(Image Attribution: NBC New York)

BY SARAH NG

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

The lawyer for an accused New York murderer says ‘inbreeding’ is partly to blame for his client’s horrific actions.

The case involves the so-called Butcher of Brooklyn Levi Aron. He’s accused of kidnapping and killing an 8-year-old boy he didn’t know, and dismembering the body.

Here’s Good Morning America.

“The monster who confessed to killing 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky appeared emotionless in court Thursday.
[Prosecutor]: ‘He has admitted to smothering him and dismembering him,’
[Defense]: ‘I have serious concerns about the defendant’s mental state,’”

Earlier this week, Aron’s defense attorney Howard Greenberg told a judge his client could be suffering from schizophrenia and had suffered a head injury as a child.

Now, he’s arguing -- inbreeding -- could also have impacted Aron’s mental state.
CNN explains.

“Asked what proof of inbreeding he had, Greenberg said he had ‘anecdotal evidence in talking to the family,’ but declined to elaborate. … The attorney said he is ‘not a medical doctor,’ but believes that inbreeding ‘can result in certain kinds of mental defects.’”

Aron grew up in an Orthodox Jewish tradition -- a close-knit community whose members often choose to intermarry.

WSBT talks to Dov Hikind, an assemblyman of Brooklyn’s Orthodox community.
He’s appalled by Greenberg’s words.

“Greenburg is a miserable, self-hating Jew for all that I am concerned. He wants to defend Levi Aron, he has every right to. But to attack, degrade, an entire community, my community, anybody’s community, that is not what this case is all about.”

Aron’s other two lawyers have previously been reprimanded by the judge for unprofessional conduct after discussing the case on their personal Facebook accounts and leaking information to the press.

Greenberg has said he will quit his legal career if Aron isn’t found to be insane.