[ExI] insanity plea

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 3:02 AM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 28, 2013  Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> > My mental malfunction has been repaired and I am quite literally not
>>> > the same man I was, so if the doctors can say beyond a reasonable doubt that
>>> > I am no more likely to murder again than the general population then I
>>> > should be released. However in the real world the thought experiment you
>>> > describe almost never happens,  and I'm not sure if I should have said
>>> > "almost".
>>
>>
>> > The case I have described is of a treatable organic psychosis.
>
>
> Then why do people still get murdered?

Because not everyone gets treated, the psychosis is not always
treatable, and most murderers are sane people anyway.

>> > Much more commonly involved in forensic cases are the so-called
>> > functional psychoses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. These can
>> > also be treated very effectively with medication in at least 70% of cases,
>
>
> Maybe treatment can help a little bit for 70% of those with garden variety
> depression or bipolar disorder. Maybe. But that's not what I'm talking
> about, I'm talking about turning a murder into a non-murderer. And I think
> that someone murdering again AFTER he has already been convicted of murder
> is as great a failure of the law as executing a innocent man; so even if
> your very dubious statistic of a 70% success rate is correct that's not
> nearly good enough, you certainly wouldn't put somebody to death if you
> thought there was only a 70% chance they were guilty. I would be in favor of
> releasing a murder if it could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the
> treatment was so good he would be incapable of murdering again. Do you have
> any treatment like that?

Most murderers are either not mentally ill or have a personality
disorder, which generally can't be treated. Psychotic disorders, on
the other hand, can be treated. Psychotic disorders include
schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder and
delusional disorder. There are also organic psychoses caused by
metabolic problems, brain tumours etc., although these are rarer. A
psychotic illness can completely change the gentlest of people and
turn them into a murderer, although of course if they are already
inclined towards violence before becoming psychotic they are even more
dangerous. In the ideal case, a person is well-adjusted and
law-abiding, becomes psychotic and commits a crime, is treated and
returns to normal, has insight into what happened and the reasons for
it, and remains well thereafter with no more likelihood of offending
than anyone else.

>> > but the problem is that the symptoms recur if the medication stops.
>
>
> Not if the medication is cyanide, with that drug only one treatment is
> needed and you can be quite certain that the murdering symptoms will not
> reoccur.

Injectable antipsychotic medication mandated by legislation can also work.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou