MARKSVILLE, La. — One of two deputy city marshals charged with murder in a 6-year-old boy’s fatal shooting wants Louisiana prosecutors to disclose whether any of their witnesses were hypnotized to elicit trial testimony.
A court filing dated Friday doesn’t explain why Norris Greenhouse Jr.’s lawyer, George Higgins III, is asking if any prosecution witnesses underwent hypnosis or any “truth-determining examinations,” such as polygraph tests or sodium pentothal.
Higgins didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment. In his filing, he says hypnosis has become an increasingly common investigative tool for state law-enforcement agencies despite the technique’s controversial nature.
Greenhouse and Derrick Stafford have pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the shooting that killed Jeremy Mardis and wounded his father, Christopher Few, in Marksville in November.
