Posted on 12/15/2004 9:23:25 AM PST by Ellesu
McKINNEY, Texas -- A mother who admitted killing her baby daughter by severing the girl's arms was guided by a Bible passage in which Jesus refers to cutting off body parts to cast away sin, the woman's attorney said Tuesday.
Dena Schlosser, a 35-year-old housewife with a history of mental illness, has referred to the New Testament passage since the killing of 10-month-old Margaret, attorney David Haynes told The Associated Press.
AP Image Dena Schlosser
In the Book of Matthew, Jesus says: "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
Schlosser was charged with capital murder Nov. 22, after she told a 911 operator she had cut off her baby's arms. Police found her in the living room, covered in blood, still holding a knife and listening to a hymn.
Haynes said Schlosser was mentally ill at the time.
He said Schlosser is still disoriented but is improving under medication she is receiving in jail.
"She knows the baby is dead," he said. "I think she understands generally the physical facts of how that came to be, but she is now conscious that her mind has not been clear for years and she's still coming to grips with that."
Schlosser had been hospitalized for postpartum depression in January as part of an investigation by the state's child-protection agency. Social workers said she exhibited symptoms of psychosis but improved with medication and psychiatric help, and the agency closed the investigation in August.
A Bible scholar said that in the passage cited by Schlosser, Jesus was speaking figuratively and using a common expression of his time.
Virgil Howard, who teaches the New Testament at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology, added that even if the passage were interpreted literally, it still wouldn't suggest that one person harm another.
"Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about cutting off someone else's hand or foot or eye," he said.
A jury of her peers will decide what to do with her.
Sounds like a really sick woman was written off by the system and left to care for a baby she had no business having custody of...The "system" seems to want to take care of those who won't take care of themselves, instead of taking care of those who can't take care of themselves...
Where was dad? I would imagine trying to cope, bearing the pressures of the situation at home and the demands of his job while earning a living and doing his best to provide more than just the basic food, shelter and clothing for his family. How can he do all that but at the same time drop everything to be at home 24 hrs a day?
I'm sure he was also listening to all the advice he was getting, medical and otherwise, trying to to the best he could for his family.
I doubt anyone going through this kind of situation has the absolute clarity of thought that hindsight provides. Why pile on?
suffer the little children...
Sounds like a democrats approach after reading the American Constitution.. "Democrat Supreme Court Justices" are an Oxy-moron.. they violate all four words..
Did I say it was all Dad's fault? I was just asking where was he. Did he just deposit his sperm and take off? Certainly Dad would bear some responsibility if he was in fact in a relationship with this woman he had to have some inkling she wasn't right in the head since she has a history of mental illness. I would hope that a father has some emotional involvement with his family even though he is in a provider role.
Yes, so do I. But in this woman's case, unfortunately some people who are mentally ill have religious complexes, who knows why. But I think it's wrong when some people try to infer from tragedies like this that there is something inherently wrong with Christianity that would make people do crazy things. Some people are just nuts and can be inspired in their madness by anything.
I bet those lawyers would be in fear for their lives if they had blamed the Koran.
OK, I ain't no biblical scholar, but somehow I am just a teeny bit skeptical that chopping up infants is quite what the text refers to. Unless she's reading the New Standard Manson Version.
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