Court: Judge Wrongly Barred Asperger’s Evidence in Eco-Terrorism Trial
A federal appeals court has overturned the arson convictions of a Caltech grad student accused of torching and vandalizing 125 SUVs, ruling the trial judge wrongly barred evidence of the defendant’s Asperger’s syndrome.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said William Cottrell, once a promising physics student, should have been allowed to introduce evidence that his Asperger’s prevented him from forming the specific intent to aid and abet the attacks, according to the Los Angeles Times and the Pasadena Star-News.
The 9th Circuit had upheld Cottrell’s 2004 conviction in February, but amended its ruling this week in the eco-terrorism case. Cottrell was convicted of damaging SUVs and Hummers with spray paint and Molotov cocktails. The court’s unpublished opinion overturned Cottrell’s arson convictions, upheld his conspiracy conviction, and vacated his 100-month sentence.
Asperger’s is a form of autism characterized by above-average intelligence, an inability to read social cues, and a preoccupation with one or several interests, according to WebMD. Cottrell has been profiled in a documentary.
