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Keywords: QEEG, forensic, electroencephalography, death penalty
Quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) was accepted for the first time in a Frye Hearing in the death penalty phase of a murder case in Florida. Issues of reliability, validity, and the basic science of QEEG were addressed in the case. Linkages of the defendant's conduct, QEEG results, other testing, and history demonstrated his state of impairment, resulting in a sentence of life without parole. Implications for the future of QEEG and a hierarchy of usage argues that its acceptance in life-and-death decisions makes insurance reimbursement denials for QEEG and neurofeedback, based on the same science, unreasonable.
Introduction
If science cannot make a difference in the trenches, it is a hollow academic exercise. Action without science is only partially informed, and science without action remains rarified but not real.
From the outside, the site looked rather unimposing, like a humble office building. When I crossed the threshold, my senses were assaulted by sound and movements and the crush of flesh and crowds. We went through the obligatory airport-style screening, and a corrections officer asked for our court order and captain's letter. ''We are here to do a QEEG on Grady Nelson.'' ''Open your bags.'' We unpacked our bags and their contents were inventoried against the list previously submitted to the captain of the guard. Cell phones and keys were confiscated, and our drivers' licenses were taken and checked; in trade, we received a number and badge.
''Welcome to the Miami Dade Detention Center.'' My eyes were greeted by orange uniforms, some people in leg chains, others walking along a tiled line, and guards in uniforms whose numbers seemed quite thin compared to the sea of iridescent inmate orange.
After a ride in a crowded old, dented, and dirty elevator and many long corridors later, we entered a large classroom with five office-sized desks, chairs, and a gurney. We moved toward the window, hungry for some contact with the outside and natural light. There was a pallor of grimness, dullness, and death in the air.
A guard entered with a nearly 6-foot, rather quiet, gentle-looking, somewhat bald man. To our surprise, the guard left and locked us in the room with Mr. Nelson, who placed himself sitting up on the gurney....