IMO
This particular case is actually very easy for me to decide he was not insane. It could have been much harder if the defendent was more closer to being not in control of his actions and mind.
But for JH, he has so obviously shown he had control and the "where-with-all" to know what he was doing was wrong and its not like his compulsion was so overwhelming that he could not have stopped himself.
He had so many opportunities to stop and he knew it and chose not to.
Here are some key things to me that shows JH had plenty of normal capacity to show he was not insane.
1-One key thing was something new I learned just yesterday in the trial. He made that last phone call at his car before he went back in the theatre.
It showed he knew darn well that what he was fixing to do was totally wrong and yet he went in anyway.
I think it showed that some of his motive was REVENGE.
Revenge on everyone for how his life turned out.
2-JH was not like the Son of Sam who claimed to have voices in his head telling him to kill. The son of sam killer said he would hear the voices instructing him to kill. That is a pretty good example of someone who could claim it was hard to stop.
But not with JH. He had ample opportunities to not do what he did. He proved he knew right from wrong when he asked his friend if they would visit him in prison.
So that is telling me that JH knew what he was going to do would be wrong and yet did it anyway. JH could have just as easily chose to call a police station and tell them to lock him up before he hurts someone. But instead JH made a different revenge type call and he chose to hurt people for his own revenge and his own greedy satisfaction. Like telling the world to *advertiser censored** O**.
3-All the lengthy days where he ordered his supplies and setup his apartment with all the death traps. He LOVED it. He got self satisfaction from that. It was proven when he was interviewed by the LE at the station about the booby traps. JH was loving that interview and showing off how great he was at making all those traps. He even got very sarcastic with the LE officer and was correcting him and enjoying playing "games" and "riddles" with his answers.
This was not someone out of control that did not know what he was doing. This was someone who was evil and yeah, a little twisted, but no where near the legal definition of total insanity.
Rather it is very obvious with all his days of ordering his supplies and setting his traps, it showed he was totally enjoying the evil aspect of his planning for what he chose to do. He was in total control of those choices with each order he placed for supplies.
He even explained how he did things to be sure nobody found him out. Like not ordering too much from any 1 place. That is not the act of someone who is out of his own mind. That is not the acts of someone who is totally insane. Nope. Far from it.
He was in total control as he set his traps and he got an evil kick out of it. By then he had resigned himself to committing an evil murderous act by choice. He wanted dramatic attention for his own selfish reasons. One of those reasons was likely because he felt he was handed a lousy deck with not being perfectly normal in the mind.
But what a selfish slap in the face to all the thousands and thousands of people that are born with handicaps or get handicaps from accidents. Many choose to fight their handicap as much as they can and live a productive life. Like Muscular Dystrophy sufferers or losing feet due to diabetes or losing breasts from breast cancer or losing limb in Afhganistan, etc etc. There are plenty of handicapped people that quietly suffer and try the best they can to live a normal life.
JH on the other hand chose to commit a LOUD selfish evil act.
Yeah, he will show us all right. He showed us his true evil self because he got handed a raw deal in life.
Well JH, now its the legal system's turn to deal the cards.
Sorry....I kind of went on a long rant there.
