posted
Y'know, IMO, an insanity defense shouldn't get you a lesser sentence; it should get you a greater one. We don't put murderers in jail to punish them; they're there so they can't kill more people. If a person can't tell the difference between right and wrong, that's a good reason to keep them off the streets, not put them back on them!
Bear in mind, I'm not saying that a person should be locked up for life if they're cured. However, when somebody says "my brain doesn't work right, so I didn't know it was wrong" and the system says "oh, well, then it wasn't your fault; you're free to go", there's something terribly wrong.
Anyway, plenty of people are probably going to misinterpret me and start some kind of arguement that'll get this thread on a one-way flight to Flameboardland, so I'll shut up now.
------------------ "Agh! Save me from the wee turtles!" -Groundskeeper Willy, The Simpsons
There is a verdict used in some places, "guilty but insane." When this verdict is given, the guilty person is put away until they can be "cured," and THEN sent to jail to serve as long a sentence as is deemed necessary.
------------------ 'In every country and in every age the priest has been hostile to Liberty; he is always in allegiance to the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own." ---- Thomas Jefferson
posted
I am so tierd of people get off the hook for the dumbest stuff. Although I guess I can now go and kill people and then blame Mountain Dew because it made me sterile and that made me depressed.
------------------ Death before Dishonor! However Dishonor has quite a disputed defintion.
posted
Uh...you do realize that no one "gets off" with an insanity plea, don't you? First of all, it is seldom used, and even more rarely successful. Secondly, someone found guilty by reason of insanity is not released. They are shuffled off to a high security mental hospital. A far worse fate than prison, in my opinion. Visit one sometime.
------------------ "Stirs a large iron pot. Casting a spell on Vermont." -- John Linnell
posted
remember back in '84 a nut went into a Southern California McDonald's and started shooting? [probably the basis for a similar scene in an X Files episode]
His bitch wife tried to sue McDonald's, claimed that hubby had eaten there too often and the food had made him crazy.
Don't know if she got a dime. (hope she got a tumor)
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