EDITOR: Should Holmes be found “innocent by reason of insanity” — Can’t he at least get a conviction with no possibility of a future release?
It appears the “reason of insanity” excuse is the problem, not whether he in fact conceived and carried out this heinous crime against humanity indiscriminately and with malice of forethought.
perplexed citizen
via AuroraSentinel.com
EDITOR: This editorial is made under the assumption mental illness and insanity just doesn’t even exist right? Or does someone have inside knowledge that James Holmes in particular doesn’t have one? Even though prosecution is pressing to get second opinions sort of points to his mental evaluation most likely saying he truly was “insane.”
But it would be so horrible if someone who truly was suffering from mental illness way out of their control was, you know, found to be suffering a mental illness out of their control, therefore innocent by reason of insanity.
How dare sane people look at the case and find sane conclusions. Instead let’s go with the simple solution: Something bad happened so we have to make sure someone suffers for it.
Sure, you can look to police to try to answer why it happened, but I can’t imagine they’ll give many answers. The police are the people you call to shoot/arrest someone after something happens. Try a psychologist, try learning what mental illness is outside of some “huge injustice” someone made up to get out of crimes.
rationalinsanity
via AuroraSentinel.com
But the second opinion is likely tied to the Prosecutions belief that the doctor
, who did the insanity review was affiliated with the University of Colorado hospital and dept of psychiatry, would not be unbiased. That is the same dept who failed to put James into the hospital.
The event incorporated a fallen member of the United States military, It suggests the whole episode may have been a ruse to take him out of his National Security assignments.
Now that Holmes has been found guilty, I sincerely hope that the jury has the courage to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. It is not so much because the cost of the death penalty is so prohibitively high with all of the mandatory appeals, but it is closely related to the fact that the death penalty is a cruel punishment, one of two types of punishment which our constitution protests without completely outlawing.
.
We really need, for reasons of personal safety, to deprive our government of killing people as punishment for something they choose to call treason. Presumably we the people have created our government and have delegated certain powers to it, but since we do not have the right to kill except in self-defense, the government does not have the right to kill except to protect us, the people, but certainly not to protect itself.
.
The people who set up these situations normally find a way to get the shooter/patsy killed in the process. In the case of Sirhan Sirhan, the country coroner found that Robert Kennedy was shot in the back at short range while Sirhan was being disarmed ten feet in front of him. At least one FBI agent lied on the witness stand while presenting hear-say evidence which actual witnesses have complained was not at all what they said. He was given a life sentence which kept him from talking to other people, which is simply wrong and his situation is currently being appealed. We want to know everything we can find out about this man.
.
Similarly, in the case of the theater shooting, there is a lot which simply does not add up. There is little doubt that Holmes shot a bunch of people, but like Sirhan, he stated afterward that he did not remember the crime. He surrendered peacefully, which was not what his handlers had intended and he told the police about the booby-traps in his apartment, which reveals an intent opposite to what must have caused him to create them. He was associated with a governmental mind-control experiment and he did bizarre things, and that should be enough reason to keep him alive. It is not necessary that he be comfortable, but we the people deserve to know every particular of the truth which we are able to extract and it is an extension of the multiple crimes of murder to let the government portray the shooter as a loner acting alone.
.
There will be no deterrence to committing similar crimes since this crime was so insane. Retribution for the families is not really a valid reason to murder a murderer and neither is an-eye-for-an-eye justice. On the other hand, the information which could be gleaned by preserving this man’s life and permitting him to be examined carefully and exhaustively by qualified professionals not associated with the government has immense value.