How SPECT Can Help With Legal Issues

SPECT imaging is a powerful tool that helps clinicians and patients understand brain blood flow and activity patterns in the brain. Currently, It is being used increasingly in both clinical and legal settings to help understand complex people and problems.Within the legal system, it has been successfully used for the past decade to help judges and juries understand the influence of substance abuse on the brain, understand aggressive and impulsive behavior, provide evidence of brain injury, potential seizure activity or toxic exposure that can affect the verdict (difference between first degree murder, second degree murder or manslaughter, life or death).

Brain SPECT imaging offers a number of unique advantages for legal council, such as visually being able to show a judge or jury underlying brain dysfunction, rather than just depending on dueling psychiatric opinions without any brain information. There is substantial imaging research on violence, toxic exposure, and brain injury that legal council can use to support findings.

Overview of what imaging can do

  • •Imaging may help mitigate a sentence, lead to better treatment, give greater understanding
  • •Imaging may help mitigate a sentence, lead to better treatment, give greater understanding
  • •Provides additional information to clinical history exam and paper and pencil testing
  • •Helps juries understand difficult behavior
  • •Helps everyone ask better questions 

 

Overview of what imaging cannot do

  • •Imaging cannot be used alone to make a clinical diagnosis. SPECT should always be coupled with clinical history and supporting data  -- not a doctor in box
  • •Tell if someone is guilty or innocent
  • •Reveal someone’s motivation
  • •Time/ Date of a brain trauma or toxic exposure

 

Types of cases imaging is successfully being used for

 

Criminal

  • •Structuring a sentencing package that focuses rehabilitating defendant
  • •Verdict and Penalty phase
  • •Mitigation cases
  • •Help in disposition discovery phase

 

Civil

  • •Brain injury/Accidents
  • •Toxic exposure
  • •Dementia
  • •Custody