not guilty due to insanity? THATS BULL

okay heres the senario that has happened over and over. you are waiting at a bus stop late at night in downtown. some wacko rushes at the person next to you and demands money witha knofe to their throught..

the por victim doesnt have any money, so the wacko slits his throught and runs off only to be caught a few days later and sent to court. but that doesnt matter!! he is insane so if he kills someone it doesnt really count in court!! no jail time for insane people! just a couple months community service.

i hate that stupid idea so much. what are your thoughts.

Originally posted by conspiracymaster
he is insane so if he kills someone it doesnt really count in court!! no jail time for insane people! just a couple months community service.

First off, I have difficulty believing that someone 'declared insane' by a court for murder would simply receive community service. Typically, people who have been declared criminally insane are remanded to treatment in a psychiatric facility. So, in theory, the person would have to be in custody.

One aspect that I would agree with you .... if I might extrapolate a bit .... is that once the person, after a stay in the psychiatric facility, is deemed as being sane, he is released. As much faith as I might have in psychiatrists (which isn't much), it is possible to make "mistakes" and to release someone who might really not be all that "well".

Nevertheless, if someone is truly insane, he simply cannot be regarded by the courts in the same way as someone who has all of his faculties. That would be morally wrong. You cannot hold someone responsible for something if that person is unable to cognitively fathom the difference between reality and his delusions.

Also, one should consider that in many cases, persons who are declared unable to stand trial due to mental issues may be remanded to clinical care until such time that they are able to stand trial, at which time they may receive 'jail time'.

so you guys think retarded people dont have to go to jail for killing someone? just like the courts think. thats why theres so many daytime killings.

When I was arrested, they said I was crazy. But that is when that meant something." Charles Manson.

Originally posted by conspiracymaster
so you guys think retarded people dont have to go to jail for killing someone? just like the courts think. thats why theres so many daytime killings.

"thats why theres so many daytime killings" ?

This is just an aside but I just had to ask....what is the connection between, as you called them, 'retarded people' and daytime killings? I'm sorry, I just don't make the connection.

no no no im not making a connection between retarded people and daytime killings!!

i am making a connection between daytime killings and insane killers getting off easy for killing.

Conspiracymaster,what the hell does retardation have to do with insanity? NADA. :shk::shk:

Originally posted by conspiracymaster
i am making a connection between daytime killings and insane killers getting off easy for killing.

I'm sorry but I don't even see a connection between daytime killings and insane killers at all.

Do the most heinous killings take place in the daytime?
Do insane killers only kill in the daytime?
Is someone who kills in the daytime insane?
What about the evenings?
Do killers -- insane of course-- who kill in the daytime get off easier than, say, insane killers who kill at night?

I'm sorry, I'm really not trying to be difficult but I just don't get it. What connection could there possibly be?

Originally posted by benevolent tyrant

Originally posted by conspiracymaster
i am making a connection between daytime killings and insane killers getting off easy for killing.

I'm sorry but I don't even see a connection between daytime killings and insane killers at all.

Do the most heinous killings take place in the daytime?
Do insane killers only kill in the daytime?
Is someone who kills in the daytime insane?
What about the evenings?
Do killers -- insane of course-- who kill in the daytime get off easier than, say, insane killers who kill at night?

I'm sorry, I'm really not trying to be difficult but I just don't get it. What connection could there possibly be?

the connection is the weak sentances the insane killers get. if the get out sooner they will probably go insane again and kill someone else.

Originally posted by SpeakerofTruth
Conspiracymaster,what the hell does retardation have to do with insanity? NADA. :shk::shk:

I agree... wtf does retardation have to do with insanity? Absolutely nothing.

Originally posted by conspiracymaster
okay heres the senario that has happened over and over. you are waiting at a bus stop late at night in downtown. some wacko rushes at the person next to you and demands money witha knofe to their throught..

the por victim doesnt have any money, so the wacko slits his throught and runs off only to be caught a few days later and sent to court. but that doesnt matter!! he is insane so if he kills someone it doesnt really count in court!! no jail time for insane people! just a couple months community service.

i hate that stupid idea so much. what are your thoughts.

Well first off that's not how the insanity defense works. The defense must prove insanity and in the USA amongst many other court systems the The M'Naghten Rules are used. They state that...

"a person may be "insane" if "...at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, arising from a disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that he did not know what he was doing was wrong."

Also the The Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984 shows states that a person accused of a crime can be judged not guilty by reason of insanity if "the defendant, as a result of a severe mental disease or defect, was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts." And this responsibility falls upon the Defendent to prove this.

Temporary insanity is not a very successful defense these days.

Mental retardation has nothing to do with the insanity defense. That is a totally different concept.

Plus the defense is very difficult to plead, it is seldom used, and it almost never works. The cases that you see this happen in are a very small percentage of all the cases in the USA alone where the defense is attempted.

Also there needs to be the mens rea, or the criminal state of mind, when the crime is comitted. If the person did not commit the crime with criminal intent or awareness of the crime they have committed. If they are not mentally competent then they cannot be liable under our court system.

Besides the insane in these cases are not let go. They are confined to mental institutions where they can be helped.
People need to actually study the law instead of getting high off their rocker because a court case doesn't go the way they'd like to see it.

[edit on 12-24-2006 by JediMaster]