LaborDayRN
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- Jul 17, 2012
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Many mentally ill people can and do take steps to try to improve their mental health. NL chose to stop her meds.Would just like to state an observation that I’m sure will be unpopular, and I am not saying I agree with it: just something I noticed.
When Anne Hecht passed, she crashed her car into a home and had traces of fentanyl and cocaine in her system. Because there were no fatalities, she got sympathy.
There is currently another missing person who willingly stopped their meds and left their husband and children, but because there are no fatalities, that person has sympathy and “mental health awareness”.
But with NL, who also apparently stopped her meds, there is ZERO sympathy, because there were fatalities, despite her having a record of being kind, loving, and a good nurse.
It’s just interesting to me that “mental health awareness” seems to stop being a thing when somebody else is affected by it - then suddenly it’s “they should’ve known better”. We are talking about mentally ill people here — where do we draw the line on them “knowing better”? Their brain simply does not operate/process/rationalize the way a non-mentally ill brain does.
Again, not trying to garner sympathy for NL, just stating an observation that I’ve noticed — that mental health awareness is a great cause and that mentally ill people can’t help their actions. Until someone is hurt. Then it’s shame shame shame.
Would love to hear others thoughts on this. Cordially of course.
The legal defense of insanity in California law means that you cannot be found guilty of a crime if you were legally insane when you committed it. Under California’s insanity defense, you are considered legally insane if you either
- Did not understand the nature of your criminal act, OR
- Did not understand that what you were doing was morally wrong.
You can plead not guilty by reason of insanity at your arraignment hearing. For the insanity defense to work, you will then need to prove that it is more likely than not that you were legally insane when you committed your crime.
If you can convince the jury at your California criminal jury trial that you are not guilty by reason of insanity, then you will be committed to a state mental hospital instead of being sent to prison.5