Is insanity really a defense?

From here:

McKINNEY, Texas (AP) -- A mother charged with murder for cutting off her baby daughter's arms in what her lawyers portrayed as a religious frenzy was found not guilty by reason of insanity Friday by a judge.

Dena Schlosser, 38, will be sent to a state mental hospital and held until she is no longer deemed a threat to herself or others.

"My own expectation is that she will remain at the hospital for many, many years," defense attorney David Haynes said.

Police arrested Schlosser in 2004 after she told a 911 operator she had severed her baby's arms. Officers found the 10-month-old baby, Margaret, near death in her crib and Schlosser covered in blood, holding a knife and listening to a hymn.

Was justice served? I can't imagine the horror the baby went through as its limbs were severed by the one person who was supposed to keep her safe...

In another similar Texas case, a jury rejected an insanity defense in 2002 from Andrea Yates, the Houston mother who drowned her five children in the bathtub. She won a new trial on appeal and will again use an insanity defense in June.

In 2004 in East Texas, Deanna Laney was acquitted by reason of insanity after killing her 6- and 8-year-old sons by bashing their skulls with rocks.

I know that there are no easy answers. But it just seems like more should happen when a such a horrid fate befalls a child. Somehow, justice doesn't seem to be served. I don't know that it ever could on this earth.




(Filed under defense of life)