And Peterson was sentenced to death...

[conuly]

Why? Because the evidence was so compelling?

No.

He didn't show enough emotion during the trial.

(Thanks, rpeate)

Okay, youse guys can now talk about how horrible it is, because I'm too cold to do so.

Comments

can I be an expert?

[staircase-wit.livejournal.com]

I'm autistic, and I've had sociopathic friends... including an ex-girlfriend. On the surface, it seemed similar to me. I've compared myself to Lector on occasion, and there is at least one psyche abstract that has made a splash in the autistic community, sugesting that J. Dahmer may have had Asperger's Syndrome.

I don't think affect should be the cause of any greater or lesser punishment, but of course it is. In "How to Win Friends and Influence People," Dale Carnage tells how to appeal to authorities' sense of justice, and in "The Naked Ape" Desmond Morris tells how to pull of the primate behavios of submission to get out of tickets.

Like it or not, jury trials are acts... improvisational theatre with serious consequences. Sociopaths, strangely enough, often have better acting ability then us autistics. I'm lucky enough to have some (2.5 years) actor's training, but like the French I studied at the same time, I'm pretty sure it's not enough to matter in the real world. I make up for my natural lack of affect with some traits of Hystrionic Personality Disorder. :)