Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, accused of organizing bombings during the Boston Marathon in April 2013, is on trial in the United States. His lawyers, apparently, intend to use the data of psychological research as arguments for the defense.
Boston Marathon bombing
On April 15, 2013, two explosions rocked the finish line of the Boston Marathon. 3 people died, more than 260 received various injuries and wounds. A few days later, US intelligence agencies went on the trail of suspects, who turned out to be the Tsarnaev brothers. The eldest of them, Tamerlan, died while trying to detain him. The youngest, Dzhokhar, was detained on 19 April.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces 30 charges, 17 of which carry the death penalty as a punishment. The fact that the prosecution will seek the death penalty for Tsarnaev was announced back in January 2014 by US Attorney General Eric Holder. The strategy of prosecutors during the process is quite obvious. But the actions of lawyers so far are surprising. Judy Clark, head of Tsarnaev’s defense, admitted quite easily that her client, along with her brother, had placed and set off explosive devices.
Read more:
- Are all high achievers happy?
immature brain
Many observers and experts believe that Tsarnaev’s lawyers intend to build a defense based on the achievements of modern psychology (1). At the time of the explosions, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was 19 years old, and from a legal point of view, he must bear full responsibility for his actions. However, there have been three high-profile cases in American jurisprudence in the last decade when judges decided that the adolescence of the defendants did not allow them to apply such penalties as the death penalty or life imprisonment, due to “insufficient maturity” and “an incompletely formed sense of responsibility” .
Studies by psychologists and neurophysiologists in recent years bring more and more evidence that the processes of brain formation are fully completed only at 20–24 years. Moreover, the “construction” of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain, the activity of which scientists associate with the ability to control emotional impulses and rationally plan actions, takes the longest time (2). The rapid growth in the number of neural connections in the brain continues until about 11–12 years of age, however, during adolescence, the part of these connections that are not actively and constantly used decreases. The brain becomes somewhat more “simple” and structured, which allows it to process information more efficiently. This process, which can be simplistically referred to as the gradual replacement of gray matter in the brain by white matter, is known as myelination. And it is the prefrontal cortex that he reaches last – already after 20 years (3).
Old enough for what?
This explains the well-known psychological problems of adolescence: increased emotionality, impulsiveness, suggestibility and risk appetite. In Western countries, it is increasingly being said that the current concept of legal age does not correspond to reality. At the age of 18, a person is simply physiologically unable to fully evaluate and control his actions. Moreover, this concept is also controversial: say, at 18, a person is not considered old enough to hold an elected public office. And at the same time, he quite “in an adult way” can be executed for committing a particularly serious crime.
Logically, these arguments sound quite convincing. However, whether lawyer Judy Clark will be able to get the judge and jury of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial to listen to them is still a big question.
1.
2. D. Kupfer, H. Woodward «Adolescent development and the regulation of behavior and emotion: Comments on part VIII», 2004.
3. T. Klingberg, C. J. Vaidya, et al. «Myelination and organization of the frontal white matter in children: A diffusion tensor MRI study», 1999.