But I think as a society, what we do with the mentally ill is criminal.

I am in complete agreement with you.

It seems to make more sense to me then "Not Guilty by reason of Insanity" but I don't know if I really understand it and how it is applied.

It's useless. It's a salve for the people doing the sentencing. The assumption is that the guilty party will get "treatment" in prison. It rarely happens that way. What happened with our highway shooter (he killed a woman and terrorized the city for months by shooting off of highway overpasses), is that he pled guilty but mentally ill and was sentenced to 27 years in prison. He'll serve it in a regular, maximum security facility where he will be lucky if he gets his medication. And Ohio is considered a "good" state for the treatment of mentally ill prisoners.

People flooded the Columbus Dispatch with outrage over his cop out plea and insisted he deserved the death penalty.

Personally, I think he should have been charged with 2nd degree murder because of gross negligence.

This.

The deaths of AY's children (and the people killed here) are tragic but if the system could better deal with mental illness, they might not have happened.

And this.

The people who are not insane have a responsibility to do something when their loved ones are a danger to themselves or others. I have more fury with the husband than with Andrea. If I were a danger to my children I hope that my husband would see this and step in and do whatever was needed to prevent tragedy.

If this woman ever does regain her sanity can you imagine what it will be like for her to live with the memory of killing her children. The whole thing is very upsetting.

The assumption is that the guilty party will get "treatment" in prison.

great. totally useless then.

All I can say about the Yates verdict is that I think the new one is much more appropriate than the old. Family history doesn't allow me to be impartial on this subject, but the "not guilty by reason of insanity" verdict was the better of the options available. Illinois is one of the states that have a "Guilty but insane" option, which I personally think would have been a better result, but sad to say it's not very common across the US.

If this woman ever does regain her sanity can you imagine what it will be like for her to live with the memory of killing her children. The whole thing is very upsetting.

I can't even imagine. Joe's cousin had had to not only been on his anti-psychotic meds, but he's had to be heavily AD'd because once he remebered what he had done, he was suicidal.

Andrea Yate's story isn't even the most horrific. This woman was found not guilty by reason of insanity as well. I think it was pretty obvious, but the jury deadlocked on the verdict. It wasn't until medical testing revealed a brain tumor that she was found not guilty.

IIRC, a study found that on average a commitment for mental illness will last longer than a plea bargain prison sentence or even one handed out by a jury. So it's a defense that will only be reluctantly pursued by a responsible lawyer, when they're convinced their client is, basically, stark raving and really needs regular medication, etc..

Don't even get me started on the horribleness of executing persons who have become so mentally ill that they have to be medicated just to be aware they're being killed.

IIRC, a study found that on average a commitment for mental illness will last longer than a plea bargain prison sentence or even one handed out by a jury.

Merely anecdotal and not a study, but anyone else remember how upset people got when John Hinkley was found Not Guilty by reason of Insanity for shooting at Reagan? Note he's still in.

And the system let down Andrea Yates long before the children died. I get angry at Rusty because he was in the best position to do something, and he just made it worse.

Merely anecdotal and not a study, but anyone else remember how upset people got when John Hinkley was found Not Guilty by reason of Insanity for shooting at Reagan? Note he's still in.

yeah, but they keep trying to let him out. And the "unsupervised visit' bit is getting old.