the deliberations. The judge instructs you on the law. Is Joseph E. Mitchell guilty of the charges against him? After all you\u2019ve heard, you might still have mixed emotions, but now the sleepwalking defense may not seem so far-fetched\u2026 The judge explains that first-degree murder consists of \u201c<\/strong>an unlawful killing that is both willful and premeditated, meaning that it was committed after planning or lying in wait for the victim\u201d. Does that fit Mitchell\u2019s actions? Did he deliberately plan to suffocate his kids that night?<\/p>\n In the real trial, it only took the jurors around 90 minutes to conclude that Joseph E. Mitchell didn\u2019t killed his son nor attacked the other two with intent and premeditation. The verdict was Not Guilty on all counts and after it was read, his ex-wife Christine started hyperventilating and cried: \u201cI couldn\u2019t save him!\u201d referring of course, to his deceased boy. After the hearing, the local news media reported that one of the jurors explained how hard it was for them to give a not-guilty verdict, but his crime didn’t fit the description of the charges, thus \u201ctheir hands were tied\u201d. \u201cWe would definitely have convicted him of manslaughter\u201d, the juror added, which is described as \u201can unlawful killing that doesn’t involve malice aforethought\u2014intent to seriously harm or kill, or extreme, reckless disregard for life.\u201d<\/p>\n So, was this just about the prosecution filing the wrong charges? Or was the fact that he was unconscious, enough to dismiss the attack as a criminal offense?<\/p>\n Attorneys themselves have a hard time grasping for the truth about what is fair in this type of cases. What would your verdict be? Being a juror in a case like this and going home knowing that a father who killed his son is walking free, will probably keep you awake at night.<\/p>\n Maybe this reality explains why some people would just rather adopt the \u201coptimistic approach and \u201cdisconnect themselves from the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0By: Martha Hernandez<\/strong><\/p>\n Sources:<\/p>\n Swords and Scales<\/span><\/i>– Podcast by Wondery;\u00a0<\/span>The Anatomy of Violence<\/span><\/i>, Adrian Rane, Pantheon Books, 2013;\u00a0<\/span>Psychologytoday.com<\/span><\/i>, Dangerous Dreamers, David K. Randall, January 2nd, 2013;\u00a0<\/span>Sleepeducation.org, Sleepwalking: Overview and Facts<\/i>, 2018, American Academy of Sleep Medicine;\u00a0Wral.com, news, March 4th<\/sup>, 2015<\/i>. Joseph Mitchell<\/i>Murder Trial, Parts 1-4.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You\u2019ve been selected as a juror. A 4-year old boy smothered to death by his father. Two other kids attacked. One charge of first-degree murder and two of first-degree attempted-murder. The father is not denying that he physically did it. Open-and-shut case? \u00a0Think again. During the early hours of September 22nd, 2010 in Hillsborough, North […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/punchwriting.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}