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Publisher's News Analysis: Insanity Plea Really Don't Work for Us
- By Roy Douglas Malonson
- Published 11/18/2009
- Editorial and Opinion
- Unrated
Roy Douglas Malonson
Roy D. Malonson is publisher of the African-American News&Issues.
View all articles by Roy Douglas Malonson
John Muhammad is dead. Whether you are for or against the death penalty, you have to call in question the execution of a person declared insane. Let’s look at the facts: Last month, Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine heard from attorneys, mental health experts and other witnesses who described Muhammad’s mental ability.
They said he suffered brain dysfunction and neurological deficits, endured psychotic and delusional behavior, which were made worst by the Gulf War Syndrome. The expert marksman served this country as a sergeant in the first Iraq war.
Kaine, a Roman Catholic who is against the death penalty, also heard from a juror who said that she would not have sentenced Muhammad to death if she had known of his severe mental illness. Ironically the 70th Governor of Virginia has stood by while nine executions took place.
In all fairness, he commuted one man’s sentence to life in prison on the grounds that he was mentally ill. Kaine said that Percy Levar Walton, a Black man, convicted as a triple murderer was so psychologically impaired that his execution was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court bans the execution of people deemed insane, mentally disabled, with IQ less than 70, established by the age of 18, and the lack of basic adaptive skills.
Here’s my big problem with the Muhammad case. Andrea Yates.
Remember her? She was the White woman who drowned her five young children in the bathtub in her house.
Reportedly, she had been suffering for years with very severe postpartum depression and psychosis. In 2002 she was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.
On July 26, 2006, at her retrial, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She was committed to the North Texas State Hospital, a high-security mental health facility in Vernon, Texas.
Oh yeah, her suitemate was Dena Schlosser, another White woman who in 2004 killed her eleven-month-old daughter by amputating her arms with a knife. According to her, like Abraham in the Bible, she was offering her child to God.
Schlosser was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was sent to the North Texas facility until she is “no longer deemed a threat to herself or others.” Two years ago, Yates was moved to a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas.
So the moral of the story is that you can say you are insane, and everybody else can say you are insane and you will be believed to be insane if you only kill one person? Or is the cut off five, as along as they are members of your own family?
Or is it more believable if you are White? What if you are Muslim? How about a White Muslim? Then, I’m curious to see what will happen to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan who is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder for the recent shootings at Fort Hood.
John Muhammad
Nidal Malik Hasan
They said he suffered brain dysfunction and neurological deficits, endured psychotic and delusional behavior, which were made worst by the Gulf War Syndrome. The expert marksman served this country as a sergeant in the first Iraq war.
Kaine, a Roman Catholic who is against the death penalty, also heard from a juror who said that she would not have sentenced Muhammad to death if she had known of his severe mental illness. Ironically the 70th Governor of Virginia has stood by while nine executions took place.
In all fairness, he commuted one man’s sentence to life in prison on the grounds that he was mentally ill. Kaine said that Percy Levar Walton, a Black man, convicted as a triple murderer was so psychologically impaired that his execution was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court bans the execution of people deemed insane, mentally disabled, with IQ less than 70, established by the age of 18, and the lack of basic adaptive skills.
Here’s my big problem with the Muhammad case. Andrea Yates.
Remember her? She was the White woman who drowned her five young children in the bathtub in her house.
Reportedly, she had been suffering for years with very severe postpartum depression and psychosis. In 2002 she was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.
On July 26, 2006, at her retrial, she was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She was committed to the North Texas State Hospital, a high-security mental health facility in Vernon, Texas.
Oh yeah, her suitemate was Dena Schlosser, another White woman who in 2004 killed her eleven-month-old daughter by amputating her arms with a knife. According to her, like Abraham in the Bible, she was offering her child to God.
Schlosser was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was sent to the North Texas facility until she is “no longer deemed a threat to herself or others.” Two years ago, Yates was moved to a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas.
So the moral of the story is that you can say you are insane, and everybody else can say you are insane and you will be believed to be insane if you only kill one person? Or is the cut off five, as along as they are members of your own family?
Or is it more believable if you are White? What if you are Muslim? How about a White Muslim? Then, I’m curious to see what will happen to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan who is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder for the recent shootings at Fort Hood.
John Muhammad
Nidal Malik Hasan