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Should Criminals with Insanity Pleas Get Hospital Stays Instead of Jail Time?

Deanna Laney of New Chapel Hill, Texas woke up just before midnight on May 9^th, 2003, entered the nursery of her 14-month old son Aaron, and beat him on the head with a rock hidden under the crib. After a few blows and blood gushing from the baby’s head, she left the room and guided her other two sons into the backyard one at a time, bashing in their skulls with a rock. The blows killed 8-year old Joshua and 6-year old Luke, and caused permanent injury to baby Aaron (see http://www.beaufortgazette.com/24hour/nation/story/1260878p-8320118c.html).

Instead of being convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death or life in prison, Laney was acquitted of all charges by reason of insanity on April 3^rd, 2004, and sentenced to time in a state hospital. Texas law defines insanity as the condition of not knowing an act is wrong when the act is being committed. All five mental health experts consulted in the case claimed she murdered her children due to mental illness involving psychotic delusions and that she did not know the difference between right and wrong during the killings.

This is the view of psychology’s mental health experts. But what does the Bible say to us about the ability to judge between right and wrong? The Bible is clear that every person has a God-given conscience that allows them to know what is right and wrong ("the law"): "…for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them…" (Romans 2:14-15, emphasis added)

However, this God-given conscience can become so numbed and hardened by sin that a person no longer hears it, and has no conviction or remorse over killing another human being—even their own son or daughter. The Bible mentions this type of person in the earth’s latter days as "having their own conscience seared with a hot iron." (1 Timothy 4:2) Laney’s defense attorney Tonda Curry admitted there was no crying after the murders. Rather, just days after the killings, Laney was videotaped as "wide-eyed, occasionally smiling and animated as she described events leading up to the bloodshed." (see http://www.beaufortgazette.com/24hour/nation/story/1260878p-8328924c.html). Is this what psychology calls insanity or what the Bible calls a seared conscience?

More than just mere word choices, the answer to this question determines who or what is responsible for the barbaric murder of three innocent children. If a mental illness is responsible, then where do we draw the line? Any crime can be committed and excused under the banner of mental illness, since mental illness can be subjectively applied to any situation by the official proclamation of a mental health "expert." On the other hand, if Laney herself is responsible for her seared conscience and sinful condition, then capital punishment should be administered just as it was for Texan Andrea Yates who drowned her five children in a bathtub two years before. God’s law for society is clear: "But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor, to kill him by treachery, you shall take him by My altar, that he may die." (Exodus 21:14)

God’s Word teaches us that each person is responsible for his or her own actions. He makes no exception for those whom psychology has deemed mentally ill. Don’t misunderstand—the God of the Bible is a merciful and compassionate God who understands our weaknesses. But God doesn’t excuse a violent crime for the sake of modern psychological labels. He hates sin and takes it very seriously—so seriously that He had His own Son murdered to cleanse our hearts from it. If Laney had truly understood the love of God, perhaps her heart would have been softened and she wouldn’t have murdered her offspring in cold blood. But as it stands now, the innocent blood of Joshua, Luke and Aaron still cries out for justice.

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