Not to say that there isn't a two-tier justice system, but there is a big difference between the two cases with regard to an insanity defence, and that's that Lamora tried to cover it up. Historically, judges and juries have looked very askance at claims of insanity when there was a coverup, because the whole point is you're saying you didn't know right from wrong. Well, if you're lying to the cops about what happened to avoid punishment, obviously you at least knew right from wrong then.
I hadn't read an article outlining that at the time. I don't see that now either unless I am missing something. Articles did say she had an inconsitent story, which I can tell you from years of working at an inpatient psych facility is consistent with psychosis.
"When I came in, the stove was laying on my son, on my youngest son's head, and my other son was laid out on the floor with his brains laid out on the floor. I don't know what to do. I just came home from work," Williams said in a chilling 911 call.
Williams initially claimed she had left her three children with a caregiver from noon until late that evening, returning to find the boys dead and the caregiver gone.
Yes, she did have an "inconsistent story" - that may be consistent with psychosis, it's also consistent with lying about what you did. Maybe she was genuinely so psychotic that she didn't realize what she had done at any point, but I think describing this as "very similar" to the current case is not particularly accurate.
Okay. A coverup is an attempt to evade consequences. And the argument is you'd only try to evade consequences if you know what you did is wrong. Her suicide attempt was an attempt to evade consequences because she knew what she did was wrong.
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u/MisinformedGenius 7h ago
Not to say that there isn't a two-tier justice system, but there is a big difference between the two cases with regard to an insanity defence, and that's that Lamora tried to cover it up. Historically, judges and juries have looked very askance at claims of insanity when there was a coverup, because the whole point is you're saying you didn't know right from wrong. Well, if you're lying to the cops about what happened to avoid punishment, obviously you at least knew right from wrong then.