Insanity

Colorado's  insanity statute -- 
read it & weep -- below

It Wasn't Written in the Dark Ages -- AND it just has that
  • "Moral Obliquity, 
  • "Mental Depravity . . . 
  • "Kindred Evil Conditions" Feel
Orchid's Grave Concerns:  The Colorado Insanity Statute is from our perspective --
  • Unconstitutionally vague
  • Appears to incorrectly assume that someone with a "diseased or defective mind" could not also experience "moral obliquity, mental depravity, passion growing out of anger, revenge, hatred, or other motives, and kindred evil conditions" and such separation in fact appears to be fallacious; 
  • Fundamental misunderstanding of mental illness;
  • Fundamental misunderstanding regarding the current state of brain science  -- both its incredible achievements and its limits;
Bottom line we need to be:     
  • Providing for the protection of the community AND
  • The humane and best practice treatment of ALL with evidence-based practices  


CO Insanity Statute -- CRS 16-8-101.5

C.R.S. 16-8-101.5  

(1) The applicable test of insanity shall be:

(a) A person who is so diseased or defective in mind at the time of the commission of the act as to be incapable of distinguishing right from wrong with respect to that act is not accountable; except that care should be taken not to confuse such mental disease or defect with moral obliquity, mental depravity, or passion growing out of anger, revenge, hatred, or other motives and kindred evil conditions, for, when the act is induced by any of these causes, the person is accountable to the law; or

(b) A person who suffered from a condition of mind caused by mental disease or defect that prevented the person from forming a culpable mental state that is an essential element of a crime charged, but care should be taken not to confuse such mental disease or defect with moral obliquity, mental depravity, or passion growing out of anger, revenge, hatred, or other motives and kindred evil conditions because, when the act is induced by any of these causes, the person is accountable to the law.

(2) As used in this section:  

(3) This section shall apply to offenses committed on or after July 1, 1995.

  See  http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/colorado/ 
"Fallacies May Be Ludicrous, But Fallacies May Also Be Dangerous"
Val's Take

          I'll never forget my logic professor: her beautiful saris, her lyrical Indian accent, and her daily admonition above regarding "fallacies."
           I'm thinking a lot about those admonitions as I hear what to me appear to be some pretty "fallacious" commentary about psychosis, mental illness, planning, etc. by Holmes trial media commentators.
            These fallacies aren't ludicrous, they're dangerous.  
             So in the days and weeks ahead, we will try to point out those fallacies we become aware of in the Holmes trial.
Picture
Indian Scientist and Professor Somdatta Sinha , Professor Sinha was not Val's professor.
We Gotta Fix This! ----
  • We're not going to mince words (as if we if ever did), in our opinion our current criminal justice system's exploitation of the mental health professionals' extreme lack of ethical and moral restraint where there are obvious and hugely significant knowledge limitations is one of the most grievous ethical and moral failings in our society today AND with the gravest consequences for thousands of people who find themselves in the criminal justice system---- 
  • Further, with respect to the "insanity defense," mental health professionals sometimes like to comfort themselves with the idea that -- "Well, "insanity" is a legal concept not a mental health concept."  Well, buddy who do you think is doing the evaluation --- it's not a plumber -- it's you -- the mental health professional -- AND you need to step up and take some responsibility since there really isn't enough knowledge out there for you to possibly make that determination.
  • This is not a perfect analogy AND pharmaceutical companies have been refusing to deliver lethal drugs to implement the death penalty.  Mental health professionals need to seriously consider doing something similarly when it comes to the criminal justice system attempting to misuse the services of mental health professionals.   ----Orchid 

​P.S.  The reality is probably much less "knowing" bad behavior on the part of mental health professionals than the "extreme lack of ethical & moral restraint" we said above.  Yet, when we see behavior that we believe to be "wrong," whether we are "right" or not, there is a tendency to impart bad intent.

We do think this falls within a large catchment of "bad behavior" -- but it is probably largely resulting from ignorance.  The life-wrecking damage to us is so obvious.  It is not obvious to everyone.


Where's That Supra Norm When You Really Need It?
Mental disorders are among the most complex problems in medicine, with challenges at every level from neurons to neighborhoods. Yet, we know so little about mechanisms at each level. Too often, we have been guided more by religion than science. That is, so much of mental health care is based on faith and intuition, not science and evidence. On the plus side, we put a premium on listening and compassion. We help people to change through understanding. But not enough of our care has been standardized to a high level of quality, as expected in the rest of medicine.

                                               ------------Dr. Tom Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health
                                                            from his October 2014 Blog Atonement
          After WWII and the Holocaust, legal philosophers and others began grappling with the problem of what to do when commands and the legal structure itself authorized people to commit horrible inhumane acts.
          One idea was adherence to the "Supra Norm."
          So the point of all this-- is to raise the idea that our current use of mental health knowledge & lack thereof in a "criminal" context is unethical, immoral, and inhumane.
        What to do? Well from our perspective 
         What is the Supra Norm when:
  • The knowledge of the mental health community -- is very limited for many reasons; AND
  • Both prosecutors and defense attorneys, rely heavily on mental health professionals, including in death penalty cases such as the Holmes Aurora Theater Shooting case.
the status quo is untenable.
        Nobody's questioning the need for safety -- AND this just isn't right.
See Also: