Posted on 08/16/2006 10:23:56 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES
A woman who was convicted of repeatedly running her car over a Hispanic man she called "road kill" will be sentenced to a state mental hospital after a jury found her insane.
The panel deliberated for four hours Tuesday before returning its verdict in a retrial of the Sept. 1, 2000, death of Jesus Plascencia, 65.
Marie Elise West, 41, of Hermosa Beach was convicted of second-degree murder in November 2004 for running over the restaurant worker outside a Van Nuys bagel shop, but that jury deadlocked on whether she was sane at the time of the crime. The jurors also rejected the prosecution's contention that the crime was motivated by racial hatred.
The latest trial began in July 26 after repeated delays because West was hospitalized multiple times for her mental illness.
During retrial, prosecutors argued that the crime was premeditated and described West as a cold-blooded killer. Witnesses said she made racist remarks before and after driving over Plascencia, then walked into the bagel shop and told an employee that there was some "road kill" in the parking lot.
Defense attorney Angelyn Gates countered in closing arguments that West ran over an innocent man for no apparent reason.
"There is no reasonable, rational explanation for this," Gates said. "The only explanation is insanity."
A judge will determine the length of West's hospital stay at a hearing scheduled for Sept. 7.
West's mother said she was relieved her daughter avoided a prison term.
"Prison would have been like a death sentence. She couldn't have survived that," Geraldine West said.
I think she was insane.
Now that we got that out of the way, anyone got a rope?
1,000 people a year are killed by mentally ill patients, according to the National Institute of Health.
That's quite a death toll to pay to ensure the civil rights of the mentally ill.
1,000 ppl a year? Are you talking fellow patients in institutions? Are you talking about mentally ill people who receive treatment on an out-patient basis?
As I said, I have no problem with removing mentally ill criminals from society. I merely said that doing so does not necessitate a loss of discretion as to where we put said criminals.
1000 bystanders and or family members killed by non-institutionalized persons with a history of treatment for mental illness.
John Lennon being one of the more famous victims.
I don't advocate prison for mentally ill criminals. For one thing, they are often victimized in prisons by other criminals.
It seems strange that in light of all the high profile "not guilty by reason of insanity" verdicts since the advent of electronic media that more states haven't adopted "guilty while insane" statutes to their criminal laws.
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