Posted on 02/01/2005 3:18:13 AM PST by drt1
Judge decides she was insane at time of killings - A woman who told investigators she drowned her two children after receiving a sign from a spider was found not guilty by reason of insanity Monday and ordered to be committed to the state mental hospital for an indeterminate period.
Two defense psychiatrists and another testifying on behalf of prosecutors told a judge during an eight-hour hearing that Rebekah Amaya was insane at the time of the October 2003 drownings....
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Wouldn't you have to be a little insane to kill someone anyway? The question is, did she ever exhibit signs of insanity before or after she murdered the children? If no, she wasn't "insane" when she was murdering them, either. I'm sick of this "not my fault" mentality.
Will this translate into a free pass for killing a woman who dares touch the remote?
Guilty and Insane.
That gives us more power over these people after the verdict. As it stands now, any "enlightened" shrink can set her free after 180 days and she can go on about her business with no further supervision.
That's bad.
Of course, no one had any inkling that she was insane before the act. /sarc
Forget about clintoon...
they quit me and I am OK.
She will appeal on the fact that kids float!
I agree! Find them guilty first, then determine if they are wacko. If they are "full goose bozo" then lock them up in an asylum. If some Doc later decides he/she is "cured" then lock them up in the general prison population for the remainder of their sentence.
Hey, at least it wasn't Bush's fault;
it was the spider's fault.
Disgusting! Old sparky will now be getting a few cob-webs.
I have to believe that none of you on this post has ever known anyone who had mental illness. I have known several people and they really are not responsible for their actions. They truly believe things like spiders talk to them and someone is out to get them. It is as real to them as everyday things are to us.
Bysane?
Multisane?
If some Doc later decides he/she is "cured" then lock them up in the general prison population for the remainder of their sentence.Or maybe not in the general prison population, but at least in some kind of life-time highly-supervised probation just to protect the innocent public against mistakes made by "some Doc".
The main thing wouldn't be to keep them locked up forever (if we really believe they were insane at the time of their crime, which, in most cases, of course, is a bogus claim) but that society is protected from their future actions.
If these two conditions are met:
1. They are found to be insane at the time of their crime.
2. They are later somehow miraculously "cured".
Then a third condition should be imposed:
3. Society must have the right to keep strict tabs on this person, to verify that the "cure" is real... for the rest of their natural lives.
This is what I mean by "Guilty and Insane"
BillyZane?
The distinction between the various degrees of murder is intentionality. A mentally ill person who kills unintentionally should still get a manslaughter sentence, minimum.
People who commit acts of evil are not just "sick", or "insane." What ever happened to someone just being evil?
Example - The Andrea Yates matter - Her husband must have been brain dead or actually ill himself not to have seen the very evident problems his wife was having yet he did nothing and, in fact, continued having more children. IMO these people share in responsibility for the tragedy, much like a passerby who sees an accident and fails to stop and render aid even though they are perfectly capable and to do so would not endanger them in any way.
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