From: Karen Rand Smigrodzki (karen@smigrodzki.org)
Date: Mon May 19 2003 - 16:31:36 MDT
From: "Mike Lorrey" <mlorrey@yahoo.com>
> --- Karen Rand Smigrodzki <karen@smigrodzki.org> wrote:
> > Mike Lorrey wrote:
> >
> > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,958840,00.html
> > >
> > > The Guardian reports that there are a number of murders being
> > committed
> > > by individuals who either believe, or claim they believe, that they
> > are
> > > living in The Matrix. This is apparently a new sort of insanity
> > > defense. If you believe that your victims are not real, are you
> > > responsible for their deaths??
> > >
> >
> > ^^^^^Do you mean legally responsible or factually responsible? Also,
> > by "believe that your victims are not real" do you mean an insane
> > delusion or a sane albeit irrational assumption or a sane, rational
> > assumption which is nevertheless incorrect?
>
> It was a rhetorical question, Karen, to illustrate what I expect to
> become a new insanity defense. Since sociopaths are already recognised
> as not regarding their victims as people, this treads on well
> established areas of insanity defense case law. Whether there is any
> distiction between your three different analyses, and which one is
> accurate, apparently will be put to various juries.
>
^^^^^^^^^ Usually I find people who answer rhetorical questions to be
annoying. In spite of that, I thought real discussion of the answer to this
question might be interesting. Your question caught my attention mainly
because I did not know what you meant by a "new sort of insanity defense".
I am only a law student, and criminal law will definitely not be the area I
enter into; however, neither the news article nor your question seem to add
anything new to formulations of the insanity defense to criminal
prosecution. I gather from your posts that while you are very interested in
some areas of law, you are not an attorney. I also sense from this post
that you are disturbed by a perceived trend in criminal law to expand the
insanity defense. I also sense that you find people who answer rhetorical
questions to be annoying. (So if you didn't really want an answer, feel free
to ignore my response!) ;)
--karen
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