“In a case that has raised questions about the limits of confidentiality in self-help groups, a Larchmont carpenter is on trial again on charges of breaking into his childhood home and murdering the...

“In a case that has raised questions about the limits of confidentiality in self-help groups, a Larchmont carpenter is on trial again on charges of breaking into his childhood home and murdering the couple who had bought the house from his parents. The first trial of the carpenter, Paul Cox, 27, ended in a mistrial, with jurors deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of conviction. In that trial more than a half dozen members of Alcoholics Anonymous testified under subpoena that Mr. Cox confessed to them that he thought he had committed the killings during a drunken blackout. As in the first trial, Cox had pleaded not guilty and intends to use a defense of temporary insanity” (Retrial Begins in Murder Case,” 1994, p. B7). Should privileged communication be extended to self-help groups?