That is the defining issue for me also! He obviously went to great lengths to conceal his culpability and illness when it served him early on in this case. I guess I think of him as being cognicent enuff to know when things are wrong when compared to what the rest of the world is doing, but not astute enough to realize that his ideas are not defendable. Thanx for your debate!
Garrido stated in his radio interview that it was "disgusting in the beginning with me, but then things changed."
He knew right from wrong when he took Jaycee, and he knows right from wrong now.
In that same interview, he refused to discuss the case against him because he had not yet spoken to an attorney.
If this man was so mentally disturbed that he could not know right from wrong, or could not be held responsible for his actions, he would have blatantly boasted and shared his story instead of trying to protect his sorry self.
I have no doubt that this man is suffering from some type of schizophrenia. As the daughter and sister of paranoid schizophrenics, the signs are very, very clear to me. The delusions and rantings are all part of a partial psychotic break from reality. When my father attacked my step-mother and stabbed her in the face with a broken beer mug numerous times, he had no idea that what he had done was wrong. He was listening to the voices in his head. That is the difference between my father and the monster Garrido.
That being said, this monster Garrido is absolutely liable and responsible for his actions--he knows that he was wrong in taking Jaycee, and that he has been wrong in keeping her all these years--hidden away from the world.
If he had TRULY had a change of heart, had TRULY changed his way of thinking after the birth of the second daughter, then Jaycee would have been returned to her family way back then. Jaycee and her young daughters would have never been made to survive for EIGHTEEN YEARS in outdoor sheds like animals.
Yeah, this subhuman waste of my air and my space is sick--but not so much in a mental illness sort of way. He is evil incarnate who probably has schizophrenic thought processes--but certainly not enough to render him a viable candidate for an insanity defense.
I hope this monster and his monster wife rot UNDER the prison.