Sleeping Defense

In our class was the first time I had heard about the “Sleepwalking Defense” where as heard in class we studied the case of Arizona v. Falater. Where in 1997, Scott Falater, a devout Mormon, stabbed his wife 44 times with a knife. He proceeded to drag her into a backyard pool and held her head under water drowning in only a matter of an hour to commit this entire murder. A neighbor who witnessed the drowning called the police. And as they arrived they found Falater, in confusion and claiming he had no memory of the attack and felony he had committed. Falater had no apparent motive for this killing, he had no affair, no wanting or claim for insurance money and had a happy family. To many, it surprises them that this could've happened in the first place as this was completely tragic and random. Falater eventually came out and tried to defend himself with a sleepwalking defense. He said he had a history of sleepwalking, was sleep-deprived, and stated that he loved his wife a lot and would never hurt her and at the time of the attack he was unconscious. This could have maybe worked if it wasn't for the fact that a neighbor had witnessed the drowning and Falater calling for his dog. Also, there was tampering with the scene showing that “he had tried to conceal evidence: Police found the knife, bloody clothes, boots, gloves, and undergarments stuffed in a Tupperware container hidden in his car.” Eventually, the jury found Falater guilty of first-degree murder in 1999 as there was evidence of him being conscious at the time. To my surprise, this was not the only case that had used this sleeping defense as there were cases from 1846 who actually used this defense and were found innocent such as Massachusetts v. Tirrell when a man named Albert Tirrell was acquitted in the murder of a prostitute in Boston. In this case much more brutal than the one of Mr.Falater, Tirrell slit the woman's (soon to be known as a prostitute) throat, almost decapitating her. This also lead to a fire set off to the body, and later to finding out that he fled to New Orleans, where eventually the found him arrested him. This his trial Tirrells lawyer stated that Tirrell was a chronic sleepwalker and perhaps committed the crime while asleep. The jury was persuaded by this defense and agreed to find him not guilty. Even though this story was not bought by many the Tirrell case is said to be the first U.S. legal case in which the sleepwalking defense successfully worked.