I agree with the schizophrenia diagnosis. I’m not a shrink, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. I was also a prosecutor for 18 years and tried several murder cases where the insanity defense was raised. Even though he can be diagnosed with schizophrenia, and a fairly bad case of it, that alone does not mean he is “insane” in the legal sense of the word. In order for his insanity defense to fly, he must suffer from a mental disease or defect to the extent that he is unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct. One of the main things forensic shrinks look at in determining legal “sanity” is the ability to plan. In this case, he clearly had a plan, not only for the theater but also in the booby-trapping of his home. Sure, it was an evil and diabolical plan. Nor was it a very good one. But it was a plan, and I think that’s what the jury will hang their hats on to convict him with a Guilty but Mentally Ill verdict.
I'll certainly accept you as a legal expert and,given your experience,accept yours as a potential outcome here.I,a rank amateur regarding the law,believe that not everything that's legal is moral.If,by some chance,my "diagnosis" is correct then the laws,as currently written,may deem him to be culpable to some degree but I'd be very reluctant to deem him to be "morally" guilty.Perhaps he needs to spend the rest of his life in a psych hospital but very possibly not in a prison.
It’s always made sense to me that a criminal must have opportunity, means and motive. What is missing here is motive, which suggests the possibility of insanity to me.
there is a guilty but mentally ill verdict in your area? We still have innocent by reasons of insanity
I don’t know if schizophrenia would be the likeliest diagnosis. Schizophrenia is first a thought disorder — the “voices” a schizophrenic hears are disturbing and can reflect bad intentions, but they’re not very good at planning things, particularly over a long period of time (evidently, this guy was gathering material for his evil project months in advance).
Schizophrenia slows you down, especially if you start taking medications for it; when an acquaintance of mine started developing schizophrenia in graduate school, being in his presence made you feel like time had slowed down for him — it was very difficult for him to transition from one activity to another, and he would tend to settle by default into a pattern of aimless pacing. As the disease progresses, one’s inability to complete even simple activities of daily living (hygiene, getting to appointments) becomes increasingly pronounced.
In Holmes’s case I suspect a personality disorder combined with bipolar mood disorder: the guy had intelligence enough to stick with a sophisticated plan (no serious thought disorder) that showed extreme inability to empathize with other people (severe personality disorder), and shifted into a high-gear, maniacal flurry of activity after experiencing some emotional trigger (manic phase of bipolar disorder). Mentally ill, yes, but fully capable of understanding the immorality and criminality of his deeds.
If a dog is rabid, we put it down. We do not care that it wasn't the dog's fault that it was rabid. We also don't care that it didn't understand what was happening to it.