Jury Acquits Texas Mother Who Killed Sons - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Nomad · 04-03-2004, 07:14 PM

God ordered her to bash in the heads of her sons

A woman who claimed God ordered her to bash in the heads of her sons was acquitted of all charges by reason of insanity Saturday after a jury determined she did not know right from wrong during the killings.

Quote:

Apr 3, 8:48 PM (ET)

By LISA FALKENBERG

TYLER, Texas (AP) - A woman who claimed God ordered her to bash in the heads of her sons was acquitted of all charges by reason of insanity Saturday after a jury determined she did not know right from wrong during the killings.

A jury found that Deanna Laney was legally insane May 9 when she killed her two older sons, ages 6 and 8, in the front yard and left the youngest, now 2, maimed in his crib. Laney, 39, would have received an automatic life sentence had she been convicted of capital murder.

Laney broke into tears as the verdict was read. Her husband, Keith Laney, sat solemnly with his head down. A few jurors cried and struggled to maintain their composure.

State law allows Laney to be committed to a maximum security state hospital. Medical evaluations will dictate when she will be released.

Jurors deliberated about seven hours before reaching their verdict in the deaths of 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke, and the beating of Aaron.

Defense attorneys argued that insanity was the only reason why a deeply religious mother who homeschooled her children would kill two of them and maim another without so much as a tear.

"There was no crying," said Tonda Curry, one of Laney's lawyers. "She was insane. There is no other answer."

All five mental health experts consulted in the case, including two for the prosecution and one for the judge, concluded that a severe mental illness caused Laney to have psychotic delusions that rendered her incapable of knowing right from wrong during the killings - the standard in Texas for insanity.

Psychiatrists testified that Laney believed she was divinely chosen by God - just as Mary was chosen to bear Christ - to kill her children as a test of faith and then serve as a witness after the world ended.

In closing arguments earlier Saturday, prosecutors portrayed the killings last Mother's Day weekend as deceptively planned and coldly executed.

"It was graphic, it was horrific and it was brutal," prosecutor Matt Bingham told the jury.

Bingham pounded his fist in his hand as he recounted Joshua's killing: "He got strike after strike after strike on his head to the point that his brains were coming out of his head like liquid."

Prosecutors portrayed the killings as deceptively planned and coldly executed. They said that even if Laney believed she was doing right by God, she had to have known she was doing wrong by state law. Her first call, they pointed out, was to 911 to summon authorities.

Does this mean that all Christians who claim that God spoke to them are insane? ...

//SiN-edit - for the link-challenged

sexymama · 04-03-2004, 10:13 PM

Wow -- sad! I hope she never has more children.

djtestudo · 04-03-2004, 11:12 PM

She's going to end up in the loony bin now anyway.

To quote Lewis Black, she should be forced to sit for twenty years next to somebody who's crocheting something that isn't there.

User Name · 04-04-2004, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nomad
Does this mean that all Christians who claim that God spoke to them are insane? ...

I don't know if this is answering your questions, but I believe "God" is a state of mind. "God" tells us what "he" would not want us to do. In reality, it's you telling yourself. Therefore, IN MY BELIEF, everything that you do based on "God's will" is based on your own will (part of which, of course, has been contributed by society). Therefore, I believe that the woman killed her children because she wanted to, regardless of whether she was insane or not, and there should be no such thing as "not guilty by reason of insanity". No outside force forced her to kill her kids. She did it herself. She should be given life in prison or executed.

Lebell · 04-04-2004, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nomad
Does this mean that all Christians who claim that God spoke to them are insane? ...

[/B]

Only the ones that really are.

(BTW, the orange doesn't work well with the "Sand" color scheme...)

CSflim · 04-04-2004, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Does this mean that all Christians who claim that God spoke to them are insane? ...

No. Only that "God told me things" is not a very good reason for beleving something, or doing something.

CSflim · 04-04-2004, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by User Name
I don't know if this is answering your questions, but I believe "God" is a state of mind. "God" tells us what "he" would not want us to do. In reality, it's you telling yourself. Therefore, IN MY BELIEF, everything that you do based on "God's will" is based on your own will (part of which, of course, has been contributed by society). Therefore, I believe that the woman killed her children because she wanted to, regardless of whether she was insane or not, and there should be no such thing as "not guilty by reason of insanity". No outside force forced her to kill her kids. She did it herself. She should be given life in prison or executed.

If God's will is your will, then why the need for redundant terminology?

User Name · 04-04-2004, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CSflim
If God's will is your will, then why the need for redundant terminology?

"Redundant terminology" is necessary to explain my point of view.

Tophat665 · 04-04-2004, 12:31 PM

If the penal system were really there for rehabilitation, then not guilty by reason of insanity would make sense. If it were there for punishment, then it would make sense. It seems to me though that the penal system is largely there to remove from society its dangerous members (as defined by old white guys). If that is really what the penal system is about, the insanity should be no defense. Knowing right from wrong does not make you more dangerous - rather the opposite.

If God told her to do it, and she did, and she told people she did, then she should answer to God, not us, and we should arrange that meeting expeditiously, if you take my meaning. I am against the death penalty when there is any possibilty of error, but that does not seem to be the case here.

User Name · 04-04-2004, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tophat665

If God told her to do it, and she did, and she told people she did, then she should answer to God, not us, and we should arrange that meeting expeditiously, if you take my meaning.

Excellently said!

bermuDa · 04-05-2004, 09:14 AM

i always knew christianity was nuts!

I'm a bit shocked that this defense worked, and irked that the "severe mental illness" is just unnamed psychotic delusions.

bond007 · 04-07-2004, 02:29 PM

I think she should be locked up with a few other loonies... who just happen to have access to some head-bashing sized rocks!

btw: the verdict should've been more like...

Guilty, but spared the death penalty d/t insanity. Eligible for electric shock therapy upon completion of trial.

lurkette · 04-07-2004, 04:06 PM

I think there's a legitimate difference between someone who thinks they're hearing the voice of god telling them to do something they don't want to do (like kill their kids) and someone who, say, kills their kid in a fit of anger or through willful neglect, or, say, someone who shoots another person in a robbery or something. These are qualitatively different. The woman's a loony, plain and simple. Did she understand right and wrong? I kinda don't think so. She knew it was wrong by human standards but thought it was ultimately right by divine standards. Granted, the bottom line is still that she bashed her kids heads in and can't be trusted around society, but is it because she deliberately makes choices that are in her own interest but counter to social mores, or because she's nuts in the head? I guess I don't really have an opinion on whether she should be declared "guilty" or not, but it seems like there's some kind of difference between someone who's deranged and someone who's just selfish and amoral, and that ought to be recognized somehow in the legal system.

Seer666 · 04-07-2004, 06:32 PM

Why is when we talk to God, it's call prayer, but when he talks to us, it's schitzofrenia? Spelling sucks, I know. Read the tag line and move on. Either way, put her against the wall and be done with her.God might tell her to kill someone else.

analog · 04-08-2004, 02:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tophat665
If God told her to do it, and she did, and she told people she did, then she should answer to God, not us, and we should arrange that meeting expeditiously, if you take my meaning. I am against the death penalty when there is any possibilty of error, but that does not seem to be the case here.

Right. They never argued she didn't do it. They all knew she did. Insane or not, this is a person who should pay for their crimes, and that cost should be their life.

username · 04-08-2004, 07:14 PM

The biggest problem here is, if it was a he who did the killing and not a she, he would have gotten the death sentence whereas she gets off on insanity. All the insanity pleas, etc would not have worked for the he.

Either way, I find it sickening that they let someone off who obviously killed their kids.

alkaloid · 04-18-2004, 05:25 AM

Is this killing of one's own children some sort of epidemic or has this been always around? It seems I've been seeing lots of news reports of this sort lately.

Yakk · 04-18-2004, 08:47 AM

So, how do we cure her?

Place her in an insane asylum until she no longer believes in God?

SVT01Cobra · 04-26-2004, 09:58 PM

WHAT THE FUCK?

Church and State should be SEPERATE!!

SHE KILLED TWO HUMAN BEINGS!
She deserves to die.

04-03-2004, 10:13 PM	#2 (permalink)
sexymama My own person -- his by choice Location: Lebell's arms	Wow -- sad! I hope she never has more children. __________________ If you can go deeply into lovemaking, the ego disappears. That is the beauty of lovemaking, that it is another source of a glimpse of god It's not about being perfect; it's about developing some skill at managing imperfection.

04-03-2004, 11:12 PM	#3 (permalink)
djtestudo Baltimoron Location: Beeeeeautiful Bel Air, MD	She's going to end up in the loony bin now anyway. To quote Lewis Black, she should be forced to sit for twenty years next to somebody who's crocheting something that isn't there. __________________ "Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen." --Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

04-04-2004, 12:31 PM	#9 (permalink)
Tophat665 Minion of the scaléd ones Location: Northeast Jesusland	If the penal system were really there for rehabilitation, then not guilty by reason of insanity would make sense. If it were there for punishment, then it would make sense. It seems to me though that the penal system is largely there to remove from society its dangerous members (as defined by old white guys). If that is really what the penal system is about, the insanity should be no defense. Knowing right from wrong does not make you more dangerous - rather the opposite. If God told her to do it, and she did, and she told people she did, then she should answer to God, not us, and we should arrange that meeting expeditiously, if you take my meaning. I am against the death penalty when there is any possibilty of error, but that does not seem to be the case here. __________________ Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

04-05-2004, 09:14 AM	#11 (permalink)
bermuDa don't ignore this--> Location: CA	i always knew christianity was nuts! I'm a bit shocked that this defense worked, and irked that the "severe mental illness" is just unnamed psychotic delusions. __________________ I am the very model of a moderator gentleman.

04-07-2004, 02:29 PM	#12 (permalink)
bond007 Junkie Location: too far from Texas	I think she should be locked up with a few other loonies... who just happen to have access to some head-bashing sized rocks! btw: the verdict should've been more like... Guilty, but spared the death penalty d/t insanity. Eligible for electric shock therapy upon completion of trial. Last edited by bond007; 04-07-2004 at 02:31 PM..

04-07-2004, 04:06 PM	#13 (permalink)
lurkette My future is coming on Moderator Emeritus Location: east of the sun and west of the moon	I think there's a legitimate difference between someone who thinks they're hearing the voice of god telling them to do something they don't want to do (like kill their kids) and someone who, say, kills their kid in a fit of anger or through willful neglect, or, say, someone who shoots another person in a robbery or something. These are qualitatively different. The woman's a loony, plain and simple. Did she understand right and wrong? I kinda don't think so. She knew it was wrong by human standards but thought it was ultimately right by divine standards. Granted, the bottom line is still that she bashed her kids heads in and can't be trusted around society, but is it because she deliberately makes choices that are in her own interest but counter to social mores, or because she's nuts in the head? I guess I don't really have an opinion on whether she should be declared "guilty" or not, but it seems like there's some kind of difference between someone who's deranged and someone who's just selfish and amoral, and that ought to be recognized somehow in the legal system. __________________ "If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." - Anatole France

04-07-2004, 06:32 PM	#14 (permalink)
Seer666 Oh dear God he breeded Location: Arizona	Why is when we talk to God, it's call prayer, but when he talks to us, it's schitzofrenia? Spelling sucks, I know. Read the tag line and move on. Either way, put her against the wall and be done with her.God might tell her to kill someone else. __________________ Bad spellers of the world untie!!! I am the one you warned me of I seem to have misplaced the bullet with your name on it, but I have a whole box addressed to occupant.

04-08-2004, 07:14 PM	#16 (permalink)
username Insane	The biggest problem here is, if it was a he who did the killing and not a she, he would have gotten the death sentence whereas she gets off on insanity. All the insanity pleas, etc would not have worked for the he. Either way, I find it sickening that they let someone off who obviously killed their kids.

04-18-2004, 05:25 AM	#17 (permalink)
alkaloid Dead Inside Location: East Coast, USA	Is this killing of one's own children some sort of epidemic or has this been always around? It seems I've been seeing lots of news reports of this sort lately.

04-18-2004, 08:47 AM	#18 (permalink)
Yakk Wehret Den Anfängen! Location: Ontario, Canada	So, how do we cure her? Place her in an insane asylum until she no longer believes in God? __________________ Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.

04-26-2004, 09:58 PM	#19 (permalink)
SVT01Cobra Psycho Location: Somewhere, Missouri	WHAT THE FUCK? Church and State should be SEPERATE!! SHE KILLED TWO HUMAN BEINGS! She deserves to die.