Psychiatrist Says Malvo Legally Insane

1010 Wins ^ | Dec 11, 10:04 AM EST | ADRIENNE SCHWISOW, AP

[Calpernia]

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) -- Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo has mental diseases that left him "psychologically numb" and legally insane because he couldn't tell right from wrong, a defense psychiatrist said.

During the months he lived with convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad starting in 2000, Malvo lost his sense of identity and became vulnerable to Muhammad's wishes and "intense, coercive persuasion," psychiatrist Neil Blumberg testified Wednesday in Malvo's murder trial.

Malvo's dissociative disorder that allowed him to tune out reality, his depression and a childhood "conduct disorder" of shoplifting and cat-killing all meant Malvo was "unable to distinguish between right and wrong and was unable to resist the impulse" to commit the sniper killings in 2002, Blumberg testified.

Blumberg, who spent 50 hours with Malvo over 20 interviews, said he believed Malvo was legally insane. The standard for legal insanity in Virginia is an inability to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the crime.

Psychiatrist Diane Schetky, who twice interviewed Malvo, also testified that she believed Malvo was unable to tell right from wrong.

Malvo's defense is expected to rest Thursday, and prosecutors are expected to call their own mental health expert.

Malvo, 18, is charged with capital murder in the death of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, who was shot on Oct. 14, 2002, outside a Home Depot.

Defense mental health witnesses have testified that Malvo was indoctrinated by Muhammad, who treated him like a son, and was taught by Muhammad that right and wrong are artificial concepts created by the government.

Malvo's attorneys argue that he is innocent by reason of insanity, and say Malvo latched on to Muhammad because his childhood of loneliness and uprooting left him malleable and without a father figure. Malvo told the psychiatrists that he and Muhammad planned to wage a war for racial justice against America.

"He was merged with Mr. Muhammad. He was acting as his proxy. They were one and the same. He was like a puppet in his hands," Schetky said.

She also said, however, that she believed Malvo knew killing Keenya Cook was wrong. Malvo told the doctors that he shot Cook in the face in Tacoma, Wash., eight months before the shootings around the nation's capital.

Schetky said Malvo believed he had no choice but to obey Muhammad's killing order. Blumberg said he thought Malvo did not know the killing was wrong.

Malvo also had misgivings about the shooting of a middle school student in Bowie, Md., during the sniper spree, Schetky testified. Malvo told her he thought shooting children was "very wrong," and that he was relieved Iran Brown didn't die.

Prosecutors argue that Malvo was a willing participant in the shootings, and Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. suggested Tuesday in cross-examinations that Malvo's emotional conflict in the school shooting indicated he understood the moral implications of his actions.

A jury convicted Muhammad last month and recommended he be put to death.

Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Calpernia]

***ANYONE*** can be diagnosed with a disorder. Is anyone that murders sane?

[Calpernia]

ping

[pctech]

If you ask me, the shrink is insane!!

[biblewonk]

How is that not true of any Muslim based on his beliefs, not his actions. Obviously Malvo's actions were not sane but that can't be an automatic plea of anyone who kills anyone.

[Hodar]

Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo has mental diseases that left him "psychologically numb" and legally insane because he couldn't tell right from wrong, a defense psychiatrist said.

Easy one to disprove. If he truly didn't know right from wrong, why did he hide his actions? A person with this condition wouldn't feel any need to hide his actions of murder, any more than he would feel the need to hide breathing. He would calmly walk about the streets, shooting people without concern of being seen.

[SpinyNorman]

Wonder what this headshrinker's appraisal would be of Algore?

[martin_fierro]

Wonder what the prosecution's experts have to say about this mutt.

[Alberta's Child]

Psychiatry became the professional equivalent of astrology once it was determined that a condition with no discernible physical characteristics, no known pathogens, and no genetic component could be classified as an "illness."

[Uncle George]

Bill Clinton is legally insane and he is walking free!!!!!!!!

[RonHolzwarth]

So he's insane. There is only one thing to do then.

Drop the trial, forget it.

And then, lock him up forever, with no chance of ever getting out.

[Sacajaweau]

Lot of crap. Someone made the BEST point..

If he didn't do anything wrong, why was he hiding. The next point is that it was well advertised that these killings were wrong and we know he can read and had computer in his vehicle with access to the media sites. Who did they think we were talking about? Plus, his threatening letter says "I'm going to do something BAD if you don't pay the money.

Yea, he's a sicko all right but he knew exactly what he was doing, did it several times and PLANNED it.

[Spok]

"Wonder what this headshrinker's appraisal would be of Algore?'
It would depend entirely on who was paying the bill.

[Catspaw]

Malvo's case is a case about dueling shrinks. But if the jury does its job and cuts through all the crapola, they'll find that Malvo did know what he was doing when he pulled the trigger.

[Eva]

I was thinking exactly the same thing, no one who commits murder is actually sane by normal standards, especially terrorists.

[saveliberty]

On the money!

If he didn't know right from wrong why kill in secret, with a little hole drilled through the trunk?

[Cicero]

It seems as if you can always hire a psychiatrist to say anything if you pay him a fee for his court appearance.

I wonder if he showed up in court with his "The Devil Made Me Do It" T-shirt?

[TheCrusader]

"Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo has mental diseases that left him "psychologically numb" and legally insane because he couldn't tell right from wrong, a defense psychiatrist said."

Solution; put him on trial for murder with a jury of his peers, twelve men and women who are psychologically numb and legally insane.

[gridlock]

If Malvo is insane, there are about a Billion people all over the MidEast who seem to share the same affliction...

[steve-b]

My comment from another thread on the subject:

In its 1995 session, the New Mexico legislature pondered and passed a bill that set limits on the testimony of psychologists in court. Senate bill 459, written by Richard Romero, included the following language:

"When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant's competancy hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a cone-shaped hat that is not less than two feet tall. The surface of the hat shall be imprinted with stars and lightening bolts.
"Additionally, a psychologist or psychiatrist shall be required to don a white beard... and shall punctuate crucial elements of his testimony by stabbing the air with a wand." Before the expert's testimony about competency, the bill specified "the baliff shall contemporaneuosly dim the courtroom lights and administer two strikes to a Chinese gong."

Although the Senate passed the bill by voice vote, and the House voted 46 to 14 to make it official, NM Governor Gary Johnson vetoed it.
--"How the Shrinks Stand Up in Court" San Francisco Chronicle, 05 January 1996, p. E8

[~Kim4VRWC's~]

Interesting....

[~Kim4VRWC's~]

I recently read that insanity and "mental illness" does not equate with mental retardation. In other words...there are some very smart insane people. :-\

[smith288]

During the months he lived with convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad starting in 2000, Malvo lost his sense of identity and became vulnerable to Muhammad's wishes and "intense, coercive persuasion," psychiatrist Neil Blumberg testified Wednesday in Malvo's murder trial.

Which Mohammad are we talking about here? Because this could be applied to Islam's Mohammad too if you want to get technical...homicide bombers are maniacs as well...but we just call them terrorists and try to execute their useless existence.

[Freedom4US]

"Legally insane" should be a medical or psychological footnote, an obscure curiousity for elbow-patched eccentrics in academia.

In any case, the guy is defective. If the state can't or won't find a modicum of survival sense enough to execute him, at least lock the bastard up for the rest of his life. Further, if one of the above mentioned "experts" deems him "all better now"; then transfer him to the general population to serve out the rest of his sentence.

For the last 60 years we've had foisted on this nation a whole slew of self described and self appointed "experts" who've run our society off a cliff. The only silver lining to all this, the baby boomer hippy anarchists are young enough yet, they'll get the "revolution" they pined for in the 60's, make no mistake, just a little bit later than they imagined, it will be worth it just to watch them howl.

[angkor]

Q: Did your targets matter whether it was male, female, or you know age?
MALVO: Nobody.
Q: Just whoever got into that sight?
MALVO: Yeah whoever I picked.
Q: Did you ever feel bad about any certain one?
MALVO: No.
Q: Nope? If you had to do it over, you'd do the same thing, huh?
MALVO: Yeah, I'd just blow up the weapon.

Malvo Interrogation, Nov. 12, 2002
Fairfax County Police Transcript
11/21/03 - Transcript of CW Exhibit #220b (PDF)

http://www.fairfax.va.us/courts/cases/pdf/112103cw220b.pdf

[Sacajaweau]

Thanks.

The object of Trials and Justice is to protect the people. The only "innocent" people in this trial are the victims.

[nightdriver]

"The standard for legal insanity in Virginia is an inability to distinguish right from wrong at the time of the crime."

Oh just great! Using that criteria, at least half the population of Washington D.C. is insane.

[singsong]

Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo has mental diseases that left him "psychologically numb" and legally insane because he couldn't tell right from wrong, a defense psychiatrist said.

Unfortunately, this is what Islam will do to you. Islam is insanity. The problem is prcisely that it is LEGAL. Our legal system is insane too, it's still "legal" though.

[talleyman]

If you ask me, the shrink is insane!!

Beat me to it!

[biblewonk]

Unfortunately, this is what Islam will do to you. Islam is insanity. The problem is prcisely that it is LEGAL. Our legal system is insane too, it's still "legal" though.

Then what does that say about our efforts in Iraq? We are trying to help a bunch of "beautiful minds" make a nice country like ours.

[singsong]

The only known cure for a true believer is a straitjacket. True believers are not that many though, Iraq will be fine.

[evad]

..But if the jury does its job and cuts through all the crapola..

Thank God this trial and these jurors are in Virginia and NOT Maryland.

In Maryland he'd be out already writing a book and doing a speaking tour.