Outside of Reality

"A Portland lawyer says suffering by African Americans at the hands of slave owners is to blame in the death of a 2-year-old Beaverton boy."

The above, is the first sentence from an article in The Oregonian titled “Judge rejects slave trauma as defense for killing." You read that headline and think, great, a judge who is not swayed by irrational claims.  But then you read the secondary headline.

"A Washington County judge threw out a PSU professor’s novel theory at pretrial but said she may consider it at trial."

The theory.

"Randall Vogt is offering the untested theory, called post traumatic slave syndrome, in his defense of Isaac Cortez Bynum, who is charged with murder by abuse in the June 30 death of his son, Ryshawn Lamar Bynum. Vogt says he will argue—“in a general way”—that masters beat slaves, so Bynum was justified in beating his son."

“Novel theory?” The theory is well beyond novel.

Via J. Bowen, at No Watermelons Allowed, who titles his post “Grudgenetics.”

Posted by on 06/01 at 02:23 AM

  1. “But the judge said she would reconsider the defense for Bynum’s September trial if his lawyer can show the slave theory is an accepted mental disorder with a valid scientific basis and specifically applies to this case.”

    Seems like the judge is just “allowing” it to be fair--and to dismiss the claim fairly when it comes up.

    Posted by Jason Kuznicki  on  06/01  at  05:11 AM

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