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Medically Conscious but Legally Unconscious?

Conscious or Unconscious? Can someone be medically conscious but considered legally unconscious? What an interesting conundrum! According to the Oxford Dictionary, “unconsciousness is the state of being unconscious or the state of being uninformed or unaware” and “automatism is the performance of actions without conscious thought or intention, involuntary” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2021). Even in Read More...

Effect of Brain Damage on Personality

How can brain damage be used to create reasonable doubt? In 1990, a 40-year-old schoolteacher suddenly began using prostitutes and making inappropriate advances to his stepdaughter. The courts ordered him to go to Sexaholics Anonymous or go to prison. He failed the program because he kept asking people for sex. The hospital found a large Read More...

The Long-Term Effects of Repetitive Head Trauma

Traumatic Brain Injury in Criminal Cases After Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), people can experience personality changes, social anxiety, irritability, anger, depression, general anxiety, mood swings, emotional lability, and feelings of being overwhelmed. The bottom line is that the brain no longer functions exactly the way it did prior to the head injury. The location of Read More...

Traumatic Brain Injury or Mental Illness?

TBI and Mental Illness What if a defendant commits a crime because of being affected by either an acute brain injury or an acquired or inherited brain disease? This is called the “brain defense.” In criminal cases, defense attorneys are increasingly using clinical evidence of brain injury to either establish their client’s innocence or mitigate Read More...

Alcohol Intoxication or Medical Issue?

Alcohol, trauma, or underlying medical condition? The legal limit of blood alcohol content is set by the US Department of Motor Vehicles at 0.08%. However, not everyone presents the same way clinically, as different individuals have different tolerance levels depending on their level of regular alcohol use. Even the liver eliminates alcohol from the body Read More...