Oh come ON!

Is it appropriate in a courtroom for a judge or prosecutor or jury to yell “Oh come ON!” when the defense attorney offers a particularly ridiculous line of defense? If so, we’ll hear that outburst this week from the Jerry Sandusky trial when this happens: 

The defense is expected to call an expert witness to testify that Sandusky may have histrionic personality disorder, which the National Institutes of Health says describes people who act "in a very emotional and dramatic way that draws attention to themselves."

I might also add my own outburst: “Get the hell outta town!” When I heard in passing that the defense would argue that Sandusky has a personality disorder, I thought that disorder would be something to the effect of “Child Molester.” (I would also accept “Amoral.”) But really, Joe Amendola? That’s your defense? That your client is emotional and dramatic person? If that’s the best you have, get your client fitted for that jumpsuit. 

There are a lot of personality disorders that I do not doubt are real and can steer a person’s actions. These are things like borderline personality disorder or schizophrenia and I see no problem with defense attorneys invoking them as a way to explain criminal behavior. However, in Sandusky’s case, the argument basically boils down to: “My client is a drama queen.” 

So join the club. You know who else has histrionic personality disorder? Every single actor or performer in any artistic medium has it to one degree or another. Movie, TV and theater actors have it. Drag queens have it. Pop stars have it. “People with this personality disorder may also change emotions rapidly, overly dwell on physical appearance, and take criticism or disapproval sensitively,” reads one article I read on this. Yup, that accurately describes the atmosphere at just about every theater rehearsal I ever went to. At times it describes me. Hell, sometimes it describes our cats. Yet these people manage not to rape kids, which makes me think there’s some other kind of evil at work in Sandusky. 

While I’m at it, leave out any discussion of performers and that description of histrionic personalities can cover most people, period. Invoke the phrase “take criticism or disapproval sensitively” and you have just described The Entire World.

I don’t want to say histrionic personality disorder is not a real thing because it has clinical evidence. My question is, to what degree can you lessen an accused criminal’s culpability based on a personality disorder? If the defense presents evidence of a mental disorder, for which cases can the jury shrug and say “So?”

Sandusky is innocent until proven guilty but I’ve just been flabbergasted at how incompetent he and his defense team have been. I’m still stunned by the interview he did a few months ago where Bob Costas asked him if he were sexually attracted to children and Sandusky repeated the question rhetorically before weighing a response. Wouldn’t a normal person’s response be “NO!” followed by something to the effect of “EWW!”? I might also respond with “Oh come ON!”