SleepwalkingDiscussion 2 – Sleepwalking Talk-zile-podcast.png Initial Prompt f

SleepwalkingDiscussion 2 – Sleepwalking
Talk-zile-podcast.png

Initial Prompt for Discussion
Should sleepwalking be a valid defense for a crime as serious as murder? What kind of evidence should be required to convince a jury that a crime was committed while sleepwalking? Based on your understanding of the stages of sleep and sleep disorders, is it possible to commit such a crime. Support your response with three (3) scholarly articles.
A number of cases of “murder while sleepwalking” have been recorded in the past several decades. The term sleepwalking as used in these cases most likely refers to the very real condition called REM behavior disorder rather than ordinary sleepwalking. Use of this disorder as a defense in a murder trial has sometimes been successful. Here are short descriiptions of two cases and their outcomes.
Case One:

Scott Falater, 43 years old, was accused of murdering his wife in 1997. A neighbor, looking over a fence, witnessed Scott holding his wife’s head underwater in the swimming pool. He called the police, who found a bloody pool and the body of Yamila Falater with 44 stab wounds. Falater had performed a series of very deliberate and time-consuming actions in cleaning up after the murder. But Falater claimed to be sleepwalking during all of these actions. Although sleep experts for the defense stated that Falater’s story was possible, the prosecution pointed to marital troubles as motive. Most damaging to his case was the witness who stated that three weeks before the murder, Falater had been discussing the case of a Canadian man’s acquittal for murder based on a sleepwalking defense. The jury found Falater guilty of murder in the first degree, and he was given a life sentence.
Case Two: In July of 2008 Brian Thomas (Links to an external site.) of South Wales in Great Britain, a devoted husband and father of two children, killed his wife while dreaming of intruders breaking into their camper. Thomas had a history of sleepwalking and normally slept apart from his wife. Experts found that he suffered from night terrors, and he was acquitted of her murder by reason of temporary insanity.
Posting on the Discussion Board
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