Does pleading insanity somehow mean you didn’t kill, or attempt to kill, some 10-15 innocent human beings?
Apparently it does, and stuff like that raises my ire. That’s right sucks, ire. Personally, in matters such as these, I am very much a proponent of the Code of Hammurabi; especially:
If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
Or, “an eye for an eye” as we really know it. I really don’t feel that your state of mind, your mental capacity, or whatever other lame excuse you can come up with for acting erratically is any excuse for the actions you have done. I believe that you have to stand up and take responsibility for your actions, no matter how much you didn’t mean to.
Accidentally shoot someone because you dropped your gun while cleaning it? You killed someone, go to jail or to death, depending on what you believe.
Brakes fail because you somehow get a crimp in the brake line and you plow into someone’s house? You’re paying for it; it was your car and you were driving.
“Accidentally” shoot a dozen or so people in the Washington D.C. area creating a season of terror for the entire country? Yeah.
In typical contradictory fashion, I am very merciful in my own life, always giving people the benefit of the doubt to near ridiculousness, and forgiving slights and transgressions fairly immediately. The D.C. snipers, though? Well, my parents live in the area, so burn baby, burn.