SERIAL KILLER GENE SERIAL
SERIAL KILLER GENE FREE

It feels a bit incongruous, no matter what your take on the use of dubious genetic science in criminal court is. Even though all three killers had genetic makeups that would theoretically make them more inclined to aggression, they were hit with dramatically different sentences. Waldroup was handed a life sentence Dugan, ever the unlucky murderer, was sentenced to death shortly before the death penalty was banned. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for them, their defense backfired.

SERIAL KILLER GENE SERIAL

Here in the United States, notorious serial killers Bradley Waldroup and Brian Dugan were found to have the same exact gene that granted Bayout a commuted sentence. The judge, once again, ruled in favor of Bayout, decreasing his sentence by another year. A later appeal proposed by Bayout’s attorneys in an effort to reduce his sentence saw Pietro Pietrini, a molecular neuroscientist at the University of Pisa, and Giuseppe Sartori, a cognitive neuroscientist at The University of Padova, discover that Bayout’s genetic makeup was to blame for why he committed the murder. His attorneys simply argued that Bayout was mentally ill and not fully to blame for his actions, so the judge reduced his sentence from life in prison to a mere nine years. 2010 was the first year we saw the gene used successfully in order to defend a killer in Italy-Abdemalek Bayout-who admitted to stabbing a man to death. The issue here isn’t that the gene has a catchy, soundbyte-friendly name it’s that its misused as both a legal defense for murder, and as a prosecutorial “ gotcha!” used to justify convictions in the absence of more concrete evidence. To be honest, I’m not completely sure why it’s called the “serial killer gene.” If I had to guess why, I’d imagine it’s because it’s got more of a ring to it than “aggression proclivity gene.” In reality, it’s not a gene that creates serial killers, because that would be disconcerting, but rather a gene that’s linked to a predisposition for violence and aggression-which, to be fair, is still fairly alarming. The second would be that there’s a “serial killer gene” out there which, surprising nobody, she has. The first thing would be to avoid crossing her, because the consequences are fatal ( see : the dead body in her kitchen). As much as I despise her character, she’s taught me a lot. Not the Blair Waldorf kind, but the Joe Goldberg kind). (Note: by dark side, I’m referring to the fact that she’s a bit of a psychopath. If you’ve ever watched the show-which, as we’ve established, I’m willing to bet you have-then you’ve been introduced to Betty Cooper, the goody-two-shoes with a dark side.

SERIAL KILLER GENE FREE

Anyone else? (Feel free to say no-I know you’re lying, and this is me calling you out on it). I have a confession to make: sometimes when I’m really, really bored, I find myself watching Riverdale.

Serial killer gene