Last month, attorneys for Stewart Parnell said that the former Peanut Corporation of America CEO did not have the mental capacity to intentionally commit multiple felonies, including wire fraud and conspiracy, because he suffers from attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD). Now, in a motion filed Dec. 4, federal prosecutors say that if Parnell’s attorneys are allowed to present evidence from a psychological examination that diagnosed his ADHD, they want to have their own psychoanalysis performed. It is still not clear if the judge will let the initial analysis be used as evidence when Parnell goes to trial to face 76 felony counts in February 2014. Parnell was CEO of Peanut Corporation of America when the company in 2008 and 2009 sickened 700 people with Salmonella and caused the most expansive food recall in U.S. history. While the prosecutors’ move to ask for their own psychoanalysis is not unusual, arguing over culpability by way of ADHD may be. “I’m not a criminal defense lawyer, but I’ve never seen ADHD be basically used as an insanity plea,” said food safety attorney Bill Marler, whose law firm Marler Clark underwrites Food Safety News. Marler also represented numerous clients in foodborne illness lawsuits against Parnell and PCA. According to Parnell’s analysis by Joseph C. Conley, Jr., Ph.D., he “was and remains cognitively incapable of fielding, delineating, organizing, and integrating the daily plethora of phone calls and E-mails required in managing three companies.” In another motion, Stewart Parnell’s brother, Michael Parnell, has filed for severance of persons and counts from the trial, claiming he was an independent broker and not an employee of PCA. Because the brothers did not own a single enterprise with a common goal, Michael Parnell cannot have been involved with any alleged conspiracies, his lawyers argue. Also facing conspiracy charges are former PCA employees Samuel Lightsey and Mary Wilkerson. “The potential for prejudice to Michael Parnell is clear: If tried together with Defendants Stewart Parnell, Samuel Lightsey and Mary Wilkerson, the counts and evidence against PCA for the actions of its officers and employers toward customers with whom Michael Parnell had no contact or relationship could easily ‘bleed over’ to Michael Parnell and cause his conviction as a result of his relationship with Stewart Parnell,” Michael Parnell’s lawyers wrote.