Dear Prudence
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Here's another interesting article about filicide, mostly covers mentally ill mothers.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/640
Here's a snip:
Among the mothers with severe mental illness, the decision to kill a child can arise abruptly. But then, so can the mental problems.
In Dr. Stanton's interviews, some women, draped with depression, had contemplated the killing for perhaps a week. For the others, blanketed in psychosis, the murder was an impulse.
But something had definitely snapped.
"They all had either a new illness that nobody knew about ... or their illness changed," Dr. Stanton says. "When you listen to these stories you can hear that they had signs and symptoms of illness, but they hadn't been recognized."
Among the symptoms: Thought becomes disorganized. Emotions may disappear - or escalate irrationally. Impulses are hard to control. Consequences aren't clear.
"It makes people in that state very, very difficult to relate to and to have an idea of what's going on," Dr. Stanton says.
Despite the erratic nature of the illnesses, her research team was surprised at the mothers' lack of premeditation. Especially among the psychotic women, she says, the killing was more the result of disorganized thinking.
"I think that's the reality of the risk," she says. "When you have someone who's actively psychotic, they can do anything."
I really think the above is similar to where Terence Lenamon would have gone in defending Casey and I think he would have a better chance of convincing a jury with this strategy than the SODDI defense.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/640
Here's a snip:
Among the mothers with severe mental illness, the decision to kill a child can arise abruptly. But then, so can the mental problems.
In Dr. Stanton's interviews, some women, draped with depression, had contemplated the killing for perhaps a week. For the others, blanketed in psychosis, the murder was an impulse.
But something had definitely snapped.
"They all had either a new illness that nobody knew about ... or their illness changed," Dr. Stanton says. "When you listen to these stories you can hear that they had signs and symptoms of illness, but they hadn't been recognized."
Among the symptoms: Thought becomes disorganized. Emotions may disappear - or escalate irrationally. Impulses are hard to control. Consequences aren't clear.
"It makes people in that state very, very difficult to relate to and to have an idea of what's going on," Dr. Stanton says.
Despite the erratic nature of the illnesses, her research team was surprised at the mothers' lack of premeditation. Especially among the psychotic women, she says, the killing was more the result of disorganized thinking.
"I think that's the reality of the risk," she says. "When you have someone who's actively psychotic, they can do anything."
I really think the above is similar to where Terence Lenamon would have gone in defending Casey and I think he would have a better chance of convincing a jury with this strategy than the SODDI defense.