Thursday, March 19, 2009

There's Crazy, Then There's Batshit Insane

Wow, they really are tougher in Texas. You'd think this would qualify someone was legally insane in just about anybody's book:

While in the Grayson County Jail five days after his arrest, Thomas plucked out his right eye. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.

Last December, a death row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and had him taken to the unit infirmary. Thomas told officials he had pulled out his remaining eye and ate it.

He was taken to a hospital for treatment, then was transferred to a prison psychiatric unit.
Case closed, right? Nope:
A condemned Texas inmate who removed his only eye and ate it in a bizarre outburst several months ago on death row is "crazy," yet sane under state law, a judge wrote in an appellate court ruling Wednesday that rejected his appeals.

* * *

Thomas 'is clearly 'crazy,' but he is also 'sane' under Texas law,' Judge Cathy Cochran wrote in a 14-page statement accompanying the court's brief order.
Look, I know that the legal definition of insanity is much more narrow than the medical definition, much less the popular conception of crazy. Nonetheless, someone not named Oedipus who plucks out his own eyes, then eats one for good measure, should probably get the benefit of the doubt.

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