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Aurora movie theater shooting day 44: Schizophrenia expert Dr. Raquel Gur returns to the stand
Day 44 in the Aurora movie theater shooting trial – People vs. James Eagan Holmes. Today, schizophrenia expert Dr. Raquel Gur will continue to testify.During the course of the trial, prosecutors will argue that Holmes, the admitted gunman, was sane when he went into the midnight premiere of the Dark Knight Rises in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater and opened fire on the audience, killing 12 and wounding 70. His defense attorneys will try to spare Holmes’ life by arguing that he was insane. 7NEWS and TheDenverChannel.com will have gavel to gavel coverage of the trial starting at 8:15 a.m. (MST) everyday and ending around 5:30 p.m. (MST) Watch new live video on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/7NewsDenv... Additional resources:LIVE VIDEO & BLOG: http://bit.ly/theatertrialTIMELINE of the case: http://bit.ly/theatertimelineJURY PROFILE: http://bit.ly/theaterjury CONTINUING COVERAGE: http://bit.ly/theatercoverage
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For the record, after this trial I hope I never hear "flat afact" (spelling ?). I can't help but think of Aflac duck.
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I don't think this will end in a hung jury. Judge samour won't let it happen
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Understood. I generalizing because since Day 1 there have been many people whining about how they know the truth. It's about their values regarding sentiments. I was only referring to this particular blog.
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King: "We know neurocognitive deficits exist as a result of schizophrenia?"
Dr. Gur: "Yes." - Quote
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Dr. Gur: "The CAT scan was done in the fall of 2012, following a change in mental status... The CAT scan ruled out any structural lesion... as a consequence of falling off the bed."
It was a "normal" scan. - Quote
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Dr. Gur: "The [size of the] ventricles, which is the butterfly shape in the middle of the brain... is slightly increased." - Quote
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Dr. Gur said the CAT scan results were not diagnostic of schizophrenia alone. She wanted an MRI also.
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One major focus of forensic psychiatry is the difference between mental illness and legal insanity. Dr. Gur may be very sucessful in convincing the jury that JH is schizophrenic but that does not address the issue of whether he knew right or wrong when he committed the murders.
And as a side note- many of the deficits that she is pointing out as very very common in schizophrenia were not evident in JH. -
Amazing how much this horrible occurrence will affect something as simple as seeing a movie for the rest of our lives. Went to the movies on Sunday and the fact that there was only one aisle up to seats in the theater almost gave me a panic attack. -
Um, don't know about y'all, but what I saw when he "fell" off the bed, I saw him hit his duff, not his head
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With all the hours Dr. Gur spent with him over the almost 2 year span is a LONG time to be able to get a good picture of him, I feel!
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When she says bathing, it means surrounded by. E.g., a fetus bathes or is bathed in amniotic fluid.
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Correct me if I am wrong, but the only thing the jury has to decide is...if JH knew right from wrong during the time of attack. The months of planning JH put into this attack will bode well towards that concept and in obtaining a guilty verdict, from the jury. JustMyOpinion
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I feel like we are so far away from real testimony.Is this normal?
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Dr. Gur says the gunman's brain measures were compared to 79 'healthy' individuals. There were "several significant differences."
1. The right frontal orbital part of the brain (important for emotional processing) was 3 standard deviation below healthy people.
2. The amygdala (important hub for emotion processing) was 2 standard deviations below average.
3. The right medial frontal lobe is 2 standard deviations below average. -
I am struck by the manner in which this witness answers King's questions. She rarely looks at him while answering, but looks at the judge and jury while she "lectures".
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Gur is proving that JH did not know right from wrong, right now
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So, she looked for lesion after he jumped off the bed. She didn't see a lesion, but she did see larger than normal volume of spinal fluid, which she says is common with schizo...however, I'm not a doctor, but wouldn't that be common with someone that just jumped off a bed and hit his/her head? Am I missing something? -
If I was GB I'd ask her "okay, so JH in your opinion has a reduction in size of essential parts of his brain...given the planning, the calendar notation the awareness of his surroundings isn't it fair to say he's an overachiever who knew exactly what he was doing"?
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In order for Dr. Gur to truly help the DT's case, IMO, King needs to find a way for her to wrap all of this into his planning and address every other event leading up to the killings. I am not able to see this ending at this time. I think that is what is the most frustrating for most of us.
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oh boy---flashed the wrong exhibit up there for a moment....showing all of the bombs in Holmes' apartment. Don't think that's what King wanted....
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I find this witness extremely compelling for the defence. But then again, I am an RN and find medical evidence and research like this very powerful. I do however want to see her connect the dots and opine on his insanity at the time of the crime.
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Dr. Gur interviewed the gunman's parents on Nov. 19, 2014.
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....or tell us the likelihood of people with (at the time) undiagnosed schizophrenia to commit violent acts.
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I think we can pretty much accept that JH is schizophrenic. What has not been presented by Dr. Gur is whether or not JH was legally insane at the time of the shooting and, similarly important, during the months he was doing the planning and amassing his arsenal.
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Family members don't have much influence on JH and childhood . People can have a dysfunctional family and become decent citizens
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Dr. Gur asked the gunman's parents about his behavior as a child. "They indicated a change - there is a variability among children... there was nothing in his behavior to cause them alarm." - Quote
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@ oxk - Gur may be trying to prove JH didn't know right from wrong, but she comes across as a professor giving a lecture in a phycology class. She really needs to come down from her educated high horse and talk at a level that the jury understands and present it in such a way that keeps their attention. I suspect many of them are ZZZZZZZZZZZ(ing).
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Another thing I hope GB asks is this..."can a person transition between insanity and sanity in a relatively short time especially in light of a traumatic situations like shooting at hundreds of people...for instance, could he have entered the theater legally insane but recovered his sanity, as evidenced by, for instance, his refusal to shoot the man smiling at him"? If this is the case, he could be found NGBRI for some of the killings and convicted of some of the other killings...hmmmm
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Mental illness doesn't mean he is schizophrenic. Or I don't think so.
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I'm thinking of the legal definition of sanity and I'm not seeing any of the defense arguments getting around the second prong of the legal sanity definition.
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We saw on the jailhouse video when JH was first arrested he kept moving his hands...like he was rapping out a music beat and even asked full questions to the deputy as to why they were putting bags on his hands. Dr. Gur said he never moved his hands when she interviewed him and didn't ask any questions.
