Writer’s Brain Scan Part of Defense

The defense will rely on a brain scan in an attempt to show that the New York writer accused of sexually assaulting an editor had mental illness that made him unable to form the intent to commit the offense.

The lawyer for former fashion columnist Peter Braunstein will introduce a PET scan to bolster his claim that his client suffers from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, the New York Times reports.

An expert compared Braunstein’s defense to that of the murder defendant in Clark v. Arizona, who claimed he thought he was shooting a space alien rather than police. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the defendant’s conviction in that case last June.