She was/is more than PPD. I've heard everything from bi-polar to schizoaffective. Plotting and planning aren't signs of sanity. Even the most paranoid schizophrenic can build a cathedral.
I have relatives with "mental illness", including one who's schizophrenic.
"Innocent by insanity" shouldn't even be an option. If you committed the crime, you're guilty. "Guilty but insane" I can understand, but you still should lock them away for life with no chance of release.
This woman could be released later. :-0
"She was/is more than PPD"
Psychotic Post Partum Depression. I researched it a bit when this tragedy first came to our attention. I was MOST interested, based on my personal, scary experience. I wanted to understand. My experience was 23 years ago, long before I had the resources of the internet at my disposal. I might mention that I have three children. I suffered not a whisper of PPD with my daughter or my younger son, just with my middle child. A bewildering illness.
What I experienced was considered "severe", but NOWHERE the magnitude of what she suffered with. Combine this extreme PPD with other mental illness, and anyone tuned into her SHOULD have heard the ticking of the time bomb, waiting to explode.
Of course she, herself, is responsible for what happened. Five beautiful, precious lives were senselessly lost. I should never have happened. My personal desire would be for lifetime incarceration for her. She took five lives, afterall. I just want her imprisoned where she can actually get mental health care.
I will be watching the news for the rest of my life, hoping NOT to read a blurb on some back page that she has been released as "cured". Mental illness as severe as I have read she suffers from, is usually a lifetime thing.
pattyjo