Duke’s 2015 Winter Forum, ''To Catch a Killer: Investigating the Brain,'' had only just begun when a man ran into a Fuqua auditorium yelling that Dean Steve Nowicki had been shot in the next room. Minutes before, Nowicki, the vice provost for undergraduate education, had told the group of 100 undergraduates that he knew little about the forum content but was ''dying'' to find out. Now he lay silently sprawled on his back on the floor, his shirt covered with a big blotch of red liquid.
''You have 72 hours to make an arrest,'' said Nita Farahany, a law and philosophy professor who helped organize the three-day event that took place before classes started this semester. ''We think President Brodhead may be targeted next.''
Farahany and colleagues Scott Huettel, a professor of psychology and neuroscience, and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, a professor of philosophy in the Kenan Institute for Ethics, worked for more than a year to plan the program. They designed it to expose students to the intersection of neuroscience and the criminal justice system.
''Crime is one of the biggest issues facing this country,'' said Farahany, who also directs Duke's Science and Society Initiative. ''Solving it isn’t as easy as finding a piece of evidence at a crime scene and processing it through a computer. It takes judgment, it takes ethics, it takes hard work to bring to justice the individuals who commit crimes.''
Student participants were given profiles of four fabricated suspects, all with a grudge against Nowicki. One resented not having air conditioning in her residence hall and was angry about having to live in Edens. Another was obsessed with Nowicki’s ''Why are you here?'' convocation speech. A pre-med blamed Nowicki's high school biology textbook for failing Bio 201L at Duke. And a Cameron Crazie from Pratt who had graduated early was furious that Nowicki wouldn't let him sit in the student fan section at Duke basketball games this semester.
Working in teams named after parts of the brain, students evaluated the suspects' strength of motive and then had to decide how much weight they could place on an eyewitness account (hint – not a lot.) Every few hours, real-life experts presented them with additional information to consider. Duke Law Professor Jim Coleman ran a simulation of eyewitness misidentification and he also discussed what it was like to serve as a defense lawyer for Ted Bundy, a notorious psychopath. Elizabeth Loftus, one of the nation’s leading experts in faulty memory, Skyped with students from California after they watched her TedTalk. Duke Law alumnae Emilia Beskind, a defense attorney, and Leslie Cooley, a federal prosecutor, discussed scientific admissibility of evidence and constitutional issues relating to expert witnesses. Mackenzie DeHaan, a state crime lab manager, revealed strengths and limitations of DNA evidence and shot holes in what is portrayed in television crime shows. Author and neuroscientist Kent Kiehl, who specializes in the use of clinical brain imaging techniques and other tests for understanding criminal psychopathy, illustrated some psychopathic character traits using video clips of interviews he conducted with Brian Dugan, a convicted serial rapist and murderer.
One of the most popular sessions featured Jennifer Thompson, who was raped in 1986 while a student at Elon College. She appeared with Burlington native Ronald Cotton, whom Thompson mistakenly identified as her assailant. Cotton served 11 years in prison before DNA evidence led to his release. The two are now friends and have written a book, ''Picking Cotton,'' and shared their dramatic story with the likes of ''60 Minutes'' and National Public Radio.
Burlington natives Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton have become friends after Thompson mistakenly identified Cotton as her rapist in the 1980s.
''It was so different to hear people personally affected by crime personally, not just experts,'' said Neha Agrawal, a sophomore who plans to declare neuroscience as her major.
The crime theme attracted students from all years, schools, departments and specialties, and the majority of them didn’t know each other before the forum. ''It feels like freshman year again,'' Agrawal said. ''You’re meeting so many groups of people, you’re jumping into these intellectual conversations. You don't know anybody, but you become really close from solving these problems together.''
In the end, the fictional Cameron Crazie named Dante Delacruz turned out to be the killer, which most of the teams deduced. President Brodhead, who joined the students for lunch at the close of the forum, thanked them for making an arrest before he became the target. ''I hope you’ll see to it that Dante is taken to his own personal inferno,'' Brodhead said.
At the conclusion, the lead professors encouraged students to learn a lot more about the criminal system – through Duke classes, internships and lectures. ''I hope they go volunteer at the NC Crime Lab, explore a career in criminal law, visit people in prison and get to know them,'' Sinnott-Armstrong said. ''I hope this will spur a lot of changes in their lives.''
Some things are for certain. Students uniformly praised the forum, the work of the organizers and the stress-free opportunity to delve into a topic that fascinated them.
''It was a nice welcome back to Duke,'' said senior Michael Liou.
Note: The annual winter forum -- for undergraduates of all years and majors -- focuses on a major societal issue and is sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Education. It takes place three days before the start of spring semester classes. Applications for the 2016 Winter Forum will be accepted in Fall 2015.