I'm not correcting you as I cannot speak for others, but didn't take it that way. I see the question of whether or not there are times when the defense is used when the person who uses it actually did have a level of control of their behavior. The answer to that is yes, but I don't feel anyone here has implicated people should suffer full consequences if mentally unwell. We cannot see intent with our eyes. We can only guess and compare to what we have ourselves experienced. That is tricky and leaves lots of room for error. Unfortunately, it is subjective and the best we have at the moment.

I also see questioning whether or not very violent mentally ill patients have a place to go that is properly suited for the security needs of other patients as well as their caregivers. I think we have evidence to say that system is lacking, but I didn't feel anyone is saying they shouldn't be able to be extended some sort of grace because of their condition.

I believe wholeheartedly in the insanity defense. I know from first hand experience there is a level of impairment that can occur where one has zero control over their actions. I might not have believed that until I lived it myself.

I had no idea I was mentally unwell. My family did not see it coming. PTSD hit me hard and mania and psychosis set in very quickly. If I had to face charges for my actions in court I would have most definitely had to use the insanity plea as it is the only truthful explanation for what happened. I did everything that happened that night, but I blacked out for a lot of it and when I was 'awake' I had zero ability to process thoughts. It was like I was a puppet on a stage.

I would have needed to rely on the testimony of my husband and the professionals that treated me that night to explain how incredibly out of my mind I was. I would have wanted to prove that after finding out I have the capacity to be impaired in this way, I am doing all I can to treat my condition and avoid it becoming as severe in the future. I would have wanted a way to take responsibility for my actions without being punished as though I did any of it on purpose. I would hope to trade punishment for a requirement to demonstrate rehabilitation efforts.

My hope would be a judge could hear that story and show me mercy and grace and give me a chance to go back to my life. However, I would hope that chance would come along with conditions to ensure I was taking the appropriate steps to address the factors that contributed to such an episode. For me, that would be pdoc and T care. For someone else, that might mean institutionalization for a time period depending on the severity of the crime.

For situations like Tucson mentioned I think it comes down to a question of patterns. If an individual has previously used the defense and continues to act violently we need to look at the effort going into addressing their condition. If therapy and meds are not working and they continue to act violently it does not seem right to me to continue to allow a person to repeat those behaviors as their actions impact the safety of others. I don't think jail is the right answer and I also see security issues in some of the medical facilities. I realize many with these conditions do put effort into rehabilitation and yet still cycle. I realize that they can try extremely hard and still be incredibly impaired.

I think the truth is we have a hole in the system. We do not yet have an optimal solution for individuals who continue to have episodes where they are imparied and violent leading them to crimes they would not have otherwise committed. I don't know what a program like that would look like. In my opinion, even the programs we have for non-crime related hospitalizations are incredibly lacking. I am not sure where exactly to start, but in my mind any valuable change stems from actually beginning to understand what causes these conditions.

We know mentally impaited patients are a safety risk. They are. I was. Society has a right to carry fear of people in that state. However. I agree demonizing it serves no purpose. Understanding it and learning how to transform it does. I feel it is time to throw more resources at figuing out why we are impaired and trying new ways to address it. Otherwise, all we are doing is throwing the same broken solution at a huge problem and hoping it will magically fix itself. Didn't Einstein say that is the very definition of insanity? Ironic.