Abstract
The blood must have been everywhere. A shotgun at close range is not a delicate instrument. It sprays dozens of pellets that can rip into the flesh, tearing open innumerable capillaries, veins, and arteries. Moreover, the weapon’s blast is such that it can splatter shards of hair, flesh, and sinew over huge areas. Not withstanding all this, not even withstanding the fact that their final shots came from muzzles placed firmly against their parent’s heads, the Menendez brothers, and their lawyers, were able to persuade several jurors at their first trial that this was not murder. Amazingly, although these decision-makers had seen photographs of the devastation (even if some were suppressed as too inflammatory), they still maintained that it was not the fault of those who admitted pulling the triggers.
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Notes and References
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Dr. Peter Kramer argues passionately that the latest psychotropic drugs can reformulate our personalities in almost mystical ways. See: Kramer, P. D. (1993). Listening to Prozac: A Psychiatrist Explores Antidepressant Drugs and the Remaking of the Self. New York: Viking.
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(1999). Extreme III: Radical Medicalism. In: The Limits of Idealism. Clinical Sociology: Research and Practice. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-29601-2_7
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