Posted on 12/14/2004 4:45:48 PM PST by yonif
McKINNEY, Texas (AP) - 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.
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.
If the woman were a Muslim, would you be as swift to argue that she was merely using the Koran as an excuse?
I looked at your pic and you are a very pretty ladyinred. However I don't think you understand too much about mental illness. My mother was chronic paranoid-schizophrenic since I was 12 years old. The Bible and her hatred of my father and sex was the most salient symptom of her illness. As I majored in psychology I was priveliged to tour our state mental hospital many years ago. Many of the patients there had symptoms that vested in religion and the Bible. This is not unusual and the twisted association is very real. My mother died two years ago from colon cancer in the nursing home where she was given Haldol to treat her schizophrenia. Only then for the first time since I was a child did my mother tell me she loved me.
This poor woman was obviously insane and it's too bad she never got help before she murdered her child. You have to understand that these people see and hear voices and sometimes they really think God is giving them instructions to do horrible acts. The attorney had nothing to do with her present state of clarity.
My brother and I took legal custody of my mother after Daddy had a stroke. Her guardian ad litem called me and said he had talked to my mother and she seemed fine and capable to him. He suggested a psychological exam and I said please do. When we went before the magistrate the lawyer told the judge he would not oppose the guardian request. Seven pages from the doctor made him understand the depth of Mama's illness.
But you see, as much of a pain as it was Mama always had us to look after her.
Well, I can understand why being insane would cause you to do dopey things. It shouldnt be a defense that protects you from punishment though.
Rather than not guilty by reason of insanity, it should be something like guilty AND insane or guilty due to insanity.
Something like that. I realize that Im pissing into a 50 mph headwind regarding such things though
I hope some member of your family never suffers from mental illness.
Satan didn't lead the woman to do this. Her broken mind did it.
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Christ was talking about one's personal battle with sin...
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Funny, Muslims say the same thing about Jihad, yet "Christians" here call them liars.
I hope some member of your family doesn't maim or murder the children.
I heard on the news a short time ago that Andrea Yates who drowned her five children in TX, filed today for a new trial. Seems she is better already.
All my family is dead including my very mentally ill mother. Walk a mile in my shoes before you spout off about something you know nothing of.
I don't buy the insanity plea.
"The Devil made me buy this dress."
No, you are not pissing in the wind. Someone who is insane and commits any violent act should be kept away from the rest of us who are supposedly normal. But you see, the bed wetters won't let you do that. We used to put them away in hospitals for their own safe keeping and ours. But that all changed back in the seventies. Oh well.
Pastor Decried After Child's Arms Severed
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1295086/posts
The lawyer is just as bad as the pitiful excuse for a human for repeating the lie.
If the ABA were a responsible organization, it would disbar any attorney for repeating or using such lies in the defense of a client. But, to my knowledge, no reasonable individua has called the ABA a responsible organization in the last few decades.
Poor jakknife, you have never been around the mentally ill have you ? I spent 43 of my 57 years with a mentally ill mother. What don't you buy ? Would a sane person do that ? Hell no they wouldn't. But I agree it should not be a defense that allowed the person to ever see the outside world again.
Please check out the link in #34 Im curious what you think
"I'm an apostle and I'm a prophet,"
Yeah, and I'm Howard Hughes. Insanity personified.
Your shoes don't fit.
Mental illness is no excuse for avoiding punishment that fits the crime. Adults who murder children should be executed. There is absolutely no excuse for you to come to the defense of this perp.
Or as a fictional character would say to the woman:
"You're an adult. Your victims are children. There's nothing you could say to make me feel sorry for you."
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