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The programme opens with the astonishing case in America of Scott Falater, which brought the subject to the world's attention in 1999. Falater, a church-going “exemplary citizen" stabbed his wife 44 times next to the family pool then proceeded to change his bloodied clothes and place them along with the murder weapon in a Tupperware container. He then put the container in a trash bag and stashed it in the boot of his car. He claimed throughout the whole ordeal he was sleepwalking: "I say I am innocent. I killed my wife but I can't remember anything. It is a total blank," a claim the jury didn't believe.
"Sleepwalkers Who Kill" medically examines our capacity to commit violent acts whilst sleeping. At the Maudsley sleep laboratory in London we meet sleep expert Dr. Peter Fenwick who has dealt with hundreds of cases of sleepwalking violence. "The general public is very sceptical about the possibilities of carrying out violent actions whilst sleeping".
We meet one of Dr. Peter Fenwick's most serious patients: chronic sleepwalker Glenn Brentwood. A sleep experiment is set up by rigging up infrared cameras. Glen is suddenly standing and leaving the room. We witness the incredible sight of his illogical behaviour, opening drawers, entering and leaving rooms and chopping vegetables. "Nonsensical actions are totally characteristic of the sleepwalker”.
"Sleepwalkers Who Kill" examines the legal minefield surrounding the area. We talk to Michael Kimerer, the defence lawyer for Lynda Hughes. "The question is should sleepwalking be legally seen as insanity - a disease of the mind- in which case the accused would be found guilty and detained indefinitely in a psychiatric hospital. Or is it automatism, an act which is carried out by the muscles without any control by the mind - such as a spasm - in which case the accused should be acquitted and go free".
Acquittals are surprisingly common. At his family home in Toronto, Kenneth Parks tells his astounding story. On May 12th 1987 he settled down for the night on the living room sofa after being banished from the bedroom by his wife. "The next thing I remember is coming to my senses covered in blood. I didn't know where I was or what I was doing there". Parks, a man commonly known as the "gentle giant", had driven 14 miles to the house of his mother-in-law, parked neatly in her garage, found a knife in the kitchen then proceeded up to his mother-in-law's bedroom and stabbed her to death. In this instance, amazingly the jury accepted the sleepwalking claim and he walked free.