He Has Got To Be Crazy

This weekends shooting of nineteen people including a congresswoman and a federal judge in Arizona is a tragic and deplorable act and should be condemned by all civilized people. Assignation of our government officials is not the way we do business in this country. Already, there are calls for new and more restrictive gun controls, specifically a federal ban on large capacity magazines, as has existed in California for many years. More on that later.

The act of this "whacko" is likely to be characterized as proof alone that the shooter is "crazy". Most people tend to look at the result of an act as sufficient evidence of legal insanity. To do so is natural but legally flawed.

First, being mentally ill and "crazy" is not the same as being legally insane. In fact, some very, very nutty people have done some very nutty things and are very legally sane. One can point to some infamous killers in our time, like Charles Manson, who were found legally sane and responsible legally for their acts. Some can point to some mental defenses such as diminished capacity as a "loop hole" allowing people to not be held accountable for their crimes. You may recall the murders of Mayor Mosconi and Councilman Harvey Milk who were shot and killed by a person who claimed he was "high" on sugar from Twinkies, and his capacity to understand was diminished. and, indeed, the jury bought it and he got manslaughter instead of murder. This led to a so-called banning of the diminished capacity defense in California. I say "co-called" because , in effect, it did not ban the defense, but changed it into something else

As a general rule, and the law in the majority of states, a person is not legally insane if: They understand the nature and quality of their act or they didn't, they knew it was wrong, they are sane. A person can be crazier than a bed bug but if they know what they are doing is killing a human being and that to do so is wrong, they are legally sane.

So, Mr. Arizona Whacko can rant all he wants about not wanting to use the countries money because it is not on the gold standard, or his "dreams" or what every the hell he wants to rant and rave about. If he knew that shooting people was held as wrong by society and he knew that he was, in fact, shooting people, he is legally sane. How do you prove that? Well, he tried to get away, for one thing. People who believe they are not doing something wrong, have no reason to run.

The fact is that mental defenses do not work often and jurys don't like them. They don't care if his mommy was mean to him or he was picked on at school. Mr. Whacko can have all the shrinks he wants to testify about his little brain and how it doesn't work. It will not work, in my humble opinion.

So, when someone comments this guy was "nuts" or "crazy" because of all the news stories about his Facebook statements or whatever he as written in his dream journal, just shake your head and tell them that just because he is nuts, it doesn't mean he is legally insane. I wish Arizona or the Feds had an electric chair with really, really high voltage. No one is more deserving than this guy.