Final Word from Monday, July 25, 2011
Some media outlets are already referring to the suspect in the Norwegian attacks,Anders Behring Breivik, as a psychopath. It doesn't take a medical evaluation to determinethat someone who kills so many people is crazy, but from a legal standpointthere's a potential problem. After the Tuscon shooting in Jan., the world learned thatthe suspect, Jared Loughner, was a conspiracy theorist who held the U.S. governmentresponsible for 9/11 and who warned against a New World Order. If he weredeclared fit to stand trial (which he has not been), it would lend a degree of sanity tothese claims. The same problem could arise in the Breivik case. How can someonewho is mentally fit believe, for example, that Prague is safer than Oslo "because almostno Muslims live" in the CR? It will be tempting to throw Breivik into a mentalinstitution instead of putting him on trial for 100 counts of premeditated murder.
Glossary of difficult words
insane - seriously mentally ill; in a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior or social interaction;
how insane is insane? - how crazy does a person have to be to be legally insane;
fit - in good (mental) health;
premeditated - thought out or planned in advance.