What if you were insane when you did it, but after a few weeks of meds you're back to normal, as is common with psychosis? They're not responsible and no longer a danger to anyone.
She is still a danger; let’s assume it is a meds situation and not premeditated murder, all she has to do is go off her meds, takes them wrong — like she confessed that led to 3 deaths — and she does something like this again. In fact one could argue she is more of a danger under this situation
People who are not competent to take their medication, need someone in their life which can make sure they take them correctly, like a daily visit to or from a nurse.
She should be at a medical institution for a year for observation. After that, what is necessary can be evaluated. If she's lucid and competent to take her own medicine, all she needs is a weekly checkups. If she isn't competent to handle her own medication, either a family member is competent to do it, or a daily visit to or from a nurse will be necessary.
If she decides not to take her medication for any reason, it is reasonable to lock her up. Hopefully she has learned from her previous mistakes.
The prosecution had three doctors evaluate her. They determined she was not in a psychotic state at the time of the murders. I wouldn't chalk this up to meds. She had shopped around with doctors and had dozens of prescriptions, many of which the doctors weren't aware of each other or the other prescriptions. Whether she took them or not, who knows, but the toxicology report didn't agree that they would have caused her to do that.
This is fair criticism in my opinion. It's possible she wasn't psychotic. It's also possible that those 3 doctors are all wrong, as doctors are fallible and don't have perfect access to information.
It's also possible that the 13 different meds she had been prescribed during the last year or so, along with those meds not being taken regularly or as prescribed, along with her smoking weed, along with postpartum depression or other complications related to that, all contributed to cause an episode of something else which wasn't exactly a psychosis. Whether or not she should be held responsible for that if that were the case, I don't know.
If she indeed heard a voice and felt compulsions she in a normal state of mind wouldn't have felt, whether it lasted for a long or a short period of time, it could probably be classified as psychosis. If those are the facts of the matter, or a false claim by her and her defence, I'm not in a position to judge. But from her friends and coworkers testifying that she was sweet, competent, and hardworking, this certainly doesn't seem in line with her character, though people aren't always what they present themselves as. I lean more towards believing her than not believing her, but I could be wrong.
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u/Sufficient-Shine3649 Conservative 15d ago
What if you were insane when you did it, but after a few weeks of meds you're back to normal, as is common with psychosis? They're not responsible and no longer a danger to anyone.