“Medical experts testifying in Erbie Bowser’s capital murder trial Tuesday blamed his deadly rampage on a ‘perfect storm’ in his brain, ultimately triggered by low sodium levels in his body. Bowser, 48, is on trial in the killings of four women — including his girlfriend and his estranged wife — and the injuring of four children in two attacks at homes in Dallas and DeSoto on Aug. 7, 2013.” [Tasha Tsiaperas, Dallas News via Jackie Salo, New York Post]
4 Comments
If juries took insanity-defense law at face value, almost all murderers would have to be acquitted. Instead we have massive jury-nullification of the insanity defense, allowing us to keep murderers off the streets.
I don’t know about this case and in particular about whether hyponatremia can trigger homicidal violence, but it is a very real and not uncommon condition. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia This does not look to me like a goofy defense.
Your headline is a little disingenuous. Other factors the defense brought up were “lesions on his brain and a shrunken hippocampus”. Also the defense is arguing the low sodium in the brain was caused by a “cocktail of prescription drugs Bowser took, including anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants and anti-psychotic drugs.” I don’t know if any of this is true or not but to say in the headline that the defense is arguing that low sodium caused a quadruple homicide seems a little disingenuous to me.
Wait a minute… all these years of being told we have to reduce the amount of salt in food is actually turning us into deranged killers.
Who can I sue over this ?????