Capital Defense Journal Volume 16 | Issue 1 Article 6 Fall 9-1-2003 The ommC andeering of Free Will: Brainwashing as a Legitimate Defense Ida-Gaye Warburton Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlucdj Part of the Criminal Procedure Commons, and the Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons Recommended Citation Ida-Gaye Warburton, The Commandeering of Free Will: Brainwashing as a Legitimate Defense, 16 Cap. DEF J. 73 (2003). Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlucdj/vol16/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Capital Defense Journal by an authorized editor of Washington & Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Commandeering of Free Will: Brainwashing as a Legitimate Defense Ida-Gaye Warburton* .IM7Idd Imagine that your teenage daughter is dragged from her apartment in the middle of the night while wearing only panties and a bathrobe.' Screaming, she is forced into the trunk of a waiting car.2 Though her screams attract the atten- tion of her neighbors, they are unable to help as they are driven back into their homes by the kidnappers' gunfire.3 Terrified, she is imprisoned, bound and blindfolded in a closet for fifty-seven days, and subjected to mental and physical cruelty and torture.4 This nightmare was the actual fate of Patricia Hearst ("Hearst"), who was kidnapped on February 4, 1974, by a group that identified itself as the Symbionese Liberation Army ("SLA).