Psychiatrists who Norwegian courts assigned to assess accused mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik have come to the not-so-shocking conclusion that he is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. After interviewing him 13 times, they say he was in a "psychotic state" during and after the two separate attacks in late July that led to the deaths of 77 people and injured 151. The report is preliminary and still needs to be reviewed by a panel of forensic psychiatrists. While Breivik will still stand trial in April of 2012, it is likely that he will be placed in psychiatric care rather than go to prison.
A majority of Norwegians are outraged by the findings, with many comparing his actions to that of a "war criminal" and others lamenting the fact that he won't be adequately punished for his crimes. Breivik pled not guilty to the attacks, despite admitting that he carried them out. He argued that they were a necessary part of his campaign to defend Europe against what he called a "Muslim invasion." Prosecutors told the media that the two psychiatrists who interviewed him concluded that he lived in his "own delusional universe where all his thoughts and acts are guided by his delusions."
"If the final conclusion is that Breivik is insane, we will request that the court in the upcoming legal proceedings pass sentence by which Breivik is subjected to compulsory mental health care," prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh told reporters in Oslo.
A lawyer for the victims said that the determination ultimately didn't matter as long as Breivik was not allowed to go free.
In a 200+ page manifesto that was published online earlier this year, Breivik talked about his fascination with the Call of Duty series and other games. Anti-game camps immediately tried to seize on that information as proof that games teach people how to kill. Of course, putting the blame on video games takes it away from the man that committed the crimes - who has been proven to be mentally unstable and is clearly Islamaphobic. We'll have more on this story as it develops.
Source: BBC
Comments
Re: Court Psychiatrists: Norwegian Killer is a 'Paranoid ...
Further proof that Modern Warfare 2 was only symptomatic of a man with very, very severe mental problems.
Re: Court Psychiatrists: Norwegian Killer is a 'Paranoid ...
I actually feel kinda sorry for him. His fate probably would have been better if he had not been ruled insane...
People tend to not realize just how horrible such a ruling is. Rights as a human? Gone. Due process? Gone. Access to the legal system? Gone. You are no longer a person, you no longer have agency, you have no say in what is medically done to you.. and generally you never get out since they are under no legal obligation to ever release you.
The absolute best case scenario is he is so unbalanced he can never be made lucid. A truely horrible outcome is they medicate him just enough that you essentially end up with a normal person being punished for crimes they can not understand why they happened since once you switch the brain chemistry the whole person can change.
*shiver*
But hey, it is all about vengeance, isn't it?
Re: Court Psychiatrists: Norwegian Killer is a 'Paranoid ...
Regardless of whether or not this person understands the crime committed, it doesn't erase the crime of the life lost due to this man's actions. I agree that it would be a pretty awful fate to be sedated and confused for the rest of his life, but what's the other option? A general population sentence for him is just the same thing as a death sentence, just with a non-specific and probably quicker end.
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