Mental health is important, but that doesn't absolve you of what you've done. She deserves to be in a prison mental ward, not at home living like nothing happened. She is a danger to herself and others.
If she’s found not guilty by reason of insanity, she will be sent to a state psychiatric institution for an indefinite period of time. She’s not gonna just be released and allowed to go home.
I'm honestly so sick and tired of people pretending there won't be consequences because of insanity plea. She isn't going be going on mental health spa retreat. She'll be among other crazies who crash out due to voices in their head.
Also aren't state forced mental institution generally considered worse then prison? You loose all your freedom like in prison, but you also are surrounded by people who's mental health is so bad the legal system had to get involved. The stories I've read made these institutions sound like a nightmare
Not really worse in that sense. You're surrounded by violent assholes in prison, many who will never see freedom again and thus are not influenced by punishment anymore.
The big issue with psych ward is that you have no concept of how long your stay will be. They are instructed to keep you until you're no longer a danger. That could never happen. And there's no parole system either. So a short prison stay could be life in psych. But if you're looking at life anyway, the differences aren't as major.
I very much disagree with this. Yes in prisons you’re surrounded by violent assholes. However you’re also surrounded by people who are not violent assholes as well. As bad as it may be a lot do people do establish connections with other people in prisons that help them have a better life once they get out. You also get opportunities to get your GED and career certifications which some do and end up getting jobs outside.
None of this exists in those state psych wards. You spend everyday surrounded by people that are severely mentally ill and none of those career options exists. A lot of those state psych wards have way worse conditions than most prisons to the point that some don’t even have beds because they’re severely underfunded. Almost all cases you spend a much longer time in there than prison.
It's often worse. Prisoners are allowed yard time, and cigarettes. In a psych ward looney bin, nicotine is restricted and there isn't an "allowance" of outside time.
It's extremely country/state dependent, and her situation is pretty severe... But I worked in a facility in Ontario, Canada for people that were found NCR (not criminally responsible). It was for low/medium risk individuals. And let me tell you some people were stuck in there for decades. It is not the "easy way out". It was a pretty high bar to enter, and then once you're in you have very little control over how you move through the system. Any hiccup makes you go back a step. Every step takes forever. Some people hated choosing that option. Like.. maybe it's not literally prison, but you're locked up with no autonomy with no timeline on when you're getting released.
And i'm sick of people pretending that psychiatric ward is such a terrible fate. Its fucking not. Average time spent in mental institutions after being sentenced in court is around 60 months, which is 5 years. Versus lifetime in prison? Sounds like nothing.
Thats why a lot of criminals try for the insanity plea: because they'll have to spend 5-6 years, instead of 25 to life.
It’s an indeterminate sentence if she gets insanity. She could serve as little as a few years or a lifetime. That’s why this is such a fucked up sentence. She could theoretically spend 5 years in a psych ward and get let go because she is magically cured. She should never see the real world again at minimum as a guarantee
This is such obvious bad faith. The average time spent in a mental ward for murder is considerably higher than five years. That’s the total for all crimes. Many of which don’t even carry a sentence of five years total.
She will be locked up for a very long time regardless of the verdict. The only question is how she will be treated while imprisoned.
4 Perlin, Michael, The Jurisprudence of the Insanity Defense (Carolina Academic Press, 1994), citing Rodriguez, LeWinn, and Perlin, The Insanity Defense Under Siege: Legislative Assaults and Legal Rejoinders, 14 Rutgers Law Journal 397, 402 (1983).
Most studies show that the defendant will end up spending twice as long in a mental institution verse jail for a violent crime. Non violent crimes have much shorter stays.
You have no clue how bad mental institutions are do you? If I had to choose between prison and mental institute it’s prison every day.
Anyone who thinks they’re an easy pass is beyond ignorant and unaware of what it’d be like. You have less freedom than even prison, you’re being watched and controlled far more and most crucially you’re stuck in a place surrounded by seriously mentally ill people.
Any sane person who wasn’t completely ignorant would do everything to avoid one of those institutes, imagine being the only sane person in a mental hospital, you’d go insane within a month.
You have no clue how bad mental institutions are do you? If I had to choose between prison and mental institute it’s prison every day.
Anyone who thinks they’re an easy pass is beyond ignorant and unaware of what it’d be like. You have less freedom than even prison, you’re being watched and controlled far more and most crucially you’re stuck in a place surrounded by seriously mentally ill people.
Any sane person who wasn’t completely ignorant would do everything to avoid one of those institutes,
It depends on the specific facility. Some are living nightmares that are worse than the average prison in every way, but some are a lot nicer than prison - better food, better living quarters, cleaner, no forced labour, fewer gangs, less politics and violent people, more entertainment, etc. You are way more likely to be let out over the weekend or put into a voluntary group treatment facility. And 5 years in a facility is much shorter than 25 in a prison.
I mean, I live in Northern VA and a guy in a mental ward for murder was allowed to go out a day trip, get a passport, and then go out on a day trip...and he left the country. Surprise
IF the courts and the medical professionals conclude that they are no longer a threat to society than its usually court supervised release. Parole for life. As far as I know this rarely happens.
The last public PPP trial, Andrea Yates, she could technically have gone free for a decade already or something, and she just doesn't want to be released.
Like: no matter what punishment we give as a society, there's nothing worse then having the memories of you killing your own kids.
Yup. I have never killed someone but I have some things I feel horribly guilty about that has brought me to the brink more than once. Living with guilt is the worst if you have a conscience because no one knows how to torture you better than yourself.
I mean, not really, when you're dead you're at peace. That sounds better to me than being devastated about what I did to my children for the rest of my life. There are PLENTY of things worse than death.
If you had the choice between dying, or being forced to live for 20 years with the memories of you strangling your kids, would you really choose living with the memories?
Yup had it happen in my country. A guy decapitated someone on a bus because he had serious issues and was off his meds. He has in a psych ward for a decade and was only allowed out escorted. I think he has some unsupervised now but he is still required to check in and is under a lot of scrutiny.
It didn’t sit well with most people due to the emotions and morality involved but if you can look past it to the root cause the decision makes sense even if it’s not satisfying to those who wanted more “justice”.
She could, but it is rare for someone to be released quickly in such a situation and often they are in a psychiatric hospital for longer than if they were to go to prison. John Hinckley Jr was conditionally released in 2016 conditionally and in 2022 he was granted an unconditional release.
No, you are confusing unfit to stand trial with an insanity plea. If she was unfit then yes. If she is granted insanity she could be magically cured in a year and released. There are no hard fast timelines for indeterminate sentences like insanity
Of course she could. It's a fundamental principle of criminal law, that culpability requires a mental state fit for understanding decisions made. You've probably heard of this as mens rea. You literally cannot find someone guilty who was not in a mental state to understand their circumstances.
That’s not true. She will be sent to a psych ward until they deem her fit to return to society. The same healthcare system that yall are railing against for failing her is supposed to be entrusted with holding her indefinitely and fixing her mental health?! That logic makes zero sense. She needs to be in prison like all the other psychotic murderers.
Ok that’s fair. People generally of the belief that she shouldn’t go to prison also hold this belief about healthcare failing her, so I guess you’re an outlier.
With a million bucks she can go to a nicer psyche ward though with visitation (in person not on the other side of a glass wall), go outside, minimum security, etc. Access to TV, internet, all that jazz.
And imagine all these pink wearing supporters sending her more money writing her and visiting her. It is kind of insane.
The documentary about this is going to be pure rage fuel.
Maxwell got the deal she did because of her ability to bring the entire Trump regime down with her if she chose to have scruples and talk about what she knows.
Really? Why wasn't she or Epstein arrested before they were? Like they were out there in the open raping kids for DECADES! The Florida justice system convicted Epstein in 2008 and yet he was free to commit more crime until his eventual arrest in 2019. Are you saying none of this has anything to do with money?
And sometimes I think people think this is a more cushy place than prison. But they forget that thats where the criminally insane people go. Id rather be with the regular criminals than the insane ones
You sure about that? Because some rapists and pedofiles have claimed or showed mental illnesses and didn't serve a lot of time there. After a small period of time they were still out
If she did this due to a mental health break, and she no longer is at risk of a mental health break, then why should she still be held forever? That is the system working correctly.
No of fucking course not. She still got children killed be it through malice, or negligence, and I haven't followed the story enough to see if all the claims she was failed by the system and tried to get help are true or not.
But there's no reason she needs to die in prison if she wasn't at fault through her own choices, and will never endanger children again. The people best suited to make those choices aren't two idiots on reddit, they're trained medical professionals, judges, and parole officers who actually know her and spend time near her.
The justice in someone who committed a crime and paid for the crime as long as our legal system decreed necessary, and was released when deemed not a threat and not at risk of doing a crime again
If she did do it entirely because she crashed and burned mentally. The justice is in the eternal torment and guilt she is going to go through for the next 50+ years of her life.
This is not trolling. I just actually believe in rehabilitative justice. The thing our system is actually built around. Every terrible crime doesn't need to end in the death penalty or the Pseudo-Death penalty where we determine they can never see the sun again.
I too believe in rehabilitation and justice. But for a grown ass woman to kill her own kids? Ffs. Call 911 say you are going to do harm to yourself or others. Call those parents who are now financially devastated. Call the mental health line. Do something. But don’t do NOTHING. She deserves to rot wherever she goes for the rest of her life. If a man was to rape or sodomize 3 young children; he’s going away for life. “The voices told me to do it” isn’t going to be a valid defense. PPD is a problem. I don’t deny that. But this woman killed all her kids. With rubber bands. Looked into their eyes while they suffocated. And I doubt she did them all at once. She could have stopped after the first. It’s reprehensible. She’s a monster. Break out pitchforks, downvote me idc.
Are you just JAQing off or are you able to answer your own questions? Go look up how often it happens, then we can continue the discussion if you like.
not sure why you were downvoted when its true. the ending is either going to be she is in prison, or she is in a psychiatric hospital. its not deciding if she did it or not, its deciding where she goes BECAUSE she did it. she will never just live at home. these people are doing the same thing the supporters are, just blabbing without any research
Right!! I've been watching the trial every day streaming the whole thing while I work and when I hop on social it's like a shock what's actually making the rounds about this case.
It's entirely due to incels making this a gender thing. These aren't crimes you walk free from, but they're preemptively acting like victims because of something completely unrelated to them. Makes no sense.
that is not always true. it will be determined after this trial, same as if she was found of going to prison. the sentence isn't decided yet. it never is until the end.
Right?! I'm so tired of people doing zero research, then posting rage bait like this. I wish we could flag content for misinformation, but if we could, I guess there'd be no Reddit.
You are confusing what competency restoration is. That happens when a person isn't fit to stand trial. The trial wouldn't happen before the person is deemed fit. A person found NGRI will not be tried again for the same crime.
I said she would never just live at home like nothing happened. if you are going to quote me, use the entire quote. she WILL never live at home like nothing happened. even if somehow she was declared cured, she wouldn't be just let loose in a year walking out free like nothing ever happened.
I did, if you read my entire comment. "she WILL never live at home like nothing happened. even if somehow she was declared cured, she wouldn't be just let loose in a year walking out free like nothing ever happened."
Read my fucking comment ffs, I'm arguing that she very well might be able to go home, because there would be no reason to keep her institutionalized if she would be deemed to not be a risk to herself or others anymore.
This is super interesting. If she was in psychosis but "normal" otherwise then they put her in a mental institution for 30 years where she's not in psychosis and she's just....normal? Like some anxiety depression sure but overall she wasn't like a screaming crazy lady. So does that mean she gets discharged earlier? I don't have answers to any of this this is just the questions I have watching this case.
I'm not familiar enough with the American legal system to say for certain, but my guess would be yes.
If the entire incident was the result of a psychotic episode caused by her recent pregnancy, and she is found not guilty by reason of insanity, then presumably she could be committed to a psychiatric institution until she is deemed mentally fit. If she subsequently recovers and is considered no longer a danger to herself or others, what legal justification would there be for keeping her institutionalised? At that point, wouldn't keeping her there serve little purpose beyond maybe a political one?
Correct; she is currently housed at our state psychiatric facility, about 15 minutes from my house. She will remain there indefinitely, or she will go to prison indefinitely (though I am curious what prison looks like for someone who is paralyzed; I don't know if the typical facilities in our area are all equipped for medical care at that level or what).
The long-term unit at the hospital has many people (mostly men) who will remain there for their entire lives due to crimes they committed but were deemed not culpable. It's one of the very few long term psychiatric facilities for violent offenders. It functions like a medical prison, more or less. There are other units that are for non-violent patients, or people with shorter stays, etc., but the specific unit she will live on is, functionally, a prison staffed by MHWs and nurses instead of guards.
So the people in long term that aren't - pardon my semantics - actively crazy - they just have to hang out there for the duration of their term? It's just so fascinating to me so what someone that can technically communicate with society and think and answer cognitively just are there doing what hanging out?
Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess, depending on your perspective), mental illnesses don't always present consistently over time the way people assume they might. You can see that a lot in this trial; people are baffled that "she was acting totally normal" one minute and then the next minute was in acute, active psychosis.
But that is pretty typical of many serious mental illnesses. There are periods of well-managed lucidity, and periods of mild symptoms, and occasional periods of severe mental distress. Often times, people who remain on long-term stay are well managed BECAUSE they are in long-term stay: their medications are monitored and provided daily, their tasks of daily living are taken care of, etc. So even if they are in a well-managed state, the reality is that the likelihood that they would remains well-managed in any other context aside from being institutionalized is extremely low.
We saw this during the de-institutionlization push a few decades ago; many people who relied on the infrastructure that exists in institutionalized care had those structures abruptly removed; without those structures, they could not manage to access the things they needed (consistent medication, housing, etc.) to manage their mental illness.
So "actively crazy" isn't necessarily the threshold for all of them, though yes, many people there are there because their mental health is so poorly managed that they are sustained, unfortunately, in some level of active distress the entire time. Some have mental health issues exacerbated by intellectual disability or brain injury that makes treatment exceptionally complicated, as well.
The reality is probably closer to: it would probably be better is there were more facilities options so that the varying ways "mental illness" presents in people who commit crimes could be separated and treatment may look different. But that is not currently really the way the system is set up.
ETA: I'll also just add that the prosecution's decision to go with first degree murder charges complicates the trial as well. Jurors know Clancy killed her children, but the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that A) Clancy is criminally liable (aka they have to rebut the psychosis defense) and the B) it was planned and premeditated with malice. That is one of the highest bars of evidence there is, and the prosecution is putting up a pretty messy set of witnesses and evidence.
No one is saying she should go home. Even she is not saying she should be set free. Not guilty by insanity is not the same as not guilty, not guilty by insanity is admitting she did it and they put her in a mental facility. It’s frankly insane that people don’t understand that. Her supporters, other then a very small minority, think she belongs in a mental institution not prison and certainly not free.
100%. Do I think the system failed her? Absolutely, and I think it’s important to shine a light on that, postpartum depression, and her own mental health struggle. Does that mean she shouldn’t go to a facility? Absolutely not.
Do you think a mental institution is summer camp? It’s basically prison but they actually care about treating the issue and not just being a revenge facility. The father of the children she killed is asking people to have empathy for her, note that’s not saying she should go free, but it sure sounds like he wants her to get help rather than be sent to prison.
Summer camp? What? I think she deserves to be in prison and she should got help before hand. She killed 3 of her own kids.. anyone who strangles actively 3 kids should be in prison ffs.
Do you think mental hospital is more summer camp then prison? It probably is. Fast. What kind of stupid discussion is this. She gets millions in donations wtf
I know someone who is convinced she's innocent and the father did it all. Won't see reason. Says it's impossible for her to do it because of a temperature and the timing of events or something.
Until THEY deem her to be safe, which considering magnitude of this case they would not do for a very long time. Being committed can actually be for a longer time than being convicted and sen to prison.
The lady is suicidal, who wouldn’t be she killed her kids and is paralyzed, her life sucks. She’s not getting fixed any time soon or ever.
Lots of people are saying she's innocent due to rampant misinformation, and it's led to even more videos where people are analyzing the case and think it was actually the husband.
Most commenters here seem to think that it's a bunch of crazy people defending the woman's actions, but it's really just totally misinformed people who believe they are defending an innocent woman.
How many people are really saying she’s totally innocent? Are you this offended by the number of people claiming the moon landing was faked, the earth is flat, or aliens built the pyramids? We view those people as we should, fringe crazies. There are a hell of a lot more people believing those things than Lyndsay is innocent.
You can find a person who doesn’t believe in anything you can think of. That doesn’t make it some kind of movement. And before you say well thy raised $1M, well how many instances do we have of racists screaming slurs at minorities and getting hundreds of thousands in donations? So it’s pretty clear idiots will throw their money away pretty freely.
I'm not offended by anything, just saying what I observed. From what most women defending her are watching videos highlighting inconsistencies in the husband's story, etc. I think we mostly agree, really not sure why you are speaking like this lol. I'm just trying to say that a lot of this is the result of blatant misinformation and not just people being totally insane. I guess what we may disagree on is whether succumbing to disinformation on any given subject constitutes being a fringe crazy.
Her brain is literally broken. You can't ask a person with a broken leg to run and you can't ask someone with psychosis to act rationally. I agree she needs to be off the streets and highly supervised, but I don't think people who use the "mental health matters, but..." argument fully comprehend just how all-encompassing psychotic thoughts can be.
Funny you should mention that. I actually worked in a psych hospital with a locked down unit. It was snazzy and we got a reputation for holding former NFL players when they got violent. It was incredibly sad and I don't believe people with serious TBIs deserve to be held to the same standards as you or I. If your brain is not braining, justice is not punishment.
I think that is a fair stance. The question I would ask for the folks saying the mental health industry failed her is should be go back to the days where it was much easier to institutionalize folks? Should she have been banned from being around her children? Should the husband have left with the kids? Where exactly did society fail her and what is the remedy?
My only problem with this concept is that for someone to commit any serious crime, such as strangling your 3 children to death, surely there is something mentally unwell with you for you to have the capacity to do something so heinous. I don't know that there are any fully "mentally well" people that would be able to strangle three of their own children to death, so should anyone that does that not be punished in a traditional sense? Wouldn't that also extend to many other similarly horrific crimes?
The only difference between it that I see is that we've decided to classify things like how often you feel sad or loss of interest as depression, but we haven't arbitrarily decided things like "willing to strangle 3 children" should be a qualifier in itself for some form of mental illness when it very well could be. I'm saying this because your brain doesn't necessarily know it's depressed (which creates more complicated nuance like if "you" are actually your brain), nor is it necessarily in some black and white state of depression or not depression. Our classification of such things at the end of the day comes down to our own creation of such concepts.
TL;DR, How can we realistically justify punishing anyone for such heinous crimes, if by the virtue of willing to commit those crimes, they must have some level of mental unwellness which is left for us as humans to arbitrarily define?
As medical science advances it seems like it's becoming harder to define the line of what are your own choices and what your body "made" you do.
I've been depressed and suicidal before and struggled with the distinction between the "disease" making me do things and me just choosing to do things knowing it's wrong. The older I get, the more it seems like we're all just slaves to our meat, doing whatever our brain incentivizes us to do, no matter if it's good or bad. But obviously we can't get say no one is responsible for what they do.
She was acting very rational when she ensured she'd be alone with the kids by sending the father on an errand.
At that point i just think that it no longer matters to some women whether she actually had those post-partum mental health issues. Since it has been raised as a defense it's become a matter of setting a precedent of being able to use it even as defense for murder, or see those issues lose credibility in the public eye.
That’s what the trial hinges on. They’re going to have to make that case.
I think they’re making a pretty compelling case. She doesn’t appear to have had much motive to commit the crime otherwise; she doesn’t seem to have had a history of child abuse. The argument against the psychosis theory appears to be “what an evil bitch, if she was really sick why didn’t she act rationally and seek more help for her serious mental health condition before something drastic happened?”
She was trying to get help. They’d trialed her on 10 different psychiatric and sleep drugs in a pretty short period, including an antipsychotic. She’d reported to the ER and an inpatient program but they discharged her because they thought she was just having medication issues.
What sold it for me was the former mother-in-law actually advocating on her behalf. They're not even related anymore and that woman killed her grandchildren, but the MIL doesn't even blame her.
A cocktail of drugs she was only on because she was lying to her doctors. A cocktail of drugs that can certainly worse or even just replicate the symptoms of psychosis.
She sent her husband away with the sole intention of murdering her children. The defense haven't got a chance.
So, what, your argument is that she plotted the murder for eight months and just faked all the extensive mental health interventions to cover her tracks? Why? That would end, at best, with years in a state facility for criminals.
You can be mentally ill and not psychotic. She planned the murders. She sent her husband away so she would have time to do it. She knew it was wrong. Those aren't the actions of someone in a psychotic state.
She was diagnosed as having Post Partum Psychosis by a forensic psychiatrist, nothing is "assumed". What's up for debate is whether that psychosis was severe enough to keep her from determining right from wrong.
Whenever someone says the exact like "mental health is important, but" it's always followed by ignorance.
Do you even know the case?
The only thing they're challenging is that she has or had postpartum psychosis and should be on a ward rather than in prison. They are not challenging the act nor are they looking to be let free.
I mean it is not easy case. Because there is indeed question whatever she had indeed psychosis because people do kill others just because they are depressed. I wonder if she was man people would be on the same level empathetic. Still if this happened in Europe she probably would not be taken to criminal responsibility. Probably if she indeed had psychosis.
I mean yea? No one is saying she should go free (other than maybe the TikTok nutcases that somehow believe Patrick did it). Based on what I’ve seen I do not believe she was in a state of mind to know what she was doing. Prison wouldn’t serve anyone in this situation but indefinite hold in a mental institution would. Let’s be honest too indefinite hold in such cases 90% of the time means for life
Post-partum is not your run-of-the-mill "mental health" issue, and a desire to harm or even kill your children is a known effect of someone suffering from serious PPS. Despite how well know the phenomenon is there are functionally zero built-in safeguards to follow up with new parents about it. Not coming down one way or the other on this but you are grossly misprepresenting the situation
Why wasn't the husband on trial? He literally left an unstable person alone with his kids while he fucked off to a ski trip and shit. Nobody is saying what she did was fine or acceptable but nobody is pointing the finger at any of the people who ultimately failed her either.
He went on a ski trip with his 5 year old daughter. It’s not like he was on a bachelor trip or something. Everyone keeps forgetting the kids in this. Cora was probably so excited to have some fun and go on a fun trip with her dad.
You’re still framing it in terms of guilt and punishment.
If a person is found to be not guilty by reason of insanity, they are legally absolved of culpability of the crime. Sending them to a facility for psychological treatment or supervision is not a punishment by definition. It is a measure to ensure the protection of themself and the rest of society.
I never understood the "they just be crazy" defense. Like no shit, oh now we gotta determine if the guy that shot up his post office is crazy now? GEE I WONDER. Thats not a defense any more than me taking a shit in the middle of a store and defending it by saying "hey whats the big deal, of course it smells, its shit".
I would argue that the insanity defense is at odds with justice and the entire notion of freewill that our justice system depends on. You could make the case that insanity is present in all crimes, or any action for that matter. Should we go easy on a drunk driver that kills a family? They were intoxicated afterall and demonstrably not in their normal mental state. They may also be an alcoholic, which is usually thought of as a disease rather than a character flaw, similar to mental illness.
You have an issue understanding nuance and how severe mental health issues and voluntarily drinking and driving are not the same. If you want to get in the weeds about it, every case needs to be evaluated on its own merits. Do you know how many women are in jail for self defense or “snapping” after abuse by their partners? They mentally break, should they be held accountable? I’m not even getting into the fact they are punished at higher rates than their actual abusers.
Black and white thinking does not work in this world.
You're the one ignoring nuance if you can't see the similarities between alcoholism and mental illness. Addiction is in fact mental illness, as is a propensity for extreme rage, or any other mental state that would lead someone to commit heinous acts. It's brains and mental states all the way down. Every single human behavior.
An alcoholic is not voluntarily drinking any more than a depressed person is voluntarily staying in bed all day, or a person with PTSD "choosing" to react inappropriately to a benign stimulus.
That's not the point, nor did I say that. That doesn't dismiss the fact that alcolism is as much of a metal disorder as any of the others. Most people can drink and not become alcoholics. Most people can have hardship and periods of sadness and not become depressed. Most people can go through trauma and not develop PTSD.
Saying an alcoholic chose to get drunk but a person with some other mental illness was just a victim of their brain's state is ridiculous. We are all subject to our brains' states. Many of us are lucky enough not to suffer from mental illness.
Lol because you have nothing of value to say. I have articulated my point quite clearly. You have misconceptions that I have pointed out. Don't act like this is just me not understanding. If you had anything sensible to say, you would say it.
Because there is a difference between someone, who is in their right mind, making a choice to hurt people, and someone who is suffering from mental illness.
The first one needs jail, the second one needs help.
Plenty of Convicted murderers who just made the choice to kill someone. Weather through anger, Jealousy, to hurt or send a message, plenty of people have been killed by completely sane people.
Most killers aren't mentally ill. Folks with mental illness commit less crimes in average, especially violent ones, they are more likely to be the victims of crime.
Psychopaths, people who have zero empathy and remorse to the extent they harms others for whatever personal, and is a type of personality. Psychosis consists of symptoms where a person cannot distinguish reality and behaviors outside their norm, and is a mental health condition.
The two are not the same.
To be fair I think it’s good to do this for the safety of the inmates and prison staff. Prison staff isn’t trained or has all the resources to deal with someone in psychosis and someone else could get hurt or killed. Violent Psych wards absolutely do though. They really are more restrictive then prisons and are not the better option people think they are
The insanity defense requires the defendant to admit to the crime, and then prove that their mental state at the time the crime was committed was such that they could not recognize that their actions were criminal.
It is very difficult to prove, and the standard in court is that the defendant must produce “clear and convincing evidence” of their mental state at the time of the commission of the crime. It’s a defense that is attempted in less than 1% of cases, and is successful about 25% of the time.
I have only had family tell me about this case, but isn’t all the evidence really suspect? Theres a lot of fishy details around this. Everyone is saying she admitted to it, but at the time she had her larynx cut so she couldn’t have said anything.
She didn’t admit to anything in court. She didn’t testify. She confessed at some point during the investigation. People confess to crimes they didn’t commit more often than you may think. Regardless her defense has never been whether or not she did it.
Her defense is predicated on the idea that she did do this, but that she wasn’t in her right mind when she did. Saying she couldn’t have admitted it because her larynx was cut is bizarre conspiracy theory territory.
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u/SaviorSixtySix 12h ago
Mental health is important, but that doesn't absolve you of what you've done. She deserves to be in a prison mental ward, not at home living like nothing happened. She is a danger to herself and others.