Wolf in the Fold is a Star Trek TOS episode that highlights 1) Dr. McCoy is not a psychologist; and 2) lessons in the insanity defense for possession by a disembodied non-humanoid entity.
Scotty Kept Killing Ladies
The relevant facts from the episode include Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy taking Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on “therapeutic shore leave” on the hedonistic planet Argelius II, because Scotty developed a total resentment of women after being injured in an explosion caused by a female crew member on the USS Enterprise. Dr. McCoy’s prescription for Scotty was to go to a planet that was a giant red light district. Tabling if this means Dr. McCoy barely passed psychology in med school, our heroes went to a gentlemen’s club where they set Scotty up with a belly dancer named Kara.
Scotty and Kara went for a walk in the fog, while Kirk and McCoy venture to another part of town. After a sudden scream, Scotty was found holding a knife over the body of Kara who had been stabbed multiple times. In the course of the investigation, two other women are killed: Lt. Karen Tracey, while administering an exam with a “psycho-tricorder” on Scotty; and Sybo, the wife of the planet’s leader Prefect Jaris. Sybo was killed during a seance called an Argelian empathic contact, where she identified an entity with an undying hatred of women named Redjac.
Redjac turned out to be Jack the Ripper, a disembodied non-humanoid entity that possessed people in order to kill orders to fed off their fear.
The Insanity Defense
Proving Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott was not guilty by reason of insanity would require showing that he 1) had a severe mental disease or defect; and 2) as a result of that defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts. 18 U.S.C. § 17.
There are no reported insanity defense cases of disembodied non-humanoid entities taking control of an individual and causing them to murder others. Sadly, there are insanity defense cases where the victim was stabbed to death. In one case, the trial court refused to allow a jury instruction for the insanity defense. The trial court was reversed, because the defendant had submitted substantial evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that “at the time the crime [was] committed [Defendant] suffered from such a diseased or deranged condition of the mind as to render [Defendant] incapable of knowing the nature and quality of the act . . . [or] distinguishing between right and wrong in relation to that act.” State v. Luerkens, No. 15-2188, at *10 (Iowa Ct. App. May 3, 2017). This evidence included expert testimony that the defendant was suffering from clinical depression and evidence that the defendant did not have memory of killing the victim. Luerkens, at *3-5.
In the case of Scotty, there is clear and convincing evidence of insanity. In the hearing held aboard the Enterprise, the medical devices confirmed Scotty was being truthful when he claimed not to remember what happened to Kara and Lt. Tracey. Moreover, the crew was able to establish the existence of Redjac, which transferred itself to the ship’s computer and briefly possessed Prefect Jaris. This is ample evidence to show that Scotty had a mental defect due to possession and did not understand the wrongfulness of his action while possessed by the entity Redjac.
As for the death of Sybo, it was established that Redjac killed her while in possession of another person, not Scotty.
The larger issue of needing counseling for his PTSD from an explosion and then killing two women under the control of Jack the Ripper is never addressed, but does highlight the need for having licensed mental health professionals onboard starships.
