Attorney: Psychiatrist finds woman who severed baby's arms unfit for trial

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D87P1AGG0.html

A court-appointed psychiatrist has found a woman accused of killing her 10-month-old baby by cutting off her arms unfit for trial, her attorney said.

Psychiatrist David Self determined that Dena Schlosser, 35, suffers from bipolar disorder and postpartum onset, said her attorney, David Haynes. The psychiatrist also said shunts implanted in Schlosser's brain during a series of childhood surgeries for hydrocephalus could have contributed to her actions.

Schlosser, a housewife with a history of mental illness, was charged with capital murder Nov. 22 after she told a 911 operator that she had severed baby Margaret's arms. Police and paramedics found Dena Schlosser in her living room, covered in blood and still holding a knife.

Haynes said Self wrote in his report that Schlosser could become competent if she receives the proper treatment. A jury will decide Feb. 14 whether Schlosser is fit to stand trial.

[NYC]

1. I'm not surprised that she is not fit to stand trial.

She needs mental health treatment, desperately.

[Drifter]

7. Hopefully she will get it ...

while she spend the rest of her life in prison.

Cheers
Drifter

[roguevalley]

2. this whole thing is too sad. I hope she gets help. She needs it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. I definitely learned something from this sad experience.

The shock of the details left me so cold that I could never see myself ever forgiving that woman. At least now, I'm willing to hear what drove her to do it and recognize that she is in need of medical attention.

[cornermouse]

4. This is something that has always bothered me.

If you're so far out of it due to mental illness, that you can do something like cutting off a baby's arms, and the court certifies that you were out of it at the time, but can with treatment become competent at a later date, what purpose is served by putting the person up for trial for something they did when they were so far out of reality?

It does not make sense.

[mordarlar]

5. I think it is to get her stable so she can stand trial. Then they prove..

she was not right at the time. She needs to be stable enough to seek representation and things. I am no attorney but this is the way i read it.

[mordarlar]

8. I mean once she is stable they can defend her with an insanity plea

[rug]

9. You are correct

You must be found to be sane at the time of the trial so you are able to prove you were insane at the time of the crime.

[mordarlar]

10. thank you I was not certain.

[Maraya1969]

6. I completely agree with you

These people need help not punishment. A person in that kind of state is truly not living in the world.

Great Britain has a wonderful system where they actively look for women they think are going to commit infanticide and watch over them and help them. And they do not send them to jail if one kills a baby.

I know it is hard for people to understand this but consider that some people's mental illness makes them believe that aliens are talking to them through the television. If you can comprehend that maybe you can comprehend a woman killing her child because she is in the same type of psychosis, albeit in a different dream.

These people did not ask for their mental illness and they suffer more than any of us could ever imagine. Can you imagine spending years thinking aliens are trying to get a hold of you? We, (women at least) are scared when we have to walk through a dark parking lot. imagine that type of fear ALL THE TIME.


Putting these in jail or actually killing them serves no purpose and is the antithesis of compassion.

[yo-yo-ma]

11. Postpartum psychosis

is an uncommon (1 in 10,000) but real disease. A sort of terrifying end of the continuum beginning with postpartum depression. It's been described for a long time. In Britain, up until some time in the late 1800s, it was not considered against the law if a mother killed a child in its first year of life. The interviews that I have read with women who have done things like this decscribe themselves as living more and more in this dream state , wherein the idea that the child has to die in order to be saved, or something like that begins to form itself. The women feel horrible/messed up/ broken afterwards.

A trial of some sort is neccessary given our legal system. However, it is so clear that what she needs is treatment, support and love and not lengthy incarceration or death.

I hope we can count on the texas legal system for compassion.

[Sadie5]

12. Another one in Texas???

Lately seems as if all mental illness is in Texas. Now we know why * is a wacko!

[Ms. Clio]

13. In Britain, it's still not considered a crime

If a woman kills a baby under the age of two, it's almost automatically assumed to be postpartum psychosis.

Will the Texas legal system have that sort of compassionate understanding of the very real hormonal imbalances that produce this devastating disorder?

After living here for over 20 years, I'd have to say it's unlikely. :(

[PurityOfEssence]

14. Not guilty by reason of religion

We can't mess with this stuff, because it would call into question the very nature of religion's blank check on life and its need to be above reproach. Those who demand impunity for things that can't be explained must steadfastly hold the line against any accountability. A few bodies here and there are well worth it, as long as privilege is upheld.