Charles Ewing

Now, the law looks at that as premeditated.

I'm not sure that it really is premeditated in the sense that we normally think of it.

It doesn't have to be like a sudden impulse to violence.

People can go into what's called a dissociative state where they're really psychologically not

where they are physically.

Probably half of the people I've evaluated who've killed other human beings have some degree of amnesia for what they've done.

Yeah, about half.

Yeah, and it's not total amnesia usually, although I've seen some people who have a complete amnesia for killing.

But it can be partly I don't really recall the details.

I don't recall doing this.

Yeah, I don't think we know the mechanism by which this kind of denial or amnesia or combination works.

But in the cases that I've been involved in where people have had some kind of amnesia or partial amnesia or denial,

it doesn't last forever.

It's very difficult to maintain that kind of facade.

What I find is that over time, people do recover traces of what happened and then

they know what happened.

But I've also seen people who have genuinely snapped and who've committed a homicide, and then they realize what they've done, and the immediate reaction for most people is, oh my God, look what I've done, and what am I going to do about it?

I've got to figure out some way to cover this up.

Yeah.

I think that happens.