Warning: mental illness diatribe/pontification ahead! (All very relevant to this case)
That's not how it works. He could have been having a psychotic break, and now that it's over he needs to cover for himself to avoid the death penalty (very real possibility in GA), could have been hearing voices and now isn't going through that, any number of things. "Not knowing right from wrong" is the result of some types of mental illness; it is not all of them. Again, Jeffrey Dahmer knew he was doing the wrong thing, and wished he could stop, but that didn't keep him from doing it over and over again. He was certifiably seriously mentally ill *and* knew what he was doing was wrong.
This is KEY. My first cousin has schizophrenia (his sister and grandmother have bipolar) and as an adult, he has worked with his mother to treat it without meds because the meds took away any semblance of life for him. He shakes almost all the time. Not from withdrawal, because he hasn't been on meds in ages. It may be a stimming thing to calm his mind; I'm not sure. The shaking (more his head than his hands) is severe with him, Tourette's-like (my sister has Tourette's & my kids tic severely when their nutrition is off - brain imbalances run through our family like a freight train).
EXACTLY. I hope people are paying attention to this! I don't expect the state to do everything for those suffering with mental illness, but it would be helpful if they would get out of the way and allow commitments in respect-filled places that would really help and/or protect people.
Schizophrenics are exactly like anyone else when they're not experiencing a serious break. My cousin is a wonderful, caring father who is intelligent and respectful when his schizophrenia is under control. Anyone could see why his wife loves him. When it's out of control, he's scary, and ends up in jail. (That said, knowing what I now know, I would strongly discourage any of my adult children from dating a schizophrenic unless they really, really knew and accepted the burdens and risks they were accepting.)
Here's an interesting tidbit: If you give another person medical power of attorney in GA, the power to commit you involuntarily is specifically excluded. I don't know if this exists, but I think a person should be able to give a medical POA to a closely trusted loved one that *does* give the power to involuntarily commit an adult. It would be something s/he would have to agree to when in his/her right mind. Yes, there's potential for abuse, but the current system isn't working.
I live in Roswell. If the state is going to pay for something, I'd rather it have been for effective medication and/or treatment before it ever got to this point. I don't want the state to kill him when it was the state that failed him with its laws preventing effective isolation of dangerous people from the community.
Unfortunately, medication doesn't always work, or it is so strong it makes you zombie-like (my cousin's schizophrenic cousin has been in this state for over a decade. His life is gone, but he's no longer a danger to himself or others). More and more, I think a better answer is having villages where mentally ill people of similar levels of illness can live lives of dignity together with caretakers, heavy oversight, medications when effective, and as much autonomy as possible, but no dangerous weapons around. More dignified than the asylums of old, safer than our current mode of "we can't admit him until he actually hurts someone." Ultimately, I bet it could be done less expensively than constant temporary ineffective commitments, murders, investigations, trials, death penalties, and lifelong incarcerations.
Because of your incorrect thoughts about how mental illness and knowledge of right & wrong work, your statement is effectively that severely mentally ill people are evil. Where is the evidence that the evil ACTIONS he took are a result of anything other than a disease of the brain that he never asked for and never got good treatment for?
Certainly doctors in GA and elsewhere *do* over-prescribe certain addictive drugs (notably painkillers). A friend who is a pharmacist regales me with stories of the people who come in trying to get her to sell them opioids without an Rx b/c the doctor gave them with an Rx and didn't follow up to help make sure addiction didn't follow. And with all the mental illness in my family, I've never heard any of them complain that they couldn't get meds when they wanted them. The problem is much more often that they stop taking the drugs when they need them.
I am just heartbroken that once again, someone who should not have been in society at all due to a brain that can no longer work correctly was allowed to roam free by the law preventing other options, and so now more innocent young people are dead. This is a horrible tragedy, and I pray, pray, pray that we learn from it.
