So…accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan’s attorney said yesterday his client, paralyzed from the waist down from his wounds, could plead “Not Guilty” by reason of insanity.
I’m no lawyer (my parents were married when I was born), but it seems to me that this could set up a bit of a negative precedent for a couple of groups.
1) Kill as many people as you want and claim insanity.
2) Radical Islamic jihadists would get pissed off because all of a sudden the path of the 72 virgins and all that crap – i.e. a suicide mission – turns into, instead of a measure of faith, an indication of insanity. Not real good for PR and recruiting, I’d wager.
3) The relatives and survivors of such a massacre ( or, as many on the left have called it, this “tragic event”) would have to sit there and watch the murderer of their father or mother or son or daughter be found “Not Guilty”.
Hopefully the fact this is outside the jurisdiction of the Attorney General and will be a military trial under the auspices of the Uniform Code of Military Justice will mean the Justice Department will not be able to get their hands on this thing.
Steve // Nov 25, 2009 at 7:44 am
What other defense is there for the SOB? The insanity plea was coming the day he started shooting. I know there are people with real mental problems but the insanity plea is a cop-out and a dangerous precedent in this case. All radical Islamic terrorists are by our own definition insane. Does that mean KSM and OBL get off the hook because they are insane? Time to thin the gene pool.
JimmyT // Nov 25, 2009 at 10:38 am
Yeah well, twice now Eric Holder (I am sure with the full knowledge and permission of the PresBO) has pulled a sure victory out of the fire and either quit outright or set it aside in favor of new trial. I refer directly to the New Black Panther Voter intimidation case and the trial of KSM. In the Black Panther case Eric Holder dropped the charges after a deemed conviction was handed down because the Black Panthers who had all the balls to stand in front of a Polling place with wood baton’s and keep white people from voting but had no balls to come in and face the justice system failed to show for their own trial. They were in the process of deciding what kind of punishment to hand out when Holder stepped in and dropped the charges. In the KSM case, there was already a plea from KSM of guilty and a request to be put to death. Holder decided that the KSM plea was in-proper because it should not have been done in a military court. So, he pulled it and him out of the military’s hands.
So, don’t be surprised if Holder steps up and pulls this case out of the military’s hands too, on the grounds that one of those killed was a civilian. I wouldn’t put it past him our this administration to do an end run around the military just to give this asshat a public voice.
BT: Jimmy T sends.
olga // Nov 25, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I am not familiar with the insanity defense issues in the military criminal law and procedure, but in a civilian criminal court, it is quite a tough standard to meet… just saying…
MissBirdlegs in AL // Nov 25, 2009 at 7:47 pm
I have to admit that I’ve lost all confidence in the common sense of anyone in the country these days. Even people I used to trust to do the right thing seem to have lost their minds or their spines, or both. Not much surprises me anymore, certainly not this. Just what I expected.
Papa // Nov 25, 2009 at 8:30 pm
If I’m not mistaken, psychiatric tests and evaluations play a big part in cases involving the insanity plea. Since the ‘accused’ (read: murderer) in this case is a certified psychiatrist and is, therefore, very familiar with this ramble, I would view the whole issue with a very jaundiced eye.
Mark Steel // Dec 1, 2009 at 1:29 am
ROFLMAO
Nice.