Killer On Death Row Left Brain For Medical Research Before Killing Self

Scott Dozier, a death row convict at the Ely State Prison, Nevada took his own life in an apparent suicide at his cell Sunday.

In a bizarre last request, he asked to donate his brain cells for medical research. In light of that, the medical school of an American university has accepted the offer and would be given the brain once the autopsy is done.

Dozier was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2005 after the body of Jasen Greene was found in a shallow grave outside Phoenix, Arizona, in 2002. He was accused of having shot and mauled Greene. In 2007, Dozier was sentenced to death after being linked to the robbing, brutal killing and dismembering of another victim Jeremiah Miller at a motel in Las Vegas.

He was supposed to be executed by lethal injection but his execution was postponed twice since 2017. This happened over concerns of an untried drug regimen that could possibly leave him suffocating, unconscious and unable to move.

After both executions were postponed, Dozier tried to take his life several times and even in the last few days he was alone, was on suicide watch.

In the months after the second cancelation of his death sentence, Dozier wrote a letter to his sister, asking her to explain how he could die by cutting his neck. But this letter was intercepted by prison staff, according to court documents.

Dozier, fed up of his life in prison, killed himself on Sunday before which he made an unusual request where he asked to donate his brain cells to medical sciences. Though, a bizarre request, the state definitely plans on handing over the brain to a medical school that would perform experiments on it and figure out why he killed those two people so brutally.

This seems to be in the same vein as a research conducted by professor James Fallon of University of California. In his research, he says he can correctly identify serial killers in double-blind experiments simply by observing their brain scans. Other than the composition of brain scans, Fallon says that there are two other components that serial killers have in common; those being: a family history where some members may have been killers or a fact that they may have been severly abused or were exposed to extreme violence, during childhood.

According to the research, most serial killers lack the orbital cortex — the gray matter believed to be involved in social adjustments, ethics, morality and suppression of impulsiveness and aggression.

“If you have thoughts of suicide, confidential help is available for free at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours, every day.”