Man repeatedly runs over 5 people including 3 children

[O Town]

How horrible. 2 years old! So innocent.

[TexasStooge]

:cry: How horrible. 2 years old! So innocent.

Hope that maniac gets life in prison.

[george_r_1961]

A surprising number of ppl suffer from some degree of mental illness. including depression, biopolar disorder, etc. Most of them are leading law abiding lives and not randomly running over people.

[O Town]

Until they decide they are okay now and don't need to take thier medication anymore.

[Janice]

The thing that gets me is that lawyers, activist groups, etc. think regardless of what these nuts do, they have rights. They have a right to a fair trial and that is all, IM

[Aquawind]

Just seeing the title of this thread..grrrrrrr

[Audrey2Katrina]

:cry: How horrible. 2 years old! So innocent.

Hope that maniac gets life in prison.

I'd like to see 'im get worse... but that's just my feeling on the subject.. perhaps life somewhere in the Alaskan tundra at hard labor... I know it won't happen... but stories like this just sicken me!

A2K

[vbhoutex]

This is horrible and the person who did it MUST pay for what he did, mental illness or not.

However, it is impossible to lump mental illnesses into one place and say that they should all be locked up. As stated many are suffering from one form or another of mental illness in many varying degrees and most of them are controlled. Those that aren't and that have a more severe mental illness are the ones that do something such as this. I wish there was an easy answer to how to stop this type of thing, but there isn't. A lot of the responsibility, imo, like it or not, is in the hands of family members and/or friends who know of the problems of a person and do nothing to "help" them, whatever form that help may take/need to be. A tough pill to swallow, but what alternative is there?

[Audrey2Katrina]

This is horrible and the person who did it MUST pay for what he did, mental illness or not.

All I know is the Good Lord spares me things like this because mental illness or no... if this threat to society would have done this to MY child, or a member of my family.... I assure you justice would be meted out, and I'd probably be the next one incarcerated.... but feeling SOMETHING had been done... I'm absolutely SICK of the bleeding hearts worrying about someone who would do a heinous act like this. Reminds me of that NUTCASE in Texas who drowned those five beautiful children one-by-one.. although the husband was equally guilty IMO (if for nothing more than sheer stupidity)... SHE should have been dunked in a tub to let her know what her kids went through....HORRIBLE...

Okay... Vent over!

A2K

[x-y-no]

It's my understanding that an insanity defense is extremely difficult and seldom succeeds. For example, Jeffrey Dahmer (who I certainly think was insane by any reasonable standard) attempted this defense but failed. (Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying Dahmer was wrongly convicted - only that even that level of insanity wasn't sufficient to meet the legal standard).


I googled for statistics but didn't turn any up in the short effort I put into it.

EDIT: Found something:

Code: Select all

Statistics about the Insanity Defense

    * Melton, Petrila, Poythress, & Slobogin have outline a number of public misperceptions regarding the insanity defense (1) that a large number of defendants use the defense, (2) that most are successful, (3) that those acquitted by reason of insanity are released upon acquittal or shortly thereafter, and (4) that these people are extremely dangerous.
    * Frequency: the public estimates that the insanity defense is raised in 33% - 42.7% of cases
    * In actuality, it is used approximately 0.9% of the time (9 times in 1000)
    * Success: the public estimates that the success of the insanity defense is between 36% - 45% of case
    * In actuality, the success rate is less than 20% of the time it is used
    * It is unsuccessful more often than it is successful
    * What happens to those found NGRI? A lot of jurisdictions require that the person spend at least some time in a psychiatric facility; if not automatic, many states require commitment to a psychiatric facility on grounds of mental illness, dangerousness, or both; most states do not have a limit on the amount of time that someone can be institutionalized as NGRI; how long an NGRI acquittee spends in an institution also varies by state but Steadman and colleagues found that in New York the average stay was 3 1/2 years; in New Jersey 35% of the sample were still in institutions 8 years later; in Michigan it was 9 1/2 months; in Illinois it was 17 1/2 months, however, in this sample over 70% had been found incompetent prior to trial and had spent an average of 38.4 months in institutions.
    * When compared with matched felons, results are mixed and vary by jurisdiction and the time period for which they were measured; as a general statement, matched felons and NGRI acquittees appear to spend roughly the same amount of time institutionalized; NGRI acquittees are not getting out earlier nor are they being detained longer than matched felons
    * How dangerous are those found NGRI? There have been no studies of dangerousness per se, but rather, studies of recidivism rates of NGRI acquittees and matched felons; these studies, in general, find that the two groups are equal or that NGRI acquittees are somewhat less likely to recidivate than are felons; number and nature of prior offenses, rather than mental illness, appears to be the most predictive factor of recidivism

 
Demographic Characteristics of NGRI Acquittees

o The NGRI acquittee usually is a seriously disturbed and marginalized member of society

o the modal NGRI acquittee is a white single male in his late 20's or early 30's with a history of previous hospitalization and/or arrest; unemployed and lacks a grade 12 education; is typically psychotic and tends to have committed a non-violent crime.

 

    * NGRI acquittees are detained for highly variable lengths of time; but, generally more serious charges result in longer post-acquittal hospitalizations
    * While the average length of detention is sometimes less than that of matched felon groups, there is great variability across jurisdictions
    * the re-arrest rates of NGRI acquittees have been found to range from 9.6% to 65%
    * when compared to matched felons, NGRIs tend to recidivate in roughly equal proportions