Wednesday, July 26, 2006

This Is -- Excuse the Expression -- Insane

A jury found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in the drowning deaths of her young children in the bathtub of their suburban home.

Yates will be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released. If convicted, she would have faced life in prison.

We should do away with the legal precedent of, "not guilty by reason of insanity." Instead it should be, "guilty by reason of insanity." The convicted still goes to prison, but gets a cell that's carpeted -- carpeted floor, carpeted walls, carpeted ceiling....

We should also do away with psychiatrists in deciding the mental condition of the suspect. If the American Psychiatric Association can't even determine that homosexuality is a mental disorder, surely a jury of 12 is more competent to determine sanity.

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