Law | Open Access Articles | Digital Commons Network™

Most of the public agrees that society is safer without psychopaths.

However, a new sentencing strategy for psychopaths facing the death

penalty has erupted from both mental health researchers and defense

lawyers-imploring juries to view a defendant's psychopathy as a

consideration of sentencing mitigation, and, consequently, urging juries to

impose life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.

This article explains the frightening nature of psychopaths, how

neuroscience and neuroimaging intersects with the study of psychopathy,

and, specifically, whether an fiMRI brain scan is appropriate mitigating

evidence in death penalty sentencing hearings when the convicted

defendant is a diagnosed psychopath.

Law Commons^™