First Mental Health Expert In Dahmer's Trial example essay topic

It's the first week of February and jury selection has begun. Nearly 450 press passes have been distributed to about 100 media outlets from around the world -- from Spain to England to Akron, Ohio. Even when psychologist Judith Becker recounts his lonely and sometimes tragic childhood, Dahmer doesn't show a moist eye. But Becker's anecdotes of the killer's pathetic youth seem to move the audience.

She tells of how Dahmer, as a young boy, found a snake and took it to his garage to keep as a pet. The snake, though, wound itself around the spokes of Dahmer's bike and once he went for a ride, the new-found pet was killed. Becker says Dahmer wondered why, of all places, the snake had to go into the spokes and lose its life. A wave of sympathy for the boy Dahmer seems to pass over the spectator section. The audience is snapped out of any sympathetic mindset when the psychologist goes on to tell how young Jeffrey encouraged a childhood friend to put his hand in a hornet's nest.

There are only ladybugs in there, Dahmer assured the boy. The friend did what he was told by Dahmer and, of course. was stung. The anecdote prompts Channel 12 reporter Angle Mores chi to let out the loudest guffaw of the courtroom. Even the families of the victims who pack the spectator seats seemed moved by Dahmer's childhood memories, as told by the psychologist. Their sympathy isn't for the killer, though, but for his parents.

At day's end, many of them walk up to the Dahmers and talk briefly. As they leave, some of the victims' relatives grab Mr. and Mrs. Dahmer and hug. Lionel and Shari Dahmer sit in the back row, the husband in the aisle seat. They often hold hands during the trial; Mrs. Dahmer, though, sometimes takes notes.

For what? Who knows. One afternoon, the defendant's stepmother decides to do her nails and it's enough of a routine change that television cameras capture the 'event. ' The Dahmers try their best to avoid contact with the media and, surprisingly, the reporters oblige: Nobody hounds them for comment.

'You could just see how pained his father felt about this,' observes one reporter of Lionel Dahmer. While being taken from his cell to the courtroom each day, Dahmer says little to his escorts, if anything. In time, the deputies begin to carry on as if the prisoner is oblivious to their presence. But one day, with their charge close by in another room, a commanding officer remarks to a sergeant that Dahmer seemed to be adjusting to and accepting his notoriety. To the surprise of his handlers, a previously silent Dahmer shouts from the other room: 'You " re wrong. I'm not accepting anything.

' Deputies escort Dahmer from the Safety Building for the last time. Lt. Klopp gets the feeling of watching a condemned man depart. Klopp and his colleagues never got to know Dahmer well, but he never caused them any problems. His requests were always practical -- a glass of water or something to read -- and that was all the conversation the guards and their prisoner had. Klopp wondered how they'd handle their final dealing with Dahmer. What would they say?

But on the way out, it's Dahmer who breaks the ice. 'What are you guys going to do for overtime now that I'm gone?' he asks. 'He didn't smile or laugh, but he obviously meant it to be humor,' says the lieutenant. The lawmen don't respond, but continue their walk to the car that will take Dahmer to prison.

Finally, the deputies turn their prisoner over to the state to be jailed. Says Klopp: 'His final words to us were, 'I guess I'll have to find something to do now. ' ' Why? Jeffrey Dahmer is the son of a Born Again Fundamentalist (Church of Christ) father. Jeffrey's Born Again Fundamentalist home life led him to feel he could not acknowledge his homosexuality to his Fundamentalist father, and instead he developed an intense hatred of himself and of other gay men.

Anger at his homosexuality led Dahmer to kill, psychiatrist says " Serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer killed his victims out of anger at his homosexuality and kept body parts as trophies, like a hunter, a psychiatrist testified in Dahmer's sanity trial Thursday. 'I don't believe his behavior was sexually motivated,' psychiatrist George Palermo said. 'I believe Jeffrey Dahmer killed his victims because he hated homosexuality. ' Palermo, the first mental health expert in Dahmer's trial to testify that he was sane and criminally responsible when he murdered, also said that Dahmer has lied for years and still lies today. Palermo, a psychiatrist since 1962, came to Milwaukee from Italy in 1952 but has returned to Rome periodically since then to practice and teach for extended periods.

[NO DOUBT to help the Pope out with pedophile priests and cardinals.] He has taught psychiatry in Rome, at Loyola Medical School in Chicago and at Marquette University. He currently is on the staff at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex in Wauwatosa and the Milwaukee Forensic Unit. Palermo said Dahmer was 'a very complex man' afflicted by severe mixed personality disorder with features of sadism, compulsion, anti-social behavior and narcissism, among other things. Palermo said it would be wrong to categorize Dahmer as having one type of behavior that controls his actions. Defense psychologists and psychiatrists said Dahmer's criminal actions were driven by necrophilia. 'Jeffrey Dahmer is a human being,' Palermo said.

'To take away from him by just saying he is a necrophile is wrong,' Palermo said. 'He is much more. ' Boyle noted that many of the features cited by Palermo were by themselves indicative of a sexual disorder. Boyle added that the 'Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,' a highly regarded guidebook used by mental health experts nationwide, indicated that the features denoted sexual deviancy. Palermo said Dahmer could have stopped killing whenever he wanted to and had done so in the past. Dahmer was in control of his actions, but instead lied about them and concealed them, Palermo said.

Dahmer's sentencing for sexual assault, Palermo said, was proof he was in control because he had killed several people, including one the day before he was sentenced, but was not seeking help for it. 'As he was able to lie and not tell the truth to the judge and to you, Mr. Boyle, so could he have told the truth,' Palermo said to Boyle who represented Dahmer in the sex case. 'He was in command of the situation. 'He was able to say, 'I'm not going to do it again. I'm going to go for treatment. ' ' Concerning Dahmer's difficulty in coming to grips with his homosexuality, Palermo indicated that was a problem since adolescence because he believed his family could not accept it.

The difficulty evolved into a hatred over the years which later led to the killings, Palermo said.