South Carolina Ping
Posted on 02/15/2005 12:16:32 PM PST by neverdem
CHARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 15 - A 15-year-old boy who confessed to killing his grandparents was convicted of murder today, as the jury rejected his defense that the slayings took place because he was under the influence of the antidepressant Zoloft.
Christopher Pittman, who was 12 at the time of the murder, could receive 30 years to life in prison when he is sentenced this afternoon.
The judge in the trial had told jurors that the teenager could be found not guilty of murder if he was "involuntary intoxicated" by the drug, offering them an option to acquit the boy without finding him insane.
Christopher's lawyers argued that Zoloft made him manic and violent. After shooting his grandparents, Joe and Joy Pittman, in their bed, the teenager set fire to the house and fled in their car, then claimed to have been kidnapped. Prosecutors said the boy's actions proved that he was aware that what he had done was wrong.
He later said of his grandparents, who had taken him in when he was having trouble at home, "I'm not sorry. They deserved it," according to his confession to investigators presented during the two-week trial.
Defense arguments that blame antidepressants have been used in cases with varying success, but the Pittman case has received particular attention because of the defendant's youth. Last October, three years after the death of the Pittmans and in the midst of a storm of controversy over the effects of antidepressants on children and adolescents, the Federal Drug Administration said that all antidepressants must carry a warning of an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior for young patients.
Pfizer, the maker of Zoloft, has closely monitored the case, which legal experts say could provide a road map for defendants in similar cases.
The judge, Danny Pieper of Circuit Court, told the jury that the burden of proof was on the defense in an involuntary-intoxication defense, and that it had to meet three conditions: the defendant must have been unaware that the drug had a potentially intoxicating effect; must have taken the drug according to a doctor's prescription; and must have been rendered incapable of distinguishing right from wrong, a condition that must also be proved in an insanity defense.
William S. McAninch, a professor emeritus of the University of South Carolina and an expert on South Carolina criminal law, said he knew of no other case when the defense was used in the state. "My guess is it would be a pretty hard sell to a jury," he said.
Christopher's story highlights the difficulty of isolating the effect of psychoactive drugs on already troubled patients. Abandoned by his mother shortly after birth, he was raised in Florida by various relatives, including his father and two stepmothers. In 2001, his mother reappeared, suggesting that she might reunite with his father, but then she abruptly disappeared.
Christopher ran away briefly, threatened to hurt himself and was eventually admitted to a behavioral center where he began taking Paxil, an antidepressant in the same family of drugs as Zoloft. After his release, his grandparents, who live in Chester County, S.C., took him to live with them and enrolled him in school. He began taking Zoloft.
He got in trouble for trying to choke a second grader on the school bus, and prosecutors argue that when his grandfather disciplined him, he became angry. That night, he killed the Pittmans with a shotgun that had been a gift from his father.
"These are the most voluntary actions I've ever seen," John Meadors, one of the prosecutors, said in his closing argument. Expert testimony about the effects of Zoloft, he said, had created "a smokescreen."
Andy Vickery, one of Christopher's lawyers, said his client, who weighed only 95 pounds at the time, had been given a drug not approved for use on children, transforming him from what one witness described as a "nice, shy Christian boy" to a violent predator.
Mark Glassman contributed reporting from New York for this article.
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Sounds like he had an anger problem. With a background like his, I'm not surprised that it produced a kid with anger raging.
His screwed up life is a great example why stable families matter.
This does not exonerate him...he made the wrong decisions, and should pay for them. But I can see why he would be angry.
Blame everything and everyone except the one who did the deed. Zoloft is not for everyone, but it has helped many people. END
Impossible to say from here whether Zoloft contributed to the homicide. I have no doubt, however, that certain psychotropic drugs can aggravate and perhaps even instill homicidal or suicidal tendencies. You'd have to be crazy to let people mess with your brain chemistry in ways they do not fully understand, upon psychiatric theories that are dubious. If some people think it helps them, then fine. I'm not sure it doesn't make a lot of people worse, though, in one way or another.
Thirty years sounds way to short for the murder of two people.
If he was arrested @ 12 and gets 30 years he will be out @ 42. Way too soon.
12 years old with obvious mental problems and they tried him as an adult?
As far as I'm concerned, the kid deserves all the years he's gonna get, Zoloft or no Zoloft.
Actually, he's currently 15, which means he'll get out at 45.
Let's see....he's a young troubled boy with a violent nature, tried to strangle a classmate and his Grandfather give a shotgun as a present? OMG.
Mega-dittos!
You might have a law degree, but it's
obvious you do not have one in medicine.
No, I do not have one in medicine. You'd be surprised what an intelligent, inquisitive layman can learn, though. I take it you do not agree that drugs can contribute to destructive behavior? Interesting point of view, to which you are welcome, friend.
I take it you do not agree that drugs can contribute to destructive behavior?
Oh please counselor. Do NOT make a blanket assumption.
Okay. I'd love to play decipher-the-cryptic-fortune-cookie-comments, but got to run.
I'm so glad that kid got jail time. Big time.
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