Final Arguments to Begin Today in Dahmer Trial

The prosecution in the insanity trial of confessed serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer rested its case Thursday, and closing arguments were scheduled to begin this morning. Defense attorney Gerald Boyle told the judge that Dahmer had decided against taking the stand.

Dahmer, 31, has confessed to killing and dismembering 17 young males since 1978. He pleaded guilty but insane to 15 Milwaukee County slayings, and a jury must decide if he will be sent to prison or a mental institution.

The final prosecution witness, Dr. Park Dietz, a psychiatrist, testified Thursday that Dahmer wore condoms when having sex with his dead victims, showing that he could control his urge to have intercourse with corpses.

Dietz, on the stand for the second day, said Dahmer suffers from a variety of sexual disorders, but none would have made him unable to know right from wrong or unable to stop himself from killing.

“ ‘I don’t think anybody can kill somebody and think it’s right,’ ” Dietz quoted Dahmer as saying during more than 17 hours of interviews.

Dietz said Dahmer possessed the willpower to control his sexual attraction to corpses, much like other individuals control more conventional sexual urges.

To be found insane under Wisconsin law, Dahmer must prove he suffered from a mental disease at the time of the killings, making him either unable to know right or wrong or unable to stop killing.