Movie fiction becomes courtroom reality

US courts are known for junk science, and lawyers sometimes learn their science from the movies. John sends this SF story:

(08-22) 07:52 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Lawyers for a graduate student indicted in a series of firebombings and vandalizing of sport utility vehicles hope to use his mental state as a defense during trial.
William Jensen Cottrell, 24, a physics student at the California Institute of Technology, was indicted in March in connection with damage and destruction of about 125 vehicles at car dealerships and homes in August 2003 in the San Gabriel Valley. Authorities said the attacks caused $2.3 million damage.
Cottrell's lawyers said last week that a defense expert has diagnosed him with Asperger's syndrome, which also is known as "high-functioning autism."
They filed court notices indicating their intent to raise the issue during trial, and hope to argue that the condition made him incapable of arson conspiracy.
Mayock's co-counsel, Marvin Rudnick, alluded to such a defense in March when he mentioned Cottrell in reference to the 2001 film "A Beautiful Mind," which focuses on a schizophrenic math genius.
Those who have Asperger's syndrome tend to take matters too literally and are prone to bouts of confusion, the lawyers said.
They also argue Cottrell could have been duped into participating in the andalism spree.
"If 'Rain Man' was adopted by Jesse James, would 'Rain Man' be a criminal?" Rudnick told the Pasadena Star-News.

Bad as the courts are, I doubt that anyone is going to believe that a CalTech Physics grad student is mentally retarded.

There should be no problem finding an expert who will testify that Cottrell has Aspergers syndrome. You can find the official test here, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of the CalTech Physics Dept. tested positive. The syndrome is quite different from what you'd expect from the movies.

George writes:

Are you saying that autism is a phony disease? Or adults with autism cannot be geniuses?

There are no autistic people like the character in Rain Man.

There are lots of adults who would test positive for high-functioning autism. The symptoms are:

• low social and communication skills -- as evidenced by a preference for solitary activities
• focused -- they have an attention to detail, and dislike attention switching
• lack of imagination --
  they are well-grounded in reality, and don't like children's fantasy games.

Normal people (who are not autistic) frequently claim that they can just look at someone, or listen to a couple of sentences, and completely size up his thoughts, feelings, and intentions. Not claiming to have such abilities is considered to be a symptom of autism.

You can read the research paper here.

George writes:

You make it sound like there is something wrong with people who are not autistic?

The people who geniunely suffer from autistim are mentally retarded, and are not geniuses or idiot savants.

Most mental disorders are defined in terms of some inability to function properly in society. See this free summary of the DSM-IV criteria. But shrinks diagnose high-functioning autism based on various personality quirks, and those people could be quite successful in our society.