Examining the Sleepwalking Defense

The cause of sleepwalking can vary, but is usually attributed to either Environmental Factors, such as stress, anxiety and alcohol intoxication or Medical Conditions such as fever, sleep apnea or Psychiatric disorders. It is generally easily treated once the underlying condition causing it is gone. In most cases, medical intervention is not necessary for the sleepwalking itself.

Can someone who is sleepwalking commit a criminal act such as murder? According to some defense lawyers, this is a plausible defense for their clients.

Let's examine the case of Scott Falater, who fatally stabbed his wife 44 times and dumper her body in the backyard pool while their children slept. Scott Falater admits to murdering his wife, but claims he does not remember any of it. Therefore he is claiming he was asleep and therefore had no control over his actions.

The prosecutor Juan Martinez, disagrees with his defense. He claims the defendant had an "agenda" when he stabbed his wife in January 1997. One of the reasons the prosecution may believe this is the fact that Falater changed out of his bloody clothes after the incidence and discarded them and the murder weapon (a hunting knife) into a Tupperware container. He then placed them in a garbage bag with his boots and socks and hid it in the spare tire well of his car. This does not seem like someone who does not have an idea of what he is doing.

The defense lawyer claims the defendant had a history of sleepwalking, and fits the profile of a sleepwalker. Falater's teenage children agree. They believe their father is innocent, and claim there was nothing out of the ordinary in the time leading up to the murder. According to the defense, he was under extreme stress due to his job and was only sleeping 2-3 hours a night.

It was all in vain though, as he was convicted of murder in the first degree on June 25 1999.

Here are a few other notorious Sleepwalking cases:

In 1992, the Canadian Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of Kenneth Parks, who said he was sleepwalking when he drove 14 miles, stabbed his mother-in-law to death and seriously injured his father-in-law.

In the early 1980s in Arizona, attorneys for Steven Steinberg called psychiatrists who testified he may have been sleepwalking or in a "dissociative mental state" when he stabbed his wife 26 times. Steinberg was found innocent on the ground he was temporarily insane when he killed his wife, Elana