Killer mother: God told me to do it

[j]

Courtesy of The Ralph Bristol Show:

In the middle of the night on Mother's Day a year ago, 39-year-old Deanna Laney woke up her six-year-old son Luke, led him outside the family's home and asked him to put his head on a large rock. Luke did as his mother asked and Laney smashed the child's skull with a large landscaping rock. Then she went to get her oldest child, Joshua. He, too, obeyed his mother and put his head against a large rock in the yard. His mother bashed his skull with a 16-pound rock.

Laney doesn't deny doing this. Nor does she deny trying, but failing, to kill her 14-month-old baby by hitting him in the head with a four-pound rock while he lay sleeping in his crib.

Laney's defense is that God told her to do it, and that makes her insane. Prosecutors played a tape of a 911 call in which Laney calmly told a dispatcher after midnight on May 10: "I just killed my boys." She told the dispatcher, "I just did what I had to do."

Insanity is real, and mental illness can drastically alter reality in a way the renders a person irresponsible. But, psychology is not an exact medical science.

When I rode my sleigh into a fencepost and broke my ankle at age 11, it was easy for the doctor to diagnose. An X-ray clearly showed my ankle was broken in two places. Doctor's won't be able to examine Laney's mind with the same amount of precision and pronounce with no uncertainty that a mental disease rendered her incapable of rejecting God's orders to crush her children's skulls with large rocks.

In this case, two psychiatric experts for the defense, two for the prosecution and one for the judge all agree that she was legally insane at the time of the offense. The prosecutor isn't buying it. District Attorney Matt Bingham told the jury, "The issue of sanity is tried in the court, not the hospitals."

Now, a jury will decide whether the psychiatric experts were right. If they find her innocent by reason of insanity, she will almost certainly be assigned to a mental hospital until other psychiatrists "cure" her insanity, and then she'll be allowed to go free, as if she had never killed.

That's not right. A woman who is so delusional that she thinks God told her to kill her sons had to show signs of delusion prior to that fateful night. She, and/or her husband, had a responsibility to protect their children from the potential consequences of that delusion. They failed to do so, and there should be some permanent consequences.

I believe the plea "not guilty by reason of insanity" should be abolished altogether and replaced with "guilty, but insane." Defendants would then understand that if they are persuasive, they will not be sentenced to prison, but they will be confined to a secure mental institution for a period of time equal to the time that a normal guilty verdict would have produced.

I was going to suggest a harsher treatment, but God told me to go easy.
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I like Ralph's idea on this issue. This whole insanity defense thing is just another fine example of Liberal ideology at work.

[Guest]

What an idiot!

[j]

I trust you are referring to the sorry ass excuse for a mother and not myself or Ralph??

[sunnyday]

I am sick to death of so-called 'mothers' killing their children. They should be put under the jail for life. What a world when innocent children are not safe in their own homes. I have much compassion in my heart for most people, but these cruel moms do not receive any from me.

[TexasStooge]

Parents like her really need to be locked away for good!

[HurricaneGirl]

Someone ought to do the same thing to her.

[southerngale]

I am sick to death of so-called 'mothers' killing their children. They should be put under the jail for life. What a world when innocent children are not safe in their own homes. I have much compassion in my heart for most people, but these cruel moms do not receive any from me.

Ditto except I see no reason to pay for these sicko "moms" to live in jail for life. They should get the death penalty. It sickens me beyond words!!

[CaptinCrunch]

Jury is in and the verdict is SMASH HER HEAD IN with a 100lb. ROCK. Just doing what they told me.

[Guest]

I trust you are referring to the sorry ass excuse for a mother and not myself or Ralph??

Yep, the sorry _ _ _ excuse for a mother!

[Rainband]

What a wack job She deserves NO mercy.

[GalvestonDuck]

Okay, I'm as pro-capital punishment as the rest of you. But come on...why so quick to want to put her to death? How about first letting someone talk with her, observe her, and do a bit a research first to find out what happened?

The article states that surely something had happened in the past that would make her and her husband aware of what types of behavior she was capable of exhibiting. Well, perhaps nothing this extreme has happened before. Perhaps they didn't know it would happen. What if she was on some kind of medication and the side effects caused her to wig out? Remember stormchazer's earlier thread about anti-depression medications and suicidal behavior ( http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=26878 )? What if someone you know and love was on one of those kinds of medicine and suddenly had an episode of bizarre, irrational behavior? Wouldn't you want to know what caused it and how to prevent it? Wouldn't you want to know if it was the medicine or the mental illness? Would you want to see them die?

Besides, after we win the war on terror and go into battle on the war on delusional behavior, does that mean we have to execute all liberals? (Kidding!!! )

[Guest]

Someone ought to do the same thing to her.

My thought's exactly!

[rainstorm]

one of these moms will have to be put to death. juries cant keep feeling sorry for them.

[Rainband]

Okay, I'm as pro-capital punishment as the rest of you. But come on...why so quick to want to put her to death? How about first letting someone talk with her, observe her, and do a bit a research first to find out what happened?

The article states that surely something had happened in the past that would make her and her husband aware of what types of behavior she was capable of exhibiting. Well, perhaps nothing this extreme has happened before. Perhaps they didn't know it would happen. What if she was on some kind of medication and the side effects caused her to wig out? Remember stormchazer's earlier thread about anti-depression medications and suicidal behavior ( http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=26878 )? What if someone you know and love was on one of those kinds of medicine and suddenly had an episode of bizarre, irrational behavior? Wouldn't you want to know what caused it and how to prevent it? Wouldn't you want to know if it was the medicine or the mental illness? Would you want to see them die?

Besides, after we win the war on terror and go into battle on the war on delusional behavior, does that mean we have to execute all liberals? (Kidding!!! )

About a month ago my mom stopped taking her zoloft and had seizures and a mini stroke. One day, before I knew what was going on, I went to see her and lets just say that wasn't my mother. I understand your point Duck and respect it but the "God told me to do it" plea seems like a pill that is a bit hard to swallow. There are many many mentally ill people in this world, thats a fact, but how many murder their own children. I have always heard, the bond between a mother and her children is so strong, that even across great distances a mother knows when her children are in trouble. I just can't understand how she could murder one and then go on and murder the second..after seeing the first child dead. Maybe that shows she is mentally ill but like a said It's hard for me to accept.

[GalvestonDuck]

I suppose it's kind of the same as Andrea Yates who killed not three, but five of her kids. Of course, in that case it wasn't God who told her to do it, it was the TV.

[JQ Public]

Its sad to see some of the things people do b/c God has told them to do it.

[Firefighter16]

Why is it that God is always telling these mothers to kill there inocent children and not themselves?

[GalvestonDuck]

Because the ones who were told by God to kill themselves can't tell us about it, now can they?

[blizzard]

Insanity plea is used too danged much, it is diluted and where do you draw the line??

[j]

Okay, I'm as pro-capital punishment as the rest of you. But come on...why so quick to want to put her to death? How about first letting someone talk with her, observe her, and do a bit a research first to find out what happened?

We will have plenty of time to find out what makes her tick as she sits on death row for 10-15 years