Legal Info: A Collection of Legal Experts Weigh In on Fujita Trial

The trial of Nathaniel Fujita began on Feb. 11, 2013, with two days of jury selection. Since then, 11 days of testimony and a trip to visit scenes in Wayland have followed.

And we're not quite finished yet. The cross-examination of the defense's mental health expert, Dr. Wade Myers, will continue Monday and Prosecutor Lisa McGovern is expected to call Dr. Alison Fife as her rebuttal mental health expert witness.

The mental health witnesses have taken the stand because Fujita's attorney, William Sullivan, is pursuing a so-called insanity defense for his client. The defense asserts that, although Fujita committed the murder with which he is charged, he was suffering a "brief psychotic episode" at the time, as well as enduring a major depressive disorder, and is therefore not culpable for the murder.

On Friday, Myers testified that his tests and interviews with Fujita revealed that the defendant lacked "the ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions," as well as "the capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law."

McGovern, in her cross-examination of Myers, pressed the doctor on whether several of Fujita's actions -- leaving Astley after strangling her to get a knife from his kitchen, disposing of her body five miles from his home, etc. -- were "purposeful" actions.

The doctor replied that they were "purposeful in the terms of acting in a state outside of reality."

Many questions have been raised in the Patch comment boards and in emails to the editor about what various verdicts -- guilty of first-degree murder, not guilty by reason of lack of criminal intent, etc. -- would mean for Fujita's sentence.

Patch has tracked down what several legal experts have told various media outlets throughout this case. Below is a collection of those links that will address the questions of verdict and sentencing.

- NECN; Attorney Phil Tracy and Boston Globe reporter Evan Allen discuss what the defense is arguing and what it could mean for Fujita's sentence.

- Fox25; Tracy again addresses this case.

- CBS Boston; Expert says defense could resonate with at least one juror.

- Boston Herald; David Rossman, director of the Boston University School of Law’s Criminal Law Clinic Program, discusses football injuries as a criminal defense.