General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why are people buying the line that this was driven primarily mental illness [View all]Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)They often try the insanity defense.
I think the man who killed the Amish children might have been insane. I can't recall, though. But part of the reason they kill themselves at the end is that they KNOW they've committed an unpardonable sin, will be reviled and punished, so rather than that, they go out with "blazing glory" and notoriety. Which means they knew what they were doing was wrong.
Some people think that anyone with any sort of mental illness is insane. But insanity is something in particular, and legally it means knowing the difference between right and wrong. Someone with Alzheimer's, for instance, might be considered insane. Or severely mentally deficient...they truly don't know it's wrong to try to touch a stranger's genitals.
But Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and a long list of evil killers were all quite sane.