The Art of Politics

Vanity or Insanity?

There is no defense for the insanity defense...

Continuing an unfortunate tendency in recent times to externalize responsibility for actions, a jury has acquitted a mother of stoning her three children, two of them to death.

One of the many broken pieces of our legal system which continually prevents us from calling it a justice system is the notion "not guilty by reason of insanity". Simple logic cries out for rectification of this nonsensical position - if nobody is guilty of the murder of these two precious children, is there a crime at all? How can she not be guilty of what she admits doing? Should the concept not be "guilty by reason of insanity"?

We should proceed from the shared assumption that all murders are the product of an unsound mind. Who wouldn't be insane to kill their own young children? But is it not equally unsound to kill another human being over $50 in a cash register? To kill because your affections were spurned? To kill because you hate someone of another color, or personal belief? Taking a life without just cause is an inherently unsound act.

The insanity defense attempts to further devolve into the world of the infantile, in knowing right from wrong. Whereas ignorance of the law is no defense, it is a defense when you commit murder.

In this specific case, how could the jurors not have been told that her justification for killing her children outright betrayed her state of mind and knowledge that what she was doing was wrong? God told her to do it - it is in this justification, this appeal to authority, that she admits knowledge from the fruit of the tree, that killing her children was wrong. Her act required an external authority to justify because the act by it's nature is wrong, she knew it, and justifies it because she claims it was spoken to here as God's will.

Nuts? Absolutely. But knowing right from wrong? Without a doubt.

Between the Laneys, Smiths, and Yates' of the world we see the narcissism of these crimes against their own children exposed. The crime always revolves around the accused - I was a bad mother, I wanted a new boyfriend, I was being spoken to by God, etc. These sadistic actions not only scream 'look at me', but betray a clear mindset that it's all about me.

Suffer the children...

Posted by MEC2 at April 4, 2004 05:57 PM