Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Deja Vu all over again

CNN.com - Teen gets 30 years in Zoloft�case - Feb 16, 2005

This reminded me of Andrea Yates. There's a big difference, though, Andrea was sick. Lest one get confused, I'm talking about medical illness, not psychosis. That does not quite fit, IMO. The question used to be "Did the accused know what he/she was doing at the time??" Now, it's "Did the accused know the difference between right and wrong?" In both these cases, the answer is yes. Think about it. Andrea waited until she was alone with her kids (grandma (to kids) was en route, but not there yet). She filled the tub, and systematically drowned each child one by one. She called both her husband and the police, and confessed to the policeman who showed up at her door.
The teenager in the Zoloft murders may have had some bad reaction to medication, but he still made the decision to kill. Birdshot? Well. okay. Here's my question: family members knew he was having med problems, right? He said so: and his aunt testified to that on the witness stand. So why in the world did they not demand the doctor either adjust or eliminate his dosage? Seems as though abdicated responsibility played a role.

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