politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
Did they not try an insanity defense? He must have been declared competent, I guess.
My understanding is that insanity defense has a very high bar, beyond what the public would commonly consider "crazy", so it's not actually something that happens often. And even then, actually getting out of whatever institution you're remanded to isn't guaranteed.
Generally speaking the bar for the insanity defense isn't even insanity. If he were insane but capable of understanding that beating someone with a hammer was wrong he'd fail to meet the bar. You basically have to have no idea at all what you're doing or that it's wrong, and you have the burden of proving it.
True. It’s not “pleading insanity” it’s pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. You can be off your damn rocker but unless your mental illness caused you to not understand that you were doing something wrong or illegal or that it caused you to believe you were in a position of legitimate self defense then you’re still guilty, just guilty and insane. And it’s not being let out. It’s being sentenced to treatment however long it takes
And sometimes that goes the exact opposite way. For example, Lorena Bobbitt was acquitted on an insanity defense and spent less than two months in counseling.
I dont want to armchair assess too much, but reading a statement that involves your psychic powers, assuming that's real, the guy is not mentally fit.
You have to be completely divorced from reality and really have no idea what you’re doing. This guy is a kook but knew that hitting old people with hammers is bad.
I agree that the man is clearly off his rocker, but from a legal perspective, what matters is whether or not you understand that you have, in fact, killed a dude, and that this is in fact a bad thing. Having voices in your head telling you to do it is a completely separate issue. Again, this is my understanding as a layman, so any actual lawyers please feel free to tell me I'm full of shit.
Probably if he ever sought help. He was married at one point. Did it come up in the divorce? All these things can be a factor from my understanding.