# Temporary Insanity? Who cares--they still did it. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 12, 2000, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614 "2000-10-12T00:37:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Needs2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5e925/32.png) [@Needs2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Needs2know)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2000, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/21 "2000-10-13T17:07:38Z")
Weren’t the Menendez boys tried twice? I thought their first trial resulted in a hung jury? Did they prosecute them again or did they plead out? I thought there was some debate as to whether the state wanted to prosecute them the second time because the first trial was so costly? Let me see if I can look it up. But yes, you are right they did go to jail, but if my memory serves they did get some sympathy from the first jury becuse of their story. Of course the younger brother was still aq minor at the time too. Needs2know ---
**Author:** ![gnovos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@gnovos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnovos)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/22 "2011-03-19T11:11:29Z")
> [@Crazy\_Boob](#): > > How is it possible in our “free will” based justice system to allow leniency to violent criminals just because their actions were psychologically determined? > > What would happen if it were proven that all behavior is determined by psychological factors caused by our genetics, our environment, and our experiences? > > It is my view that all people would be the responsible causing agent of their actions, even if their circumstances would not allow them to choose differently. You think this way because you don’t understand how the twisted logic of insanity works. They are _trying_ to do the right thing, but they can’t, because their minds are not in reality. Here’s an example: You see a man trying to stab your two year old daughter to death, what do you do? Do you attack him? Do you save your daughter? Oops, it turns out that you were insane, and the man with the knife actually wasn’t a man with a knife, it was another child with a tube of toothpaste. You SAW a man with a knife, and you saw the wounds in your daughter’s back. It was very real to you. Did you do the wrong thing? ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/23 "2011-03-19T11:21:36Z")
And now they’re insane zombies. How does an eleven-year old thread drag its mouldering corpse out of the grave to shamble through the boards? ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/24 "2011-03-19T11:29:53Z")
I don’t think anyone knows how all zombie threads revive, but yesterday on [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com), they mention someone as the first person to claim “not guilty by reason of insanity.” He got away with it, and then some. Maybe that’s the inspiration for a Google search, and the SDMB pops up first. > **[The 6 Most Childish Things Ever Done in Congress](https://www.cracked.com/article_19028_the-6-most-childish-things-ever-done-in-congress.html)** > > Sometimes shit gets truly ridiculous in Congress. Cracked article regarding Congressman Daniel E. Sickles, and it’s [Cracked.com](http://Cracked.com), so not citations have been checked by me. Because – why, who would I complain to? ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/25 "2011-03-19T11:39:47Z")
Anyway, if anyone else wants to search the SDMB before they post, and they read this thread, maybe that Cracked article provides a reference they can use for “Why do people get away with murder by claiming insanity? Why oh why?” Follow Daniel E. Sickles’s example. (It doesn’t have to be absolutely true in every detail to serve as an example.) You come home. You find your hot wife going at it with another man. It is pre-women’s lib, so this sort of thing isn’t something you just deal with, but you hack the guy to death. Maybe the wife too. Maybe such a president goes far back in time. A certain situation inspires a certain deep emotional state which clouds judgment. We’ve used this as a rationalization since time immemorial. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/26 "2011-03-19T12:32:44Z")
I still think it’s funny when someone joins the conversation to point out “You think this way because…” to someone who hasn’t been here in about a decade. Good one! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/27 "2011-03-19T12:43:57Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > And now they’re insane zombies. How does an eleven-year old thread drag its mouldering corpse out of the grave to shamble through the boards? I understand that often some spammer posts to it, which puts the thread back on the first page; they get erased, and then someone else posts without noticing the thread is ancient. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_In_Black)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/28 "2011-03-19T14:43:03Z")
The dead walk! ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/29 "2011-03-19T15:41:51Z")
> [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](#): > > The dead walk! Oops, it turns out that you’re insane. It’s just **Der Trihs** with a tube of toothpaste. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/30 "2011-03-19T17:29:44Z")
We have always given some forgiveness due to a "crime of passion’. A guy comes home and finds his wife in bed with another man. That has been seen as a mitigating factor. How is that not temporary insanity? We have accepted as part of a defense ,a woman getting abused by her husband for years, reaching her limit and killing her hubby. We take that into consideration. But the act is one of hate and insanity, foer a while. We assume if they get out of jail, they are not threats to anybody else. Was that temporary insanity? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/31 "2011-03-19T23:05:34Z")
The thread is relevant. At this moment, a young man (Chris Gribble) is on trial in NH-he is charged with hacking a 46 year old woman to death (and attempting to kill her 11 year old daughter. Mr. Gribble is claiming that he was insane while committing these crimes. I don’t buy it-he did considerable planning with his associates, and boasted about the murder afterwards. nless you consider his behavior evidence of insanity, I don’t know how anyone could buy this. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/32 "2011-03-19T23:07:59Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I don’t buy it-he did considerable planning with his associates, and boasted about the murder afterwards. nless you consider his behavior evidence of insanity, I don’t know how anyone could buy this. So wait for the verdict. It almost never works as a defense. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614/33 "2011-03-23T10:03:52Z")
It’s certainly relevant in Australia at the moment where an estranged father threw his 4 year old daughter off a bridge. This case: "The 37-year-old man threw Darcey Freeman off Melbourne’s Westgate Bridge during peak-hour traffic on January 29, 2009. He had been driving the little girl to her first day of school when he pulled his four-wheel drive into the emergency lane and asked her to climb into the front seat. He then carried her to the railings and dropped her 58 metres to her death as his two sons, aged two and six, watched on. Freeman has pleaded not guilty to murder on the grounds of mental impairment. " [Here.](http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/23/3171814.htm) (I’d like to see him swing from the same bridge but that won’t happen.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/temporary-insanity-who-cares-they-still-did-it/36614.md?page=1)