Charles M. Wetli, M.D. Chief Medical Examiner Medical Examiner's Office of Suffolk County [biographical notes]

Dr. Wetli comments: New World religions of African origin are collectively known as voodoo. They all have similar gods and symbols, often depicting their gods in the images of Catholic saints, and have strong African characteristics blended with European cultural features. Today, the more common of these religions include Santeria (Hispanic), Candomblé (Brazilian), and Vodoun (Haitian). All are polytheistic elaborations of nature where gods are deeply involved with everyday human activities, and where the concept of an afterlife is quite nebulous. There is no moral code, thereby making them "neutral magic" religions. Drug smugglers and police officers may therefore invoke the same gods for opposite reasons. Gods provide advice or answers through intermediary priests and, upon proper invocation and propitiation, may influence the challenges or problems of one's life. It is believed that the gods may also exert control and modify the behavior of others by applying the magic or religious principles of contact and similarity. This requires photographic or other depictions of a person as well as intimate items (a drop of blood, lock of hair, etc.) to assure that the gods target the right person.

Believers feel their gods are personal and ever vigilant to guide, protect and even make them invincible to their enemies. This spiritual force is sometimes referred to as Ache. Because they truly feel protected, these individuals may do the unexpected, for example, shooting at a police officer even when they are surrounded by other police officers.

Ceremonies and rituals often invoke animal sacrifice and possession states. Such events are invariably accompanied by African chants, ritual dances, and drumming. During these sessions, participants believe a god actually takes over the mind and body of a person. As a physician/observer of this phenomenon, it is my impression that these people actually enter a state of deep self-hypnosis. Despite usually bizarre and often violent behavior during possession states, it has been my observation that social norms maintain—injuries and property damage are rare. Although a man's arm may be draped around the shoulder of a woman, his hand never touches her breast. The "god' who is speaking never utters insults. Deistic "possession" therefore does not result in a total loss of control.

To inflict direct harm or death on another person usually requires the intercession of a priest initiated into other, related cults (e.g. Palo Mayombe in Hispanic cultures, Petro for Haitians and Macumba for Brazilian). Personifications and depictions of the various gods differ, and rituals often require human remains from a cemetery, such as skulls and femurs. Laws of contact and similarity are also utilized. If the magic is successful, one's enemy meets a tragic fate on death in some sort of "accident" (such as a car crash) or disease (such as a heart attack). To the police and medical examiner, such deaths will be no more or less than what the investigation and autopsy reveal. To the religious advocate, the magic was a success: the gods granted your wish, and the priest has earned his or her money and reputation. Such deaths are homicides only in a metaphysical sense.

More direct homicides are quite rare, and usually based on a misinterpretation of the religious tenets. For example, one serial killer decided that the fresh brain of a blond, blue-eyed college student was needed so his nganga (sacred caldron/altar) could "think" more clearly. Bordering on the metaphysical is "voodoo death" which results from direct symbolic malevolence of a priest toward another who is a believer. Such deaths as described in the literature and as verbally related to this observer are best characterized as a rapidly progressive congestive heart failure lasting for about three days. The condition is reversible only by the priest who initiated the event. The medical examiner would probably find precious little at the autopsy which would reveal a cause of death. The manner of death, however, would be homicide, following the same reasoning that creates the concept of "homicide-by-heart attack."

Michael Welner, M.D. Chairman The Forensic Panel [biographical notes]

Dr. Welner comments: Hyperreligiosity leading to crime is traditionally a one way ticket to evaluation for the insanity defense. And what of voodoo observance? Voodoo is not a magic, or a cult; it is a religion. Whether hexes happen or not, devotees to voodoo have real beliefs of their power and are influenced by them.

Conjure doctors originally gained respect and fear by cultivating the reputation, during times of slavery, of being able to avoid punishment from their master by casting a spell on him (Savitt T MEDICINE AND SLAVERY (1978) Oxford University Press). Whatever the source of the conjure man's power, he uses it in modern times, among other things, to manipulate demons. The powers do not destroy evil; rather, they contain it or cast it out of the host. Certain spells use photographs to represent a person, known as contagious magic, so that once an entity is physically connected to another, it can never be separated (Campinha J Perspectives In Psychiatric Care 28(1) 11-17 (1992)).

Mr. Genius did not claim to have been compelled to kill by a supernatural force; rather, he asserted he was fearful that a spell would incite his mistress to violence against him. This is not an unusual scenario given how conjurers are used in voodoo, and the religion's traditions devoted to love and lovers. The Haitian goddess of love, Erzulie Freida, for example, is so powerful as to be able to split apart a married couple, for she is a most jealous spirit (Hurston, Z2 TELL MY HORSE (1938) Harper & Row).

Hexes may take the form of poison; it is not therefore surprising that the most frequent symptoms are digestive (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, food that tastes poorly) (Campinha J U. Virginia: Charlottesville (1986)). This is also why adherents may be quite reluctant to eat food of unknown origin. But behavioral symptoms do also result from hexes, and range from more benign personality changes to auditory and visual hallucinations to bizarre behavior to being out of control. The hardened scientist would speculate these symptoms are a product of delirium, a transient confusion brought on by a medical insult. But curse effects without ingested poison have been described for centuries. Morse et al (Stress Medicine 7:213-32 [1991]), in noting the qualities of death victims, found several factors to heighten the vulnerability to voodoo. These included suggestibility, belief in the supernatural abilities of the bokor, or witch doctor, belief in the effectiveness of the curse, terror and hopelessness, and social isolation in the absence of others in his circle who do not believe in the power of the curse or the sorcerer.

Science means seeing is believing, while religion means believing is seeing. This is why religious beliefs cannot be neatly redefined as delusions, or even treated as such. The zeal of belief can therefore, in exceptional cases, preclude appreciation of wrong in the otherwise sane. Ideally, actions motivated by psychosis or zeal should reach legal insanity if the person felt there was no alternative but to act—and the act could not therefore have been wrong.

Still, a careful examination of the actions and statements of the defendant around the time of the crime will clarify whether religious beliefs obscured the ability to premeditate, or to appreciate wrong. Never assume a dramatically religious or cultural belief system is so inscrutable. Taking the time to hold the belief under a magnifying glass and matching the reported observance with the defendant's customary practices may provide a few surprises. So too will a conversation with his priest. For even the religious may sin—and the gravity of the sin makes the idea of explaining sin with the false pretense of religion, well, believable.