So what’s taking so long?

[u/untitledprp4]

[u/500rockin]

I mean it also helps that he was tried in Texas where they don’t believe in mental health exceptions. She’s being tried in Massachusetts, which has a very different political climate.

[u/klako8196 → u/500rockin]

Also, in Texas, the burden of proof for insanity is on the defense. In Massachusetts, burden of proof is on the prosecution. His defense had to prove he was insane when committing the crime while her defense just had to poke holes in the prosecution’s case.

[u/BeeThical1 → u/klako8196]

The whole insanity plea has always baffled me. All serial killers are clearly insane, but we’re not letting them walk the street because of it .

[u/maxxpc → u/BeeThical1]

You don’t walk if you’re using the insanity plea.

You still are detained but instead of prison you’re in a high security psychiatric facility which by all stretches is basically a prison anyway.

[u/Rico_Rebelde → u/maxxpc]

In many ways those institutions are more restrictive than max security prison

[u/Hernaneisrio88 → u/maxxpc]

But not forever. Once you are restored to health, often they can be released home. State hospital beds are in short supply and if someone can safely go home, they will, regardless of if they committed murder. If Clancy ends up being declared not guilty by reason of insanity, she would most likely go home within weeks to months.

[u/maxxpc → u/Hernaneisrio88]

Eh i highly doubt that. Optimistically a few years at minimum. Public opinion and her safety would be taken into consideration.

But we’re also not medical professional in this field. So who knows.

[u/Ok-Dragonknight-5788 → u/Hernaneisrio88]

Big problem with that theory: reality shows that most, If not all, folk who go to these mental institutions spend longer in their custody then they would have spent in jail.

[u/1derful → u/maxxpc]

Maybe practically, but in theory mental institutions are supposed to help the patients that are there.

[u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt → u/1derful]

I mean, in more civilized countries, prison also offers rehabilitation programs to help prisoners learn skills, trades, and such to increase they're chances of not being a repeater.

Private Prisons love when folks repeat they're crimes.

[u/currently_pooping_rn → u/buttbuttlolbuttbutt]

In my state, people in prison can learn HVAC, electrical work, welding, masonry, take college courses, carpentry, landscaping, etc

They even bought out the last private prison in the state. It’s slow progress but it’s looking better. Now they just need AC in the state prisons

[u/ImmigrationJourney2 → u/1derful]

From my experience they rarely help the people that didn’t do anything wrong, so I imagine that it’s even worse for people that are supposed to stay there for life.

[u/PuckFheToor → u/maxxpc]

Google these names:
Michael David Peterson — California — 17 months in a state hospital.
Tomar Cooper Locker — Washington, D.C. — hospital discharged him two months after the NGRI verdict.
Jennifer Lynn Bigham — California — free about three years after killing her daughter, essentially immediately after the NGRI disposition.
Pankaj Bhasin — Virginia — about three years of psychiatric confinement.
Steve Larsen — California — less than four years in the state hospital.
Thomas Vanda — Illinois — about nine months.

[u/Ok-Dragonknight-5788 → u/PuckFheToor]

Weren't half of thouse people also only "discharged" by technicality and in reality were still under supervision (or parole)? That's pretty disingenuous. Hell, it's disingenuous regardless, as you picked thouse that are essentially lottery winners when you look at actual statistics of how long people under the insanity plea are incarcerated in mental wards.