Synonyms
Admissibility of psychological evidence; Competence to testify
Historical Background
Vincent E. Jenkins was a defendant who mounted an insanity defense, introducing the testimony of psychiatrists and psychologists that he was suffering a mental disease (schizophrenia) at the time of a sexual assault. The trial court instructed the jury to disregard psychometric evidence on the grounds that psychologists were disqualified from testifying about mental disease because of a lack of medical training. The appeals court for the Second District reversed the trial court ruling, ordering the new trial to include psychological testimony and psychometric findings. The appeals court noted that a diverse array of nonphysicians (e.g., doctoral-level toxicologists) regularly offered opinions. The majority opinion offered a two-pronged test of admissibility for psychologists’ testimony: (1) the actual experience of the witness and (2) the probative value of his opinion. This opinion implies...
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References and Readings
Greiffenstein, M. F. (2009). Basics of forensic neuropsychology. In J. Morgan & J. Ricker (Eds.), Textbook of clinical neuropsychology. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Greiffenstein, M. F., & Cohen, L. (2005). Neuropsychology and the law: Principles of productive attorney-neuropsychologists relations. In G. Larrabee (Ed.), Forensic neuropsychology: A scientific approach. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jenkins v. United States, 307 F. 2d 637 (1962).
Kaufmann, P. M. (2008). Admissibility of neuropsychological evidence in criminal cases: Competency, insanity, culpability, and mitigation. In R. Denney & J. Sullivan (Eds.), Clinical neuropsychology in the criminal forensic setting. New York: Guilford Press.
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Heilbronner, R.L. (2018). Jenkins v. U.S. (1962). In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_2233
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_2233
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