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Originally Posted by sweetpea
As for the insanity defense . . . um... doesn't that apply here??
You'd HAVE to be insane to do this to someone, let alone two small little girls.
Sweet Pea
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Clinically mentally ill, no doubt. Insanity in the legal sense means an inability to tell right from wrong and the inability to appreciate the consequences of your actions. In this case, that would mean, A: Did he know that his actions would kill the girls? and B: Did he know that doing so was wrong and illegal?
Insanity is an affirmative defense, meaning that the defendant essentially admits to the acts, but makes a claim that he isn't responsible. I've read that less than 1% of all insanity defenses are successful, and even when they are, the defendant ends up in a mental institution for the criminally insane, which is not a nice place to be.