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NEWS > U.S.A. > EXPERTS BELIEVE FORT HOOD SHOOTER MAY HAVE BEEN INSANE
EXPERTS BELIEVE FORT HOOD SHOOTER MAY HAVE BEEN INSANE
November 26 2009
Fort Worth, TX – Medicine and science have struggled to find the reasons behind insanity for centuries and for the most part both have come up empty. Religion believed it had the answer at one point in the form of malicious entities possessing 
the victim but such theories have largely gone by the wayside in recent years. Neurological damage and traumatic incidents have often been cited as a primary reason for such aberrant behaviour but those only allow for part of the answer, melting in the face of people who suffer such issues and retain their sanity, further pushing that aspect of the human mind into mystery.
Because of that lack of clearly defined borders many in the legal community have scoffed at the notion of insanity defences which is frequently used to avoid harsh prison time, or in some cases the death penalty. Such is the issue with Nidal Hasan, the Army Major who recently killed 13 in a shooting spree at Fort Hood. The legal question as to Hasan’s sanity aside, for many it’s clear that the ironically employed psychologist went a little funny in the head when he decided to shoot up his army base, killing his friends and co-workers.
“There are legal definitions of insanity and then medical definitions and often those two things don’t connect. It’s obvious that something went wrong in his brain but whether or not he was out of control is the major issue, at least when it comes to a legal defence. From a medical perspective he was clearly batty, but proving that in a court of law is something else entirely,” said Scrape TV Legal analyst Gabe Hawthorne. “Courts have a very different perspective on the insanity defence, largely because it is often used as a buffer to avoid things like the death penalty. It is used so indiscriminately that the people who truly are insane often get a bum ride and are forced into lengthy prison terms even though there is something very much wrong with their brains. That has been something that has plagued the medical community for years and will likely be an issue in this case.”
Military prosecutors have not decided on how to proceed with the case but will likely avoid seeking the death penalty because of the rather lunatic nature of the crime.
“The problem for prosecutors is that you can only try a person once. If they go hard and fail, he gets away scot-free and that is something that nobody wants in this case. Aside from the fact that he killed a bunch of soldiers, there’s obviously something not right with him and that could prove to be a problem if he were suddenly released into the public,” continued Hawthorne. “This is really where the rubber hits the road. The defence will likely use and insanity plea if the prosecution goes after the death penalty which will confuse the case and help to obscure the facts, but if they plea down and go after imprisonment the trial will be a lot easier.”
Nasan, who is reportedly paralyzed after being shot multiple times, apparently is mumbling incoherently about white rabbits and rainbows, though it’s not clear if that is a part of the defence plan.
“Simply put we do not know what separates normal brains from insane brains. There are people who undergo incredible trauma and are able to successfully negotiate life and others who encounter apparently minimal resistance and completely lose it. The brain is a complex thing and we are just on the cusp of understanding how it really works,” said Scrape TV Medical analyst Dr. Phillip Waites. “It’s very clear that for whatever reason Hasan went a little funny in the head this day that he went out and killed all these people but whether or not that falls into the category of real mental illness is still a question that needs asking. Doing insane things and actually being insane are often two different things and that needs to be addressed.”
Reports of videos of Hasan wearing women’s clothing and howling at the moon are apparently false.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
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