Legal Commentary

The latest edition of the radio program, "Justice Talking", is called "Neurolaw:  The New Frontier."  (Click here to listen, or read more.)  Here's the "overview":

Some lawyers are using brain scans showing defects to argue that their clients aren?t responsible for criminal behavior. In recent years, this neuroscientific evidence has been increasingly used in our courtrooms. But some scientists argue that the imaging is still new and unreliable, while others question whether juries should be ruling on what counts as a "defective" brain. As neurolaw grows in influence, it could potentially revolutionize our notions of guilt and punishment as criminals say "my brain made me do it." Might we be, one day, just a brain scan away from a form of lie detection and prediction of criminal behavior? Tune in as we examine this new frontier of law on this edition of Justice Talking.

The contributors to the program include my colleague, Carter Snead (who has written about neuroimaging and capital sentencing), and also Prof. Stephen Morse, from the University of Pennsylvania.