[oremus]

I see some interesting contradictions around here - on the one hand, everyone talks about a crazy woman who didn't bathe herself and sat and stared straight ahead, tries to kill herself, pulls hair out of her head, endures extreme stress from her husband and family, has an incompetent doctor who took her off her anti-psychotic med (if she's not psychotic, then why was she on that in the first place???), while at the same time saying she's not "insane" and calling her a "cold-blooded murderer." I would imagine that to be an insult to all the TRUE certified cold blooded murderers out there.

This sounds like Nazi Germany mentality brewing - at this rate some day we'll just give the needle to all mentally ill folks and put them all out of their misery. This attitude being displayed here is quite disconcerting, to say the least.

And no I'm NOT a liberal by any means - just someone who can think for myself and sees that if this woman was NOT mentally ill and delusional she would NEVER have killed her kids. She also would not have killed her kids had she been taken away from them and given the sort of care she needed as should have been done in the first place.

To me, Rusty is more the equivalent of a cold-blooded killer than Andrea. Andrea spent her entire life putting other people's needs before her own - they said that as a kid and teen she was the one in the neighborhood who would go around and take care of the elderly living nearby. There was no one who disliked her, or had anything bad to say about her (prior to the murders, of course). Doesn't sound like the definition of a "cold-blooded" murderer in the making to me. Just someone who most unfortunately developed severe mental illness which impaired her ability to think right, which caused her to commit this horrifying evil act.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Andrea is NO Susan Smith. And if Susan had 6 kids she would have killed 6 kids in COLD BLOOD as she killed her two. There is NO excuse for Susan Smith. SHE is a disgusting cold-blooded murderer. SHE was NOT mentally ill.

Andrea knew it was against the law, but in her mind the "reality" was that it was the "best" thing to do for her children and thus was more than willing to pay the price. Susan, however, did it for her own selfish disgusting reasons, and then lied about it. I have no sympathy for the likes of Susan, but Andrea is severely mentally ill plain and simple. Big difference. Huge.

[pubmom]

I agree with everything you've said, and I'm no liberal either.

[muggs]

I see things pretty much just like you regarding this.

[MVV]

Thanks for your post - all opinions are welcome here!

[cake_crumb]

Long reply. I haven't seen any posts on this thread accusing Andrea of being sane. There IS some discussion about the jury finding that she knew right from wrong.

My brother is a paranoid schizophrenic. HE knows right from wrong. It IS possible to be BOTH very sick AND still know right from wrong. Andrea had to have been SATURATED in Christian fundimantalism. She therefore knew that "thou shalt not kill" is pretty important commandment.

[spectre]

No, the big difference is most mentally ill people don't go off and murder their children. Some, even take their own lives...after destroying their offspring. Now, that is honestly sick.

But psycho Andrea stopped short of taking her own life. Pretty clever, huh?

And I don't believe everything that came out of Andrea's mouth...except "I finally did it", which was the abolute truth and nothing but the truth.

sw