Exactly my thoughts.
But, it was unclear as just to how much under threat of death and torture she was during her out and about period. IIRC, the whole point of her defense was that she had been brainwashed, not that she was under watch 24/7.
I don’t have a firm opinion. I just read the wiki article about her, and a couple other things I googled up, and I’m unclear one one thing: do we have anybody’s testimony except hers that she was “kept in a closet for two months, raped, and tortured”? I’m not trying to poison the discussion, I just haven’t seen a firm answer to this.
Brainwashed. I say that with confidence because anyone else put into the same situation would have either done the same thing, or ended up dead.
Was there any speculation that she may have known or befriended her kidnappers prior to the kidnapping, or that she was complicit in it? I ask because the wikipedia article mentions her father immediately donated millions in food due to demands, and a tape recording surfaced of Patty at the time saying he could have done better.
I have a hard time understand the concept, but I will accept it. There are too many examples of people being held and tortured and returning to their tormentors for it to all be bull.
Still after being involved with robbery, it’d be hard to let her get off scott free. It’s like the verdict “guilty but mentally ill.” I don’t understand that at all. The whole point is if you’re sick you shouldn’t be responsible for actions arriving out of that sickness. Like if you have the mumps and give to someone and they get sick and die.
I think the issue many have with Stockholm Syndrome is that it totally negates freewill, the person involved is no longer a thinking rational person.
No doubt being kidnapped, raped, beaten, threatened with death, etc is going to fuck you over mentally and render you unable to make reasoned decisions at least temporarily. But at some point this goes away and it seems insulting to dismiss anything someone does with Stockholm Syndrome, as if they are now and forever incompetent.
I have seen crime victims plead for their attacker not to get the death penalty, they say they have forgiven and have moved on. Could they be said to have a form of SS?
Or have they just made some unusual decisions not everyone would make?
You have to murder somebody to get the death penalty, so I don’t see how this could happen.
Incidentally, I did see a true crime show once about a man who killed a preacher, and got sentenced to death, and the preacher’s daughter made it her cause to save his life. She said it’s what her dad would have wanted. It was funny though because the murderer was clearly SO uncomfortable with her championing for him, and he refused to have anything to do with her, but there she was at all his hearings, and trying to give him Bibles and stuff. I think he would have really preferred if she hated him and wanted him dead.
Not that I’m aware of. And from the interviews I’ve seen, at least some of the jurors seem to have convicted not because they believed that she had been abused but rejected the brainwashing, but rather because they weren’t convinced that she had been abused. Here’s one very brief summary.