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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Murderer Accepts Plea Deal for Life In Prison Without Parole

9:52 AM  Maximillian Wachtel, Ph.D.  11 comments Christopher Wells

As a real-life example for the follow-up to my last post, Christopher Wells just accepted a plea bargain for life in prison without parole in order to avoid the death penalty.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of First Degree Murder in Douglas County, Colorado after hiring former employees to kill his wife. These contracted men killed his wife and her brother. Mr. Wells' six year-old daughter found the bodies, which had been mutilated and burned. If Mr. Wells had taken the case to trial and lost, he would have faced the death penalty. Obviously, he thought life in prison without parole was preferable to death.

What do you think? Would you choose to spend the rest of your life in prison with no chance of release, or does that punishment sound worse to you than death? Feel free to leave comments here, or vote on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/drmaxwachtel.

Here is a link to a brief article about the killings. WARNING: Some of the content in this article is graphically violent: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/30737552/detail.html

Thanks for reading-- Max Wachtel, Ph.D.
Website: www.CherryCreekPsychology.com
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Twitter: www.Twitter.com/mwachtel Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Which Penalty Is Worse?

12:03 PM  Maximillian Wachtel, Ph.D.  10 comments I just posted a question to my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/drmaxwachtel):

Which penalty is worse: Life in prison without parole, or the death penalty?

I would certainly be extremely upset if I were facing either of these punishments, but I am not sure which one I would choose for myself, if I were forced to choose. I really, really, really like being alive, but the thought of spending the rest of my life in prison sounds terrible.

Which one would you choose? Why? Feel free to go to my Facebook page to weigh in. You can vote and add comments explaining your rationale, if you would like.

Website: www.CherryCreekPsychology.com
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Would Dharun Ravi Have Been Convicted If Not For Twitter?

2:45 PM  Maximillian Wachtel, Ph.D.  5 comments Tyler Clementi                            Dharun Ravi

Here is an interesting link to a New York Times article about Dharun Ravi's conviction. He is the Rutgers student who was recently found guilty of invasion of privacy and bias intimidation in the death of his roommate, Tyler Clementi, whom he filmed engaging in sex with another man.

This case is interesting from a psychological perspective because Mr. Ravi may not have been convicted were it not for Mr. Clementi's Twitter and Facebook feeds. Those feeds documented his mental state and beliefs leading up to his suicide. According to the article, jurors were fairly convinced that Mr. Clementi thought Mr. Ravi was targeting him because of his sexual orientation. If this same case had occurred 10 years ago, prosecutors would have had an extremely difficult time determining what Mr. Clementi had been thinking around the time of his suicide. But, with Twitter and Facebook documenting all of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in an up-to-the-minute kind of way, prosecutors were able to convince the jury fairly quickly that Mr. Ravi was guilty.

New York Times: Jurors Say Digital Evidence Convinced Them Of Dharun Ravi's Guilt

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 Friday, March 9, 2012

Study Claims Rich People Are More Unethical and Enjoy Taking Candy From Babies

3:03 PM  Maximillian Wachtel, Ph.D.  10 comments Scrooge McDuck, Unethical Rich Person/Duck

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences just recently published a series of studies looking at "upper class" individuals and their behaviors. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Toronto found that rich people tend to act more unethically than people who are not rich.

For example, "upper class" individuals are more likely than others to break the law while driving and make unethical decisions. They also tend to be more comfortable with cheating in order to win a prize, and they are more likely to lie during a negotiation.

In one particular study, research participants were presented with a jar of candy and told it was going to be given to a group of children in an adjacent laboratory. They were also told they could take some of the candy for themselves if they wanted to do so. Researchers discovered that rich people, on average, took about twice as much candy for themselves as did non-rich people.

Researchers argue that "upper class" individuals have a positive attitude toward greed and are interested primarily in themselves. They also argue that rich individuals feel a level of protection from prosecution that others do not enjoy, and they see themselves as above the law.

I think the researcher's conclusions regarding the reasons why "upper class" individuals do the things they do are not based on fact. Instead, they are guesses about motivation that may or may not be true. But, it seems that these studies were conducted in a reasonable manner, and I think their findings are probably valid.

It is important to note that, although rich people may be more unethical than others, poor people tend to engage in more violent crime and are considerably more likely than others to end up in prison.

P. K. Piff, D. M. Stancato, S. Cote, R. Mendoza-Denton, D. Keltner. Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012.

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Will T.J. Lane Be Tried As An Adult?

2:34 PM  Maximillian Wachtel, Ph.D.  15 comments This week, the prosecutors in the T.J. Lane case filed charges against him in juvenile court. But, it is still possible for them to request that the judge transfer his case to an adult court, which would make it possible for him to face significantly harsher penalties if he is found guilty in the Chadron, OH school shooting.

I have worked on several of these "transfer" cases in Colorado, where prosecutors argued to the court that the public would be better served if the juvenile in question were tried as an adult.

Each state has its own requirements for determining when a transfer from juvenile to adult court is appropriate. In Colorado, the judge must consider 14 different aspects of the case. Those aspects are listed in C.R.S. 19-2-518(4)(b) I - XIV. If Mr. Lane were to face a question of transferring his case in Colorado, these are the issues the court would need to consider (those highlighted in yellow are issues where a forensic psychologist may have some input):
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