JUSTICE for KAIRISSA MARK

Dr. Deborah Mark, a pediatrician, of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, is charged with first degree murder and multiple counts of child abuse in connection to the death of her four-year-old daughter, Kairissa Mark, in July 2010. Steven Mark is charged with multiple counts of child abuse. Kairissa was adopted from China. Less than 90 days after the Marks adopted her, she was dead. Kairissa had severe bruising and Mt. Juliet police said the case of child abuse was one of the worst they had seen.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Psychologist: Deborah Mark “highly susceptible” to false confession

Deborah Wen-Yee Mark is an unhappy woman driven by a strict Chinese culture that commands her to please authority figures, making her “highly susceptible” to falsely confessing to interrogators, according to a psychologist who testified on her behalf Thursday, according to The Tennessean.

But Dr. James Walker, a forensic neuropsychologist, declined to give an opinion on whether that is indeed what she did in the summer of 2010 when she told Wilson County investigators that she flung her 4-year-old daughter out of frustration.

Two doctors testified Thursday that the girl, Kairissa Mark, died of a traumatic brain injury, likely caused by the impact of her head hitting the wall.