Judge in Theranos fraud case orders 14-hour psychological test for Holmes:
Holmes and Theranos' former president Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani were charged in June 2018 with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
[...] According to the court document filed this week[*], Holmes—who is now being tried separately from Balwani—notified the court last December that she plans to submit "expert evidence relating to a mental disease or defect or any other mental condition" that has bearing on the issue of guilt. The expert providing such evidence was named in the document as psychologist Mindy Mechanic, of California State University, Fullerton.
According to Mechanic's faculty website, she focuses on "psychosocial consequences of violence, trauma, and victimization with an emphasis on violence against women and other forms of interpersonal violence." The site also notes that Mechanic "frequently provides expert testimony in complex legal cases involving interpersonal violence."
[...] In response to Holmes' plans to provide mental health evidence, federal prosecutors requested that they should also be able to examine Holmes' mental state and provide their own psychiatric evidence in court as a fair rebuttal.
[...] The judge in the case, US District Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California, agreed with the prosecutors. As such, he ordered Holmes to undergo up to 14 hours of psychological testing and psychiatric evaluation by two government-appointed doctors over the course of two consecutive days. Davila also ordered that the government's evaluation of Holmes be recorded on video—over Holmes' objections.
[*] Here is a link to the court document.
Previously:
(2019-07-01) Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes to Face Trial Next Year on Fraud Charges
(2018-09-06) Theranos to Dissolve in a Pool of Blood
(2018-06-17) Elizabeth Holmes Steps Down as Theranos CEO as DoJ Levels Charges
(2018-03-15) Blood Unicorn Fairy Tale: Theranos Founder Charged With Fraud
(2017-12-24) Theranos Given Indirect Lifeline From Softbank
(2016-10-06) Theranos Lays Off 340, Closes Labs and "Wellness Centers"
(2016-08-03) Theranos Introduces New Product to Distract from Scandal
(2014-10-05) LinkedIn's Top 10 Silicon Valley Startups for 'Talent Brand'
Related Stories
LinkedIn has published its third annual list of the top ten startups (fewer than 500 employees) in Silicon Valley most attractive to IT professionals, based on analysis of views and follows of company Linkedin pages, and pages of company employees, made by site members residing in the USA or Canada during the past year.
This year's top ten were Lytro (plenoptic cameras), Theranos (fingerstick blood tests), Fitbit (wearable fitness trackers), Coursera (online learning), Minted (greeting cards and wedding invitations), Wealthfront (investment management for individuals), Bromium (hypervisor-based security software), Twilio (cloud-based telephony), Egnyte (enterprise file storage), and Leap Motion (gesture user interface).
fyamuse: the LinkedIn blogger coaxed the honorees to choose theme songs, each of which are linked in TFA to YouTube videos.
Only one of the top ten (Coursera) was a repeat from last year's list. So what happened to the others? The answer is pretty impressive: three of the ten went public, while six others now have valuations between 1 and 10 billion USD.
The embattled biotech firm Theranos has introduced a new blood testing product, as its CEO deflected criticism of the company's previous blood tests:
Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes made an appearance at a scientific convention today, but it wasn't to allay the many concerns about the company's previous blood tests, the results of which were thrown out earlier this year. Holmes also chose not to address the federal criminal and civil investigations against her company, instead announcing a new Theranos product: a blood-testing kit that could serve as the successor to its controversial Edison machines.
Speaking at the the annual meeting for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Holmes said the new machine — called the Theranos Sample Processing Unit, or "miniLab" — was the size of a computer printer, and will be able to run a battery of tests on just 160 microliters of blood taken from a pricked finger. She showed clinical data that detailed 11 tests miniLab can run on blood samples, including one for the Zika virus, but the company says that it can run up to 40 tests. A source told The Wall Street Journal that so many tests could not be run on the same blood, and that patients would need to provide three or four samples.
Theranos's troubles continue with the layoffs of about half its workforce:
Theranos is closing its labs and wellness centers, CEO Elizabeth Holmes announced today in a post on the company blog. And this isn't a temporary closure: the "approximately" 340 employees running them are out of a job. [...] The company pivoted away from working on its closely held "nanotainer" technology to a "miniLab" in August. The boxy device — unveiled at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry conference — collects small samples of blood and urine and then uploads them to a centralized system for further analysis. And it's a far cry from what the company, once valued at $9 billion, set out to do. According to several experts whom TechCrunch spoke to at the unveiling, it might not be very innovative, either. Although Theranos didn't want its new device referred to as a "lab on a chip," that's essentially what these experts said the miniLab was. And that has been done.
The new device hinges largely on FDA approval — something Holmes said she'd hoped to fast-track under the emergency use authorization (EUA) for Zika detectors. That plan didn't go so well, however. The FDA denied Theranos approval after finding the company failed to use proper patient safety protocols. [...] The news Theranos is shuttering its labs and wellness centers and laying off nearly half its workforce comes after a series of shocking revelations over the past year involving faulty test results and improperly trained workers. The company is now facing numerous lawsuits, was forced to shut down it's California lab facility, lost its main partner Walgreens and was subject to a Congressional inquiry. Finally in July regulators banned Holmes from stepping foot in her own labs.
Previously: Theranos Introduces New Product to Distract from Scandal
Theranos gets $100 million in debt financing to carry it through 2018, with some caveats
Theranos has secured $100 million in debt financing. Yes, someone gave the blood testing company known for handing out questionable test results money.
First reported by Business Insider, the company reportedly told investors it had secured the money from Fortress Investment Group, a New York-based private equity firm that was acquired by Softbank earlier this year.
Of course, this is debt financing, not equity and Theranos will surely need it as it has been bleeding money, laying off more than half its workforce this year and trying to come up with ways to keep it afloat.
Previously: Theranos Introduces New Product to Distract from Scandal
Theranos Lays Off 340, Closes Labs and "Wellness Centers"
The black turtleneck-wearing founder of Theranos has been accused of swindling investors out of $700 million for blood-testing technology that amounted to smoke and mirrors. However, Elizabeth Holmes will only have to pay a $500,000 fine and surrender millions of worthless shares:
The Blood Unicorn Theranos Was Just a Fairy Tale
[...] Securities and Exchange Commission today brought fraud charges against Holmes, Theranos and its former president, Sunny Balwani, and its complaint alleges pretty strongly that the investors were just as bamboozled as everybody else. In fact, Theranos made direct use of its positive press to raise money: It "sent investors a binder of background materials," which included "articles and profiles about Theranos, including the 2013 and 2014 articles from The Wall Street Journal, Wired, and Fortune that were written after Holmes provided them with interviews" and that included her misleading claims about the state of Theranos's technology. She also repeated those claims to investors directly: "For instance, Holmes and Balwani told one investor that Theranos' proprietary analyzer could process over 1,000 Current Procedural Terminology ('CPT') codes and that Theranos had developed a technological solution for an additional 300 CPT codes," even though "Theranos' analyzers never performed comprehensive testing or processed 1,000 CPT codes in its clinical lab," and in fact never processed more than 12 tests on its TSPU. And Theranos would even do a little pantomime blood-draw demonstration directly on the investors:
This initial meeting was often followed by a purported demonstration of Theranos' proprietary analyzers, the TSPU, and the miniLab. In several instances, potential investors would be taken by Holmes and Balwani to a different room to view Theranos' desktop computer-like analyzers. A phlebotomist would arrive to draw their blood through fingerstick, using a nanotainer, a Theranos-developed collection device. Then the sample was either inserted into the TSPU or taken away for processing. Based on what they saw, potential investors believed that Theranos had tested their blood on either an earlier-generation TSPU or the miniLab. As Holmes knew, or was reckless in not knowing, however, Theranos often actually tested their blood on third-party analyzers, because Theranos could not conduct all of the tests it offered prospective investors on its proprietary analyzers.
Also at The New York Times, TechCrunch, and Time.
Previously: Theranos Introduces New Product to Distract from Scandal
Theranos Lays Off 340, Closes Labs and "Wellness Centers"
Theranos Given Indirect Lifeline From Softbank
Submitted via IRC for BoyceMagooglyMonkey
Elizabeth Holmes steps down as Theranos CEO as DOJ levels charges
CNBC is reporting that Elizabeth Holmes has stepped down from her position as CEO of Theranos and the Department of Justice has indicted her on alleged wire fraud. Both the company and Holmes have been embroiled in scandal following reports that the blood tests it claimed to be working on weren't actually effective. Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Holmes and Theranos with fraud.
[...] Along with Holmes, Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani, former president of Theranos, is being charged by the DOJ as well. Both Holmes and Balwani appeared before US Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen today where they were arraigned on nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. [...] CNBC reports that Holmes will still chair Theranos' board and the company's general counsel, David Taylor, has been appointed CEO. If convicted, Holmes and Balwani face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, a $250,000 fine and restitution for each count of wire fraud.
Theranos, Blood-Testing Company Plagued By Scandal, Says It Will Dissolve
Theranos — the Silicon Valley blood-testing startup whose former top executives are accused of carrying out a massive, years-long fraud — is shutting down.
David Taylor, who became CEO in June, said Theranos will dissolve after it attempts to pay creditors with its remaining cash. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which published the letter.
The letter explains that the company "intends to enter into an assignment for the benefit of creditors." This arrangement would allow for all of Theranos' assets, other than its intellectual property, to be assigned to a third party in trust for the company's creditors. The company says it has about $5 million remaining in cash.
Previously: Theranos Introduces New Product to Distract from Scandal
Theranos Lays Off 340, Closes Labs and "Wellness Centers"
Theranos Given Indirect Lifeline From Softbank
Blood Unicorn Fairy Tale: Theranos Founder Charged With Fraud
Elizabeth Holmes Steps Down as Theranos CEO as DoJ Levels Charges
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will go on trial next summer
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of blood-testing startup Theranos, will officially go to trial in San Jose next year, according to the US District Judge Edward J. Davila of the Northern District of California.
[...] According to TechCrunch, the trial will begin in August 2020, with jury selection beginning on July 28th, 2020. The Wall Street Journal also reports that prosecutors have collected millions of pages of documents, and that the defense has complained about the amount that is being presented, and that the WSJ's initial reporting might have unduly influenced the way the government regulators approached the company.
Previously: Blood Unicorn Fairy Tale: Theranos Founder Charged With Fraud
Elizabeth Holmes Steps Down as Theranos CEO as DoJ Levels Charges
Theranos to Dissolve in a Pool of Blood
Holmes to face maximum of 80 years in prison when she’s sentenced in September:
While she is likely to receive prison time for defrauding investors, she will be able to spend the next eight and a half months out on bail. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each of the four counts she was convicted of, though it’s unlikely that she’ll be sentenced to all 80 years.
Holmes has been out on bail since June 2018, when she and alleged co-conspirator Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were charged. Both were released after posting $500,000 bonds and surrendering their passports. Now that Holmes has been convicted and is awaiting sentencing, her bond will have to be secured by property. Their trials have been repeatedly pushed back, first because of the COVID pandemic and then later because Holmes gave birth.
Part of the reason Holmes’ sentencing has been postponed is because the government still has to prosecute its case against Balwani.
Previously:
2022/01/04 - Elizabeth Holmes Found Guilty on 4 of 11 Charges
2020/09/13 - Judge in Theranos Fraud Case Orders 14-Hour Psychological Test for Holmes
2019/07/01 - Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes to Face Trial Next Year on Fraud Charges
2018/09/06 - Theranos to Dissolve in a Pool of Blood
2018/06/17 - Elizabeth Holmes Steps Down as Theranos CEO as DoJ Levels Charges
2018/03/15 - Blood Unicorn Fairy Tale: Theranos Founder Charged With Fraud
2017/12/24 - Theranos Given Indirect Lifeline From Softbank
2016/10/06 - Theranos Lays Off 340, Closes Labs and "Wellness Centers"
2016/08/03 - Theranos Introduces New Product to Distract from Scandal
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:58PM (31 children)
If the press accounts and the book "Bad Blood" are correct, she engaged a coherent, systematic, and long term scheme. Any mental health challenges she had don't seem to have affected her business performance.
I've never heard of trauma causing fraud.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @07:41PM (2 children)
Just watch... she'll play the traumatized female card and get off because of patriarchy.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @07:48PM
Better yet, she'll claim that her H1B boyfriend Balwani made her do it by using masculine aggression,
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday September 14 2020, @03:19AM
Also known as "the Twinkie defense for rich people".
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Revek on Sunday September 13 2020, @07:42PM (23 children)
Its true being a sociopath is a mental condition.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 5, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Sunday September 13 2020, @08:28PM (11 children)
Being a sociopath is a mental condition, but it's a defence that will backfire. Sociopaths are stubborn, hard driving , pushy and don't give a damn about others.
They are aware that they are doing what they do - and they like it that way!
There is no "diminished capacity " in the sense that they can't tell right from wrong - they just don't give a fuck who they screw over.
It may actually give her partner in crime a defence because sociopaths try to dominate using lies, deceit, harassment, and gaslighting.
Then again, this was all about money. Greed isn't going to be a successful diminished capacity defence.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by Revek on Sunday September 13 2020, @08:33PM
I agree.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @09:05PM (2 children)
> ...they just don't give a fuck who they screw over.
Except they just happen to never screw over other sociopaths. Predatory instincts finely tuned to vulnerable people.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Sunday September 13 2020, @09:28PM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 15 2020, @07:26PM
>Look at how many sociopaths Trump screwed over
Well that didn't take long - Orange man baaadddd !!!!!!!!!!!!
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday September 13 2020, @10:29PM (4 children)
I really doubt that it was all about money. It sounds like a power trip played a big role in the scheming. OTOH, I've not been paying that much attention. But I'd rate money as a way of manipulating power as what was going on. And, yes, sociopath. Of course, I'm not a professional in any of the psychic arts.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Sunday September 13 2020, @11:17PM (3 children)
At that level, the money is simply a way to keep score.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Sunday September 13 2020, @11:44PM (2 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @02:04AM (1 child)
Even if she is a sociopath who caused harm to many people, video taping a session with a psychiatric doctor should be hard off-limits. Nobody deserves to have their privacy invaded this way, and allowing it for people who are widely disliked is just a foot in the door for allowing such gross privacy invasion more generally.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Monday September 14 2020, @02:15AM
Trials are public affairs. They must be transparent for people to maintain conform the justice system.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday September 14 2020, @12:14AM (1 child)
lol, that describes almost every Tank I've ever encountered in my MMO
explains a lot actually.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @07:24PM
An MMO tank that doesn't care about his healer ends up a dead tank in a hurry.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @09:39PM (10 children)
Nope, it's a criminal classification. The equivalent clinical diagnosis is Anti-Social Personality Disorder and there's a serious problem with applying the diagnostic criteria to females. The DSM stipulates that conduct disorder must be evident before the age of 15 but the disorder often presents more subtly in adolescent girls (eg: manipulation) than boys (eg: violence).
Something of a discussion over this arose after the Jodi Arias case. [psychologytoday.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @01:43AM
You sound like an incel defending another incel. He was asking for it. Women are angelic and incapable of evil. Science shows that women are more social than men and are therefore incapable of anti-social behavior. Even if she did shoot him, he's a sissy incel pussy for being hurt by a girl. What a faggot. He deserved to die.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by barbara hudson on Monday September 14 2020, @09:50PM (8 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 15 2020, @06:17AM (7 children)
A friend has as a Usenet sig a quote from a mutual friend:
"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has
a cozy little classification in the DSM"
--David Melville
And whilst I agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly, I disagree with the expression of it, so have responded with this as mine for a while:
Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when the DSM has
a cozy little place next to the bible in the "Fiction" shelf
in the library.
Checkmate, psychobabblists!
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Wednesday September 16 2020, @04:26AM (6 children)
Change is happening. There are plenty of psychiatrists who are part of the anti-psychiatry movement. Mostly because drugs make patients lives worse and more than doubled the risk of suicide in every long term study that wasn't paid for by a drug manufacturer.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy gives short term relief, but sitting down and talking with someone such as a social worker has the best result long-term.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday September 17 2020, @09:03AM (5 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday September 17 2020, @01:22PM (4 children)
Social workers achieve better long term outcomes than psychiatrists or neuroleptic drugs.
The "you have a brain chemistry problem " lie has been debunked repeatedly since 2017. Then again, it started life as a marketing supposition, and no testing was ever done in Siri to confirm it, so it's become like a massive conspiracy theory).
Take schizophrenia, for example. It's not genetic - the twins study that claimed it was never released the data, but other researchers were able to independently track down enough subjects to determine that the study distorted the facts to fit the theory, and independent studies show that childhood abuse explainedit better than any "brain chemistry" story.
Depression - drugs more than double the suicide rate. Instead of treating the depression, treat the causes , which are social, economic, or health related, and the depression goes away.
But it always made more sense to treat the underlying causes than to treat the symptoms - it's just cheaper to write a prescription than to get social workers to engage in long term help.
Same as it's easier to overfund police to deal with the symptoms caused by poor schools and poverty and hate than to stop crime by increasing funding to schools and social workers to and to create alternatives for people before they get into crime in the first place. Because police don't prevent crime. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was telling a barefaced lie when she said that a woman who is being sexually assaulted want the police there. Absolutely not. We would like the crime prevented, which police can't do, and we'd like the police to stop treating us as hostile suspects. Because most of the time, when you report it, nothing happens . The report is often tossed in the garbage without a file number ; other times there's no follow up, so why bother ?
Prevention should be our goal for all crimes. And that means helping people be better people.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 18 2020, @08:23AM (3 children)
Similarly, studies have repeatedly shown there's a strong genetic component to schizophrenia. Certainly there's a strong nurture element too, one which reinforces the genetic component, but the figures are clear - the best way of ensuring you're schizophrenic is to have at least one schizophrenic biological parent. I forget which one of the following video that was covered in, but it was one of the earlyish ones:
Human Behavioral Biology (Robert Sapolsky) 25 lectures
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL150326949691B199&disable_polymer=1
Probably Behavioural Genetics I or II. It's long, but it's w great series, and well worth the slog.
I agree with the 'depression' comment, mostly as I don't like the common view on what depression is. Like you, I view it as an all-too-common outside-world visible result of what could be a *divers* range of underlying conditions, each of which could have a very different optimal solution. It's like saying "my computer's making a funny noise". The easy solution is to put it in a soundproof enclosure or behind the desk, or to just smack it occasionally or something (smacking used to work for my Sun workstation for as long as I had it, don't laugh). However, that won't solve the problem of the pending hard disk failure, or the CPU burning out after fan failure, or the tin whiskers shorting, RAM needing to be reseated (no joke, again, I used to have exceptional high frequency hearing, and could hear my RAM, and my network card, though all were dominated by the flyback transformer on the monitor which was horrific!), or whatever the actual problem is.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday September 18 2020, @05:44PM (2 children)
The whole brain chemistry causes depression thing has been thoroughly debunked in the last 3 years. Meds cannot cure the underlying causes - at least alcohol can help with the social isolation, but I would not recommend it. Antidepressants cause problems with cognitive functioning, which makes it even harder to deal with the underlying problems that cause depression. Antidepressants are snake oil, which is why drug companies have paid out hundreds of millions in proven damages.
The genetic basis for schizophrenia was based on a liar's research - the psychiatric equivalent of Wakefield and vaccines.
Genetics play at most a minor role, but even that is now in doubt.
Dyslexia is a fraud as well, but a very profitable fraud. Turns out the criteria are so nebulous and the tests are rigged to show a diagnosis even when there's no real evidence. And the "treatment " is the same whether someone has a diagnosis of dyslexia or just ordinary reading difficulties, so the whole thing boils down to well-off people getting better individual schooling for their kids.
I suspect that most adhd boils down to bad parenting. Same as most people who claim they are "visual learners " suddenly stop the bullshit whining when they're given the choice of just getting on with it or getting fired. Especially when there's no realistic way to "accommodate " their self diagnosis.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday September 19 2020, @08:57AM (1 child)
Sapolsky says otherwise. How do your creds trump his? Note, and it's sad that I should have to spell this out, but I reckon you're going to pull some kind of straw man, I'm not saying that there's been no flawed research in the field, I'm just saying that there have been several gold-standard studies that support the claim you oppose. Watch the lectures, perhaps?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Saturday September 19 2020, @10:45AM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @08:48PM
Shirely you've heard of Sigmund Fraud?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday September 13 2020, @10:15PM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday September 15 2020, @04:44AM (1 child)
If you want to sound more authoritative, multiple studies show that you should lower the pitch of your voice [nih.gov].
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday September 15 2020, @05:45AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 13 2020, @06:59PM (1 child)
Be sure to Preview before hitting "Submit"
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @08:51PM
Offtopic
Cheah, right! Like this story has a topic!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @07:15PM
I'm sure she'll admit to affluence as a defense. It's been successfully tried before. She'll get 720 days of probation.
But with this is her defense strategy, she's sure to get out out jail free, pass go and collect her $200k in pity-pay.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by fadrian on Sunday September 13 2020, @08:11PM
The judge doesn't want to give the defense a reason to appeal. A psychological exam doesn't take that much time in the course of a trial and it's unlikely to change the outcome. The judge is making the correct decision that will lead to a quicker final result (i.e., Holmes being in prison).
That is all.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Sunday September 13 2020, @09:12PM (5 children)
I'm pretty contemptuous of the psychobabble world anyway. But, the idea that working with a patient for 14 hours is going to give useful results is preposterous. At the very best, you'll conclude "the patient is batfuck crazy" or "more work is needed". There really isn't much chance of finding anything in the middle.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 13 2020, @10:20PM
A decent criminal psychologist would make short work of it.
No Malcolms here [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday September 13 2020, @11:43PM (2 children)
And that's all that's needed for a trial.
The whole "mental disease or defect" defense was created to try to distinguish between the people that are committing crimes because they're complete loons versus the people who are committing crimes because they did so from their free will. All that the prosecution needs to prove to dissolve the defense is that Holmes was well aware of exactly what she was doing and what harm she was doing.
And the fact is, if she's trying this defense, that means that the prosecution has her dead to rights on the crime, and the only question is whether she's going to prison or a psych ward for quite a long time.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @12:42AM
Brings to mind an except from The Psychopath Test [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @05:16AM
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @06:08AM
You have been corrected on this at least once before, you fucking idiot Runaway1956! You cannot fuck bats! No matter how much that is the one thing left on your bucket list of beastiality, no, not possible, and the wrong usage in this case. The Phrase is "batshit crazy", not "sexual intercourse with bats crazy". I mean, what is wrong with you, man? Is this like AIDS, or Ebola, where people suspect inter-species sexual congress may be the cause? Are you the one that released Covid-19 on the world, with your bat-fucking fetish? Runaway1956: a sort of a Batman, just not that sort of "batman". Eewww!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @12:47AM
Given she's busted, sounds like a sane thing to to.
Hopefully the judge will add a little extra bonus for trying to manipiulate the situation.