Knowledge of Legal Terminology and Court Proceedings in Adults with Developmental Disabilities

This research compared 40 adults with mild developmental disabilities (DD) and 40 nondelayed adults (ND) in terms of knowledge of legal terms and court proceedings. For all of the 34 terms studied, with the exception of police officer there were significant differences between the DD and ND groups with respect to degree of conceptual understanding of terms. Results indicate that all but 6 terms assessed (adjourn, allegation, crown attorney, defendant, prosecute, and court reporter) were well-defined by 85% or more of ND participants. In contrast, only 8 of the terms (police officer, lawyer, jail, court, lie, truth, judge, and witness) were reasonably conceptually understood by at least 75% of DD participants. Reported familiarity with terms in DD participants is not a reliable indicator of actual familiarity with terms. Results are discussed with respect to the need for education of DD individuals and legal professionals to support participation and fair treatment of DD individuals in legal situations.     

Detecting Deception in Children's Testimony: Factfinders' Abilities to Reach the Truth in Open Court and Closed-Circuit Trials

This study examined the influence of closed-circuit television (CCTV) on jurors' abilities to detect deception in children's testimony. Children ages 7–9 individually played games and made a video movie with a male confederate. In the guilty condition, stickers were placed on exposed body parts (i.e., the child's arm, toes, and bellybutton). In the not-guilty and deception conditions, stickers were placed on the child's clothing rather than on bare skin. Approximately 3 weeks later, mock jurors recruited from the community viewed child participants testify either in a traditional courtroom setting or via one-way CCTV. The mock jurors responded to questions about the child witness and the defendant as well as deliberated to reach a verdict. Children in the deception condition were asked to testify as if the stickers had been placed on exposed body parts rather than on their clothing. Predeliberation, jurors were less likely to convict when a child testified in the deception condition as opposed to the guilty condition. These differences disappeared following deliberation. There was no support for the notion that jurors reach the truth better when children testify in open court versus via CCTV. Implications for jurors' abilities to reach the truth are discussed.     

Carbon monoxide poisoning without cherry-red livor

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning typically causes so-called cherry-red livor of the skin and viscera. The authors report a case of CO poisoning in which cherry-red livor did not develop. The decedent was a 75-year-old white man who was found dead in his car during a cold winter. Blood CO saturation was 86%. The death was attributed to CO poisoning, and the manner of death was designated suicide. The curious absence of cherry-red livor was studied. The decedent's tissue and blood specimens were tested at different temperatures. There was no tendency for either type of specimen to develop cherry-red color at cold or warm temperatures. The antemortem response of the skin to cold possibly sequestered CO-saturated blood in the cadaver. As regards the viscera, there are other proteins to which CO can bond, and possibly these proteins contribute to the development of visceral cherry-red livor. In this case, the absence of cherry-red livor could have led to misclassification of the cause and manner of death. The medicolegal and social consequences of such misclassification can be significant, and psychiatric history, which may be useful to surviving family members, could be lost.     

Fetal death. A 10-year retrospective study

Fetal death has been defined by the World Health Organization as death before complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy. Certain causes of fetal death, including syphilis, Rh isoimmunization, toxemia, and diabetes, have shown significant declines over the past several decades. However, many fetal losses continue to occur from intrauterine infections, lethal malformations, fetal growth retardation, and abruptio placentae. Fetal death with no identifiable specific cause is another consideration when dealing with these cases. Other risk factors can include maternal, sociodemographic, and medical care factors. The authors reviewed all forensic cases referred for autopsy to the Forensic Section of the Medical University of South Carolina, Medical Examiners' Office over the 10-year period 1990-1999. All cases listed as fetal death or stillbirth were included. The 42 cases were analyzed as to fetus' gestational age, sex, race, weight, location of delivery, history of prenatal care, maternal drug use, chromosomal abnormalities, cause and manner of death, and autopsy findings. The black:white ratio was approximately 2:1, and the male:female ratio was virtually 1:1. Most fetuses were older than 20 weeks' gestational age, with one third between 20 and 29 weeks. The majority were externally normal aside from maceration. Only 7.5% had congenital anomalies. Twenty-one of 38 placentas were grossly and microscopically normal. Of cases with toxicologic analysis, 21% were positive for drugs, and 17% were positive for cocaine/benzoylecgonine. The manner of death was classified as natural (28), accident (2), and undetermined (12). Few studies have reported the specific causes of fetal death, and the lack of uniformity in data collection and classification of causes of fetal death has made comparisons difficult. The authors present this retrospective study to better determine the factors leading to fetal demise in the hope of assisting death investigators in this challenging arena.     

GHB. Club drug or confusing artifact?

GHB can be produced either as a pre- or postmortem artifact. The authors describe two cases in which GHB was detected and discuss the problem of determining the role of GHB in each case. In both cases, NaF-preserved blood and urine were analyzed using gas chromatography. The first decedent, a known methamphetamine abuser, had GHB concentrations similar to those observed with subanesthetic doses (femoral blood, 159 microg/ml; urine, 1100 microg/ml). Myocardial fibrosis, in the pattern associated with stimulant abuse, was also evident. The second decedent had a normal heart but higher concentrations of GHB (femoral blood, 1.4 mg/ml; right heart, 1.1 mg/ml; urine, 6.0 mg/ml). Blood cocaine and MDMA levels were 420 and 730 ng/ml, respectively. Both decedents had been drinking and were in a postabsorptive state, with blood to vitreous ratios of less than 0.90. If NaF is not used as a preservative, GHB is produced as an artifact. Therefore, the mere demonstration of GHB does not prove causality or even necessarily that GHB was ingested. Blood and urine GHB concentrations in case 1 can be produced by a therapeutic dose of 100 mg, and myocardial fibrosis may have had more to do with the cause of death than GHB. The history in case 2 is consistent with the substantial GHB ingestion, but other drugs, including ethanol, were also detected. Ethanol interferes with GHB metabolism, preventing GHB breakdown, raising blood concentrations, and making respiratory arrest more likely. Combined investigational, autopsy, and toxicology data suggest that GHB was the cause of death in case 2 but not case 1. Given the recent discovery that postmortem GHB production occurs even in stored antemortem blood samples (provided they were preserved with citrate) and the earlier observations that de novo GHB production in urine does not occur, it is unwise to draw any inferences about causality unless (1) blood and urine are both analyzed and found to be elevated; (2) blood is collected in NaF-containing tubes; and (3) a detailed case history is obtained.     

Posttraumatic thrombosis of the middle cerebral artery

Posttraumatic cerebral infarction resulting from carotid or cerebral artery occlusion is rare. Traumatic dissection of the carotid artery is the most frequent cause of infarction, whereas posttraumatic thrombosis of the cerebral artery is very rare. The authors describe a case of posttraumatic thrombosis of the left middle cerebral artery. Early in the morning, a 16-year-old boy was found unconscious in the parking lot of a supermarket. He had received fist blows and kicks to the head, face, body, back, and hip during the night. Computed tomography 10 hours after the violence revealed a gross cerebral infarction in the area of the left middle cerebral artery. He died 9 days after the violence. The autopsy revealed a thrombosis in the left middle cerebral artery. Microscopically, granulation tissue in the intima and a rupture of the internal elastic lamina were observed near the beginning of the artery. It was concluded that the blows to the head and face caused a partial rupture in the arterial wall, leading to thrombosis and cerebral infarction.     

Sex determination and estimation of stature from the long bones of the arm

The determination of sex and the estimation of stature from bones play an important role in identifying unknown bodies, parts of bodies or skeletal remains. In medico-legal practice statements on the probable sex of a decomposed body or part of a body are often expected even during autopsy. The present study was, therefore, restricted to few easily accessible dimensions from bones which were prepared only by mechanically removing soft tissues, tendons and ligaments. The specimens came from the Anatomical Institutes in Munich and Cologne from the years 1994-1998 including a total of 143 individuals (64 males and 79 females). The mean age was 79 years (46-108), the mean body height 161cm (134-189). The following measurements were taken: maximum humeral length (mean: 33.4cm in males; 30.7cm in females), vertical humeral head diameter (mean: 5.0cm in males, 4.4cm in females), humeral epicondylar width (mean: 6.6cm in males; 5.8cm in females), maximum ulnar length (mean: 26.5cm in males, 23.8cm in females), proximal ulnar width (mean: 3.4cm in males, 2.9cm in females), distal ulnar width (mean: 2.2cm in males; 1.8cm in females), maximum radial length (mean: 24.6cm in males; 22.0cm in females), radial head diameter (mean: 2.6cm in males, 2.2cm in females) and distal radial width (mean: 3.6cm in males; 3.2cm in females). The differences between the means in males and females were significant (P<0.0005). A discriminant analysis was carried out with good results. A percentage of 94.93% of cases were correctly classified when all measures of the radius were applied jointly, followed by humerus (93.15%) and ulna (90.58%). Applied singly, the humeral head diameter allowed the best distinction (90.41% correctly grouped cases), followed by the radial length (89.13%), the radial head diameter (88.57%) and the humeral epicondylar width (88.49%). The linear regression analysis for quantifying the correlation between the bone lengths and the stature led to unsatifactory results with large 95%-confidence intervals for the coefficients and high standard errors of estimate.