Reply #48: The problem is [View All]

that the ONLY thing we have to go on here is Dee's word that God told her to do this. There is zero history of mental illness here; at least Andrea Yeats (Yates?) had quite a record in her defense. Dee's friends and family saw nothing, she never sought treatment for any problems whatsoever. Just before the murders, she made a friendly phone call to her mother-in-law. No one saw a problem for years and years and years.

So if the ONLY thing we have to go on about what happened that night is Dee's word, then couldn't any murderer just say "God told me to do it" and get off with a lighter sentence? That's what's really bothering me here. Just because a woman kills her kids doesn't automatically make her insane... does it?

As for your examples, I think an argument could be made that those people who so carelessly shot someone are mentally insane. Why not? What's the definition? In Texas, all they look at is whether or not you knew right from wrong at the moment of the crime; and how on earth is that provable, anyway?

Lotsa questions (as usual) in the thread that won't die, LOL!