This guy was a danger before the state got him the medical care he needed to understand the crime he committed while a danger -- and as thus they could prosecute him.
They medicated him enough to get him to a point where he can now die? That is fucked up.
The Model Penal Code http://www.slate.com/sidebars/2006/07/sidebar_3.html as defined by the American Law institute is "A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct as a result of mental disease or defect he lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law." in 2006, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, and Ohio all block defendants from using this defense.
I'm saddened that Colorado is taking this action.
HEre is something else about people like James Holmes, and I think it is worth reading:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/08/aurora_shooting_how_to_prevent_men_like_james_holmes_from_striking_again.html
Here’s what will happen next: Holmes will be diagnosed with a form of delusional psychosis like schizophrenia, or perhaps with suicidal depression. He will be medicated until he comes out of the weird daze he’s been in during court appearances. Eventually, after the medication takes effect, he will be found competent to stand trial: The hurdle is low, so he just has to be able to understand the charges against him and be able to consult rationally with his lawyer. If the drugs have in fact made Holmes saner, he may plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. He’ll go away for life. And we’ll be no closer than we were before to fixing the holes in the mental health care system that he fell through—taking his victims with him.
(snip)
I have to point out that it’s very rare for mentally ill people to become deranged killers. According to the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law (disclosure: It’s named in memory of my grandfather), studies show that having a mental illness in itself doesn’t increase the likelihood of becoming seriously violent. Untreated mental illness, however, is a risk factor. And so it is terribly scary, as well as terribly sad, that “America’s mental health care system is horribly broken and horribly underfunded,” as Robert Bernstein, director of the Bazelon Center, underscored after the Arizona shootings.
Serious mental illness can be incredibly hard to live with and to deal with. But these shootings keep telling us that we sweep it under the rug at our own peril. After a massacre like Aurora, it’s very hard to see the killer as worthy of any sort of sympathy. "They keep talking about fairness for him," a man whose sister died in the Aurora shootings told the Associated Press at Holmes’ court appearance this week. "It's like they're babying this dude." It’s an understandable reaction, but if Holmes’ lawyers are right and he is seriously ill, he won’t be coddled by the legal system. He’ll get the treatment he needed, but far too late.
Did we seriously medicate the guy only to kill him?
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