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Perhaps you have heard or have been following the case of the woman near Tyler, TX who killed 2 of her children and attempted to kill the other by bashing their heads with large stones....because God told her to.

She was acquitted by reason of insanity. Though the prosecution tried to show that there is a difference between mental illness (which I think was conceded) and legal insanity (which at least one psychiatrist testified to).

I guess I don't really have a question. Just wondering what ya'll's thoughts are.

For me (the conservative streak in me), I'm fine with someone being diagnosed as insane...but my follow-up question is...SO??? Lethal injection seems to be quite a cure for the homicidally insane.

(Don't worry Rick, et al...I have quite the liberal side to me as well.)

billyjackson

first, i don't blame religeon.

second, i cannot fathom how a brain can go that awry, but it is in fact, nothing more then protoplasm with electrical flashes between synapses. the fact that it works most of the time is amazing.

i have read some articles that suggest by the authors, that it is hard to understand why more people don't kill. driving on the freeway at 70 mph everyday for an hour and a half, knowing you will drive home that night and it will take two hours. if you are lucky, you will keep that job for 20 years and the best you can hope for out of life is a good trade in value when you have worn out the car you are driving.

why don't more people just change into the oncoming traffic and eliminate themselves from a life that is not worth the trouble.

MACS(SW) may be right for the wrong reasons. i would not want to be in a mental institution and know some one that had killed her children and maimed the one she didn't kill would be my bunk mate. might make sleeping very dificult.

i'm familiar with the case -- if it's the one i'm thinking of.

first off, "insanity" is not a psychological condition; it is a legal definition.

one can be quite mentally ill and not be "insane."

the insanity question is basically "did the person know what s/he was doing, and did s/he know at the time the crime was committed that the act was wrong?"

i believe that she DID know that what she was doing was wrong. again, if this is the case i'm thinking of, she demonstrated this. after killing one child and before killing another, her husband was waking up -- she went to him and made sure that he was sleeping again before going on to commit the next murder.

now, if she was really doing this because "god told her to," she would have NO REASON to be secretive about it. she knew that she was committing murder, and she knew that it was wrong -- otherwise, why would it matter to her if her husband might be waking up and so might catch her doing it?

i'm amazed that she was found to be insane.

Cav...

You are correct and I knew there was a difference between legally insane and mentally ill....hell, I'm mentally ill!!!

Yeah, the 911 call for 35 minutes where she seemed calm and collected is "eerie" to use the word of the 911 dispatcher's testimony. On one hand, she must have been legally sane to recount what happened and stay on the line. On the other hand, how COULD someone calmly recount those actions in their right mind? But therein lies the issue of mental illness vs. legal insanity.

Sad situation regardless...but either the jury was composed of people of a different breed than I or the law needs to be looked at more closely.

But what do I know? Got to go study for the LSAT!!! :)

Yo billyjackson: Legally insane or mentally ill, hmmm. I remember someone on this board claiming he was legally dead three times during an operation and yet he is very much alive as I type and don't you have to be mentally ill to be declared legally insane. Six of one, half dozen of another. My advice is just bash half her head in, that way you could either be half right or half wrong. Yes bartender I'll have another double of Jack Daniels Single Barrel please. LOL IBMU JonR

"An Eye for an Eye"......We would all be blind..