Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
A psychology professor advised the jury to not give Patrick McKenna the death sentence without further investigating how his abusive childhood may have damaged his mental health.
Professor Stephen Pittel of Berkeley, Calif., said Tuesday it was possible that childhood beatings and a brutal and humiliating juvenile detention may have encouraged McKenna's aggressive behavior.
"I'm not in any way an advocate for Patrick McKenna," Pittel said. But "I personally and professionally feel that the jury should have access to that information before passing a verdict on a man's life."
McKenna was never evaluated by a psychologist during his more than 30 years in prison, said Pittel, who added he was struck by the emotion McKenna expressed over his daughter's death. The child died at birth; McKenna was 17.
"The ability to feel grief ... for a dead child is the best sign of a conscience," Pittel said.
The idea of a grieving and remorseful McKenna clashes with the widely held belief that he is a "cold-blooded psychopath," Pittel acknowledged.
McKenna strangled to death fellow prisoner J.J. Nobles after losing a chess game and refusing to perform a sexual act. That same day he was convicted of raping two women. McKenna and another man were charged with assaulting the women and shoving firecrackers inside one woman's vagina.
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