Broken Brain, Broken Justice: A Book Review of The Other Dr. Gilmer
The Other Dr. Gilmer, written by Dr. Benjamin Gilmer, details a doctor’s quest for justice. Dr. Benjamin Gilmer became a family clinic doctor in rural North Carolina. He replaced a once-beloved family doctor who held the position before him and who happened to share his last name: Dr. Vince Gilmer.
Vince lost his position at the clinic after being tried and convicted for the murder of his father, Dalton. The evidence was overwhelming that Vince indeed committed the crime. But Dr. Benjamin was struck by the many clinic patients and staff members who still expressed disbelief that Vince had acted so out of character.
Dr. Benjamin was curious about the circumstances surrounding the murder and decided to contact Vince directly. A letter from Vince piqued Dr. Benjamin’s curiosity even more, and he decided to learn all he could about the crime.
A journalist from NPR’s This American Life teamed up with Dr. Benjamin to investigate what led Vince to kill his father. What they found was unexpected: Vince had Huntington’s Disease (HD), a genetic brain disorder that causes neurons in the brain to slowly die over time.
Vince did not know he had HD, and neither did anyone else. For years Vince had been on an SSRI for the treatment of anxiety, but a few days before the murder he stopped taking it completely. After the murder, Vince believed he had suffered from SSRI discontinuation syndrome, which can lead to psychosis. Vince felt his brain was “broken,” and voices in his head compelled him to kill his father. This was the defense Vince pursued at trial, but the jury believed the State’s argument that Vince was malingering.
Dr. Benjamin began visiting Vince in prison, and on one occasion he brought a psychiatrist with him to evaluate Vince. The psychiatrist discarded SSRI discontinuation syndrome as the reason for Vince’s behavior; instead, he believed it was HD. A genetic test later confirmed the diagnosis.
HD is a progressive disease and can cause behavioral disturbances, hallucinations, moodiness, irritability, and even psychosis. Dr. Benjamin formulated a theory: as Vince’s HD progressed, his symptoms became more severe; discontinuation of the SSRI may have exacerbated Vince’s psychosis; and when his father, who had sexually abused Vince as a child, made some disturbing sexual comments to Vince that evening, Vince killed him.
Dr. Benjamin was convinced that Vince was insane at the time of the murder and should be transferred from prison to a mental institution for treatment. After This American Life aired a story on the case, several attorneys reached out to Dr. Benjamin, wanting to help with Vince’s plea for clemency. It was at this point that, for lawyers, the book becomes most interesting.
The remainder of the book details Dr. Benjamin’s work with a group of attorneys to seek clemency on Vince’s behalf. The clemency process is illustrated from the viewpoint of a medical doctor, an outsider to the criminal justice system. Through his quest for clemency for Vince, Dr. Benjamin learns just how broken our justice system is. He concludes the book with a call for collaboration between medicine and law to fix not only the broken people we see in the system, but also the broken justice they often receive.
I will not spoil the ending for those who wish to read the book. But I found these words by Dr. Benjamin to be an excellent summary of a lawyer’s work. Here, Dr. Benjamin explained his belief regarding the difference between a doctor’s work and a lawyer’s work:
“My conversation with Dawn [an attorney] that day reminded me of the fundamental difference between how medicine and law treat death. In medicine, we can exert some control over how someone lives or dies. Doctors can try one antibiotic and, if it fails, try another; we can give fluids and norepinephrine to maintain blood pressure; we can anticipate when someone is dying and comfort them in their last moments. Dawn’s and Geri’s work as lawyers always kept them at a slight remove, dependent on a jury, a judge, or a governor. There was a limit to how directly they could change their clients’ fates, because they didn’t have anxiolytics or ventilators – all they had were words. Words that might inspire. Words that might fail.”
May we all strive to write and to utter words that inspire.