Brain Dysfunction and Capital Mitigation

Loyd v. State, 2011 WL 117660 (Ga. 2011)
Based on the empirical data that I have collected on 700 cases that I analyzed between 2004-2009, the introduction of cognitive neuroscience as mitigating evidence in a capital case has not fared well. In this case, too. Defendant was convicted on his pleas of guilty in of malice murder and related crimes, for which he was sentenced to death. Defendant appealed. During his original sentencing hearing, Defendant introduced evidence of a long-standing history of severe mental illness beginning with his hospitalization at the age of nine years; his diagnosis of bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, pedophilia, and polysubstance abuse and dependence. He also introduced evidence of his more recent diagnosis of frontal lobe personality disorder and organic personality disorder as the result of a closed head injury that he suffered in a truck and train collision in 1992. His death sentence was affirmed on appeal.