John Odgren Guilty: Asperger's Not Guilty?

The jury hearing the trial of John Odgren, who is diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, has come to a verdict. Yesterday the panel of 7 women and 5 men found him guilty of first degree murder and today Judge Jane Haggerty sentenced him to life in prison for the murder of James Alenson. I posted on this story when the trial started:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/radical-behaviorist/201004/aspergers-syndrome-trial

The media in the Boston area has covered the case closely and today's story in the Boston Globe can be read here:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/04/alensons_family.html

A number of interesting pieces of information on this tragedy were revealed during the trial. Odgren was reported to be "obsessed" with the number 19. He killed Alenson on 1/19. Odgren was born on 9/1/90 and the number 19 played a prominent role in Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" and some other of his writings. Odgren also had a particular interest in Stephen King's novels. Anyone that knows ASDs knows that repetitive interests drive behavior. Odgren acted on January 19th in a manner that seems directly related to these interests. How can we not assume that his Asperger's Syndrome played a significant role? I certainly don't mean to suggest that Odgren has no personal responsibility but if this is not a mitigating variable, I don't what would be.

What follows is pure speculation on my part but that hasn't stopped me in the past. The legal team for Odgren may have made a bit of a mistake in attempting to lump a number of problems together rather than laying them out separately. They noted that he not only had AS but also may have had bipolar disorder, suffered from anxiety and ADD. It was also reported that he was bullied and had threatened to commit suicide. The defense team chose to forward the notion that Odgren was temporarily insane when he murdered Alenson. The insanity defense is rarely effective and it may not have changed the outcome but it might have been a better strategy to first focus on AS alone. These jurors might have been more likely to understand the act committed by Odgren if they had been led to focus on repetitive interests prior to referring to other psychiatric contributors. Perseverative behavior is a part of the disorder. Though Odgren acted on this restricted interest in a manner that is completely unacceptable in society, it is possible that it is something that would not have happened if he did not have an ASD.

It is also quite possible that this event will result in the lay community assuming that persons with AS and ASDs are more likely to commit such acts. That may be an unfortunate coincidence but it is also known that persons with ASDs have a higher incidence of problem behavior. For example, Matson and Rivett (2008; Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) found evidence to suggest that people with an ASD are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior (and self-injury) than persons with intellectual disabilities without an ASD. These data were obtained through surveying residents of large institutional facilities. The authors did, however, note that the more severe the symptoms of autism, the higher the likelihood of challenging behavior. Psychiatric symptoms that co-occur with an ASD can also contribute to increased likelihood of problems. Gadow and colleagues (2008; Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders) attempted to study predictors of social and academic performance while separating out the severity of autism symptoms. They found that the presence of psychiatric symptoms were associated with poorer social and school performance.

Is painting a picture of John Odgren as insane fair? Would it have been better to focus on his AS as a primary factor in the action that took place on that January 19th? These might be unfair questions to place at the feet of the defense team but one thing is clear. Children with ASDs, particularly those with additional psychiatric symptoms, require particular care and attention. Sometimes students who do well academically are not given the assistance and guidance needed to navigate through the social world. It certainly would have been ideal for the red flags in this sad case to have been caught early on.