March 14, 2013
Discussion about Dr. Richard Samuels
Martinez:
--Martinez states he noticed that Mr. Samuels was preparing a Powerpoint presentation this morning. Martinez objects to new information.
--Had discussed all of Samuels notes and findings.
--All of Samuels slides are new to the state and subject to the rule of discovery.
--JM objects to the first slide of a cross section of the brain. Samuels is a psychologist not a medical doctor.
--second slide refers to a Time magazine article, "your brian under fire". The Time magazine article is from January ? 2013.
--number 3 is a slide of a quote from Time magazine, from January 2013, Your Brain under Fire.
--number 4, slide about PTSD, something like that, written by a PhD. Again new material, they have chosen to hide it
--number 5, slide involving something called intrusive memories, again, not disclosed
--number 6, correlation of victim/offender relationship, expressive and instrumentive homicide.
--Number 7, 8, 9, and maybe 10 talk about reactice homicide, Samuels feels he needs to define them to the jury. none has been disclosed.
--next slide indicates violence and personality disorders, if he was going to hang his hat on this, he should have told us about it.
--defendant suffered from PTSD at the time of the killing and involved a certain stressor that triggered the PTSD
--His opinion has been tailored with the defendant recently, his report was completed back on June 21, 2010 and as of December of last year he was still visiting the defendant.
--slide 13, amnesia and crime, something again that he has not expressed
--slide 14, transient amnesic symtoms
--slide 15, transient global amnesia
--slide 16, stressed hippocampus
--JM: I object to all of those. I interviewed him with regard to his report and now he has brought new information.
--JM: if we were to look at the other side of the coin and brought in my expert Janine Demarte, and she brought in new information, my view with respect to this presentation is that he arrived here, if he is going to change something there is a duty....
--Violation of rule 15, no problem with him testifying
Wilmott--JM is objecting because it is helpful to Arias. The slides are used to explain to the jury, what the slides do is assist
--Wilmott says that the Powerpoint was completed this morning.
--Samuels is not changing his opinion that JA suffers from PTSD.
--because he says that Dr. Samuels is a psychologist and not an expert on the brain, is ridiculous, the picture of the brain is about how memories are formed.
--In Samuels report he talks about JA's memory gaps, the picture of the brain is there to assist the jury.
--Because the state has gone into JA's memory problems, it is more important now to show the jury the parts of the brain that affect memory.
--with regard to the Time magazine article he relies on these to explain how stressful events affect a person. It is in layman's terms.
--Samuels used to work with police in NJ and worked with them about what happens after a shooting.
--It's used to help explain to the jury so they can understand why memories may not be implanted.
--In regards to PTSD articles they discussed PTSD these are articles that are relied on, the slide is just so that he can explain it to the jury.
--Because he is an expert it is not hearsay
--Samuels has said that this is not premeditated, his reasoning for that is not something JM asked him during the interview, based on his research on instrumental and expressive crimes, a lot of times these kinds of crimes, Dr Samuels talks about them in relation to crime scenes.
--He can talk about the types of crimes and the research, it's not an opinion it's just research.
--re: personality disorder, he is not going to change his opinion, it follows the expressive vs. instrumental crimes, it's just research
--amnesia slides, those are all something the state has been made aware of
--JA has no memory of what occurred, what those slides have to do with is that those slides are consistent.
--it's research that Dr. Samuels relies upon to talk about amnesia and to talk about disassociative state and why she can't remember afterwards.
--that's what a doctor does, that's what an expert does,
--Wilmott insists that nothing is new
Martinez:
--JM: Samuels was interviewed July 19, 2011
--Judge asks Wilmott if Samuels ????
--JM: he wants to bring it in through the back door about non premeditated crime, from what I hear he is going to say based on looking at this scene, based on speaking to the defendant.
--JM: this issue involving instrumental vs. expressive crime should not be allowed.
--JM: I have certainly known that she has claimed that she has amnesia
--It may be that is the opinion, but with regard to the Time article it is not what experts rely on, Time magazine
--JM I have a grave concern about this expressive vs. instrumental
--JM: a psychologist does not have the ability under the law to provide an opinion.
--JW: an expert can't lay out the articles they have read
--JM: my motion, he can't talk what a premeditated crime is, that is something for the jury to decide. It invades the province of the jury. It's for the jury to decide, not him.
--JW: the research is not about premeditated crimes, I am not going to ask him the final question and it is not invading the jury to ask him about the
Judge:
-- it appears that while the DT does not believe anything new, the state disagrees. The state will be given time to reinterview Samuels.
--we will be back at 1300 and make a record at that time. Jury to be back at 1315.
