NaNaRosebud said:I think I get what you are trying to say Jeana. I have had depression in my family. If that person decided to kill someone because he/she was depressed, that does not give them the excuse to kill, imo.
I think that people can be insane with greed, insane with jealousy, insane with passion, insane with grief, or insane with any human emotion there is. Just because someone is overcome with that emotion/feeling, doesn't give them a pass to kill someone. As you can probably tell, I'm not big on the "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense.
Anyone who decides to kill someone, especially one who plans the event, is insane. AY clearly planned when and how to kill her children. She even had a "run through/rehersal" once, IIRC.
At the point/split second that someone kills someone, they are insane, because sane people don't kill other people unless they are threatened with being killed themselves.
Should we give the terrorist the insanity by religion defense? How about a child killer who rapes and kills a precious child? Should they be given an insanity defense because someone clearly has to be insane to be that evil.
IF AY is put into a mental hospital and then funds run out for that hospital, will she be released onto society so that she can be insane once more and do harm to people?
She killed her kids. She knew what she was doing at the time. She planned it. She practiced it. She called the cops after.
If Andrea Yates doesn't qualify for the insanity defense then IMO, it should be done away with.
There was years of documented PROOF of her mental illness. Rusty had been told that having more children would only make it worse.
Everyone knows she killed them and how she carried it out. A person can be mentally ill and still function at some level. No one here is saying to give her a free pass, let her out on the streets to start life over. She's as sick as a person ravaged with cancer and needs the chance to become as healthy as possible.
JMO