Guilty or Not Guilty

The government and criminal justice system is yet to comprehend the possibility of the relationship between giftedness and crime. Santiago Garcia a kind-hearted young man never knew what came over him, when he took the gun of a stranger to shoot another total stranger. It was while incarcerated at a detention center that the secret behind his uncharacteristic actions was revealed to him by a fellow detainee, Fenwick Cassim. It was his giftedness. Santiago was born with the gift that enabled him to absorb the emotions of others and to act on them as if they were his own. He unintentionally absorbed the emotions of Mr. Yoshi Liu who wished to kill Mr. Jeffrey Wilson, and yet it was Santiago who shot Mr. Wilson.

As he went through the trial, his attorney was able to establish that Santiago was indeed gifted, after a giftedness assessment test, and that it was his giftedness that made him commit the crime. The giftedness assessment expert recommended a rehabilitation program for him, rather than prison. But before the jury could deliver its verdict, Santiago overcame by despair and lack of confidence in the criminal justice system regarding his peculiar circumstances (his giftedness) and took the easy way out by committing suicide. Leaving open the critical question: would he have been found guilty or not guilty?