Reliving a Murder

In a Topeka, Kans., courtroom last week, the lights were flicked off and judge and jury sat enthralled as a deadly serious story began to unfold on TV screens in front of them. The central figure. Thomas Kidwell, 47, had already been convicted of the murder of his promiscuous wife--although he could not remember much about what had happened before he was found in his wrecked car with her nude body on the floor.

At his first trial last February, the prosecution offered a compelling reconstruction. Kidwell was angry at his wife because she wanted an annulment of the year-old marriage. They argued and took a drive. Police witnesses then testified that Kidwell's wife had been shot four times in the heart either after or before he had intercourse with her. Afterward, the prosecution version continued, Kidwell shot himself twice in the chest in a suicide attempt. The first jury believed the prosecution and convicted Kidwell of first-degree murder. But at last week's second trial, granted because of errors committed at the first, the essential ingredient was something new--an hour-long video tape of Kidwell reliving the murder under the influence of a drug.

In the Skin. Video tape has only just begun its legal career (TIME, Dec. 22), and its Topeka appearance was apparently the second time that one has ever been viewed in court by a judge in the U.S. But the tape is not likely to be surpassed soon for dramatic impact. In preparation for the second trial, Kid-well's lawyer had sent him to the nearby Menninger Clinic in the hope that he would tell doctors there a clearer story about the murder night than he had yet told anyone else. Psychiatrist Joseph Satten, chief of Menninger's law and psychiatry division, decided to try sodium amobarbital, which, though not a truth drug, can help a patient relive a traumatic experience he is unconsciously trying to avoid. Dr. Satten also decided to put the results on video tape for a study of criminals that the clinic was in the process of making.

The prosecution, amazed by what the tape showed, asked the judge to take the highly unusual step of showing it to the jury as the trial's first piece of business. There, on tape, was Kidwell, lying on a couch in an undershirt and slacks. As the drug took hold, he was instructed to begin counting backward from 100. When the count faltered, he was guided by questions from Dr. Satten until he was obviously back with his wife in the murder car, apparently reliving what had happened. He and she "were having a lot of fun," he said. Then, he remembered, she started talking about a former husband's sexual prowess. "A big man in bed," mumbled Kidwell. "Couldn't support his kids, that son of a bitch."

Suddenly, he sucked in his breath and grabbed at his chest. To those seeing Kidwell's reaction on tape, it seemed plain that he was re-experiencing being shot by his wife. Swearing with pain, he forgave her ("It ain't hurt nothing, it's in the skin"), then cursed her. Finally, his jumbled words conveyed that he had got the gun and shot her.

Unconscious Reporting. The complete story was still somewhat fuzzy, but to anyone seeing the tape, it seemed clear that whatever else may have happened, Kidwell's unconscious was reporting that his wife shot him first. When he saw it during a pretrial screening, the prosecuting attorney decided to reduce the charge to first-degree manslaughter; the defense agreed to plead guilty to that charge. Noting that "I think courts have to use the best devices available," Judge William Carpenter, 35, agreed to allow the tape to be shown to the jury, after which the manslaughter plea was accepted. Kidwell now faces a five-to 30-year sentence (which could be suspended entirely) instead of the life sentence he received at his first trial.

Awed at "the value of the tape in conveying the genuineness of the experience," Dr. Satten noted later that "never in a million years on the witness stand could I have had the eloquence and skill in testifying demonstrated by that tape."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.