Does the existence of a criminal brain diminish the notion of personal responsibility?
In the tranquil surroundings of Lake Davis in Florida, Keydrick Jordan shot 76-year-old Ann Mintner six times in a bungled robbery. Jordan was convicted of the murder, but nine months ago a jury spared him the death penalty. Its decision was swayed by medical scans showing that the murderer had brain damage. Jordan’s defence team coupled the images to horrific stories about his childhood: how his mother drank poison in an attempt to abort him; how he watched his stepfather kill a man; how he was forced to bathe in chicken blood in voodoo rituals; and how he was sexually abused, repeatedly, into his teens. “To me, the science was the thing that bore it out,” John Hall, a juror, told a newspaper at the time. “(Jordan) never had a chance to develop any moral instinct, not only because he didn’t have any role models, but because of his brain injury.” This is not an isolated example. Jordan joins a handful of murderers in America whose physically warped brains have provided an escape route
