I watched an episode of Law & Order SVU tonight It was about a man that raped and almost killed 3 young girls. He had a psychotic break after witnessing his sister’s rape at the age of 17. As a result he developed schizophrenia.He was on Haldol until a year earlier when it stopped working. He was switched to Rhisperdol. The meds didn’t work, and it was then that he committed the crimes.
The debate was whether he should be sent to Louisiana to face the death penalty, or be tried in NYC where 2 of the 3 crimes were committed.
La and NYC cops wanted to see him on death row somewhere, but the DA disagreed. Although she was charged with prosecuting, she felt that had the man been on meds that worked, he would have never committed the crimes. He didn’t deserve death, but rather to be in a hospital.
In court, she made him so agitated that he had a psychotic episode and was subsequently declared 730 or mentally unfit to stand trial. He could neither be executed nor imprisoned for the crimes. He would go to a hospital.
It had a deeply emotional affect on me. And led me to ask the question: Am I one bad situation away from trial?
Are you?
Gratitude Moment: I'm thankful for my husband that is always honest with me; even when I don't want to hear it.
5 comments:
Yes, it's impossible not to wonder. We could be there because of our mental illnesses.
I don't think I would ever go to those extremes, but without meds a DUI seems to be the next thing that would happen.
We're all one bad situation away from a trial. It can happen to anyone. Thank God it doesn't happen as often as one might think...
Yes, I saw that episode as well.
I thought it was a very well written episode and you have provided an interesting and engaging question as well.
First, you should know that I'm ordinarily very patient and light-hearted...
So yes, yesterday I was "one bad situation away from trial," wherein I was trying to get some work done at home and could barely concentrate--
--yes, because of my current mixed state and yes, because my cat's fat butt was planted in the middle of my work and yes, because my cocktiel was screaming like a car alarm and yes, I would normally say because my family and friends wouldn't stop calling me all week, but I have to admit I had already unplugged the phone by that point--and yes, because I have felt as if I was going to jump out of my own skin all week--
--but mostly due to the self-indulgent jackass who lives around the corner from me and insists upon letting his car idle in the street for hours at time, while he revs his engine over and over, as his SubWuffers pound dooom doooom doooom vibrations that make my papers rattle; oh, they rattled, I watched them rattle all night, trust me.
I mean, seriously, how many times can you listen to the same crappy song over and over in one sitting? Are you telling me that CD doesn't have at least one ballad? Not one? It's all balls-out bass thumping--the whole cd?
Clearly, this guy was killin me.
Many people, while annoyed and flummoxed, would be able to get on without too much trouble (myself included), however that is not always the case for a currently mixed misanthropic individual such as myself.
So, after four hours of this obnoxious, I'm-the-only-one-on-the-planet sound pollution, I came to the conclusion--suddenly I might add--to throw on some sandals and venture out into the night wearing only my jammies so that I might circle the blocks until I find this useless sack of DNA and...
WARNING: the following is verbatim of jenji's internal thought processes
"throw a fucking brick through his fucking windshield" and then go home so that I might get back to my work at a reasonable hour in peace.
Oh yeah, you can bet I was going to head out and confront this jerk off, trust me.
What's he going to do, shoot me?
Don't do me any favors.
You know, that kind of mixed episode, capice? I was impulsive, furious and on a mission, albeit self-destructive in the end...
...anyway, I couldn't find my sandals.
Good thing.
be well,
jenji
Well, the show needs to do their research better.
I am learning Schizophrenia in my Abnormal Psychology class and it states that Schizophrenia possible came from the Mother when she was pregnant, The mother could of had a Viral infection of some kind and it the infection went to the fetus inside the womb.
Then when the baby is born, the Schizophrenia is Dormant and it comes out when something triggers it later on in life.
Actually, The rape would trigger Bipolar, not Schizophrenia.
And to be honest, in my opinion, I truly believe that if someone did something immorally and illegaly wrong, that they should serve the time regardless of their mental illness. Why? Well, that is a whole other post :)
Post a Comment