s statutes indicating that the physicians chosen to determine a defendants mental condition must be of any particular qualifications. Just plain doctors, medical doctors in general practice. Thats all the law requires. We have sanity hearings in this country every year for the purpose of committing people to institutions. Its no great job to bind whether a man is insane or an idiot or an imbecileIt is entirely unnecessary, a waste of time to sent the defendants to Larned. (Capote 267). Judge Tate did what was asked of him by the law and called their local doctor to examine the men. They were found quite sane after an hour with the doctors. The movie did not investigate this part of the novel, it could have offered todays lawyers a great reason for appeal or new trial. By not reading the book you miss a lot of these details.As the movie unfolds you feel how useless and stupid these murders are. This is a true, also in the book, while reading In Cold Blood the details of the murder are so gruesome and with no reasoning it makes it hard to read, or watch. While Dr. Jones testified about his study of Perry Smith, he was not allowed to speak of his personal findings. Had he been allowed to, he would have testified: Perry Smith shows definite signs of severe mental illness. His childhood, related to me and verified by Jennings 4portions of the prison records was marked by brutality and lack of concern of the part of both parents. He seems to have grownup without direction,without love, and without ever having absorbed any fixed sense of moral values. (Capote 296-297). The movie does not do a good job following the trial. To understanding the trial and the doctors testimony you must read the book. Moviegoers do not see the depth of the judicial system.The murder scene is a different story, the description is graphic reading, and they transform his part of the bo...
