Mother acquitted in sons' stoning deaths

The Dallas Morning News ^ | April 3, 2004 | By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News

[MeekOneGOP]

Mother acquitted in sons' stoning deaths

07:57 PM CST on Saturday, April 3, 2004

By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News

TYLER - Deanna Laney was found not guilty by reason of insanity after a jury deliberated for almost six hours in her capital murder case.

Mrs. Laney admitted killing two of her sons by bashing their heads with rocks. She struck and maimed a third son. She said God told her to kill the boys as a test of faith.

Neither she nor her husband Keith Laney showed visible emotion as judge Cynthia Kent read the verdict. One juror wiped away tears and another looked stricken.

She now faces civil commitment proceedings within the next 30 days. She was returned the Smith County jail and the next hearing will be on Tuesday before Judge Kent to determine how the commitment hearing will proceed.

Mrs. Laney's parents hugged the family's pastor and her sister wiped away tears, but they and other family members were silent as they left the courtroom.

Jurors began deliberating Mrs. Laney's fate about noon Saturday after lawyers for both sides said her capital murder case turned on two terrible things: the horror of three bloody battered boys and the haunting question of why.

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040304dntxtyler.ee3aac86.html

[MeekOneGOP]

fyi ....

[YaYa123]

"Today: April 03, 2004 at 17:51:08 PST

Jury Acquits Texas Mother Who Killed Sons

By LISA FALKENBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS

TYLER, Texas (AP) -

A woman who claimed God ordered her to bash in the heads of her sons was acquitted of all charges by reason of insanity Saturday after a jury determined she did not know right from wrong during the killings.

A jury found that Deanna Laney was legally insane May 9 when she killed her two older sons, ages 6 and 8, in the front yard and left the youngest, now 2, maimed in his crib. Laney, 39, would have received an automatic life sentence had she been convicted of capital murder.

Laney broke into tears as the verdict was read. Her husband, Keith Laney, sat solemnly with his head down. A few jurors cried and struggled to maintain their composure.

State law allows Laney to be committed to a maximum security state hospital. Medical evaluations will dictate when she will be released. Jurors deliberated about seven hours before reaching their verdict in the deaths of 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke, and the beating of Aaron.

Defense attorneys argued that insanity was the only reason why a deeply religious mother who homeschooled her children would kill two of them and maim another without so much as a tear.

"There was no crying," said Tonda Curry, one of Laney's lawyers. "She was insane. There is no other answer."

All five mental health experts consulted in the case, including two for the prosecution and one for the judge, concluded that a severe mental illness caused Laney to have psychotic delusions that rendered her incapable of knowing right from wrong during the killings - the standard in Texas for insanity.

Psychiatrists testified that Laney believed she was divinely chosen by God - just as Mary was chosen to bear Christ - to kill her children as a test of faith and then serve as a witness after the world ended.

In closing arguments earlier Saturday, prosecutors portrayed the killings last Mother's Day weekend as deceptively planned and coldly executed. "It was graphic, it was horrific and it was brutal," prosecutor Matt Bingham told the jury.

Bingham pounded his fist in his hand as he recounted Joshua's killing: "He got strike after strike after strike on his head to the point that his brains were coming out of his head like liquid."

Prosecutors portrayed the killings as deceptively planned and coldly executed. They said that even if Laney believed she was doing right by God, she had to have known she was doing wrong by state law. Her first call, they pointed out, was to 911 to summon authorities."

--

[sgtbono2002]

Well of course she is crazy. I am sure six months of intensive Pshycho-Therapy will cure her and she can go back home to her Rock garden.

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[deport]

The Shrinks all pretty much agreed she was incompetent and thus I guess the jury was persuaded......

[MeekOneGOP]

Can't help it. Gotta post this for the horror of what she did ...

Eventually, she will end up here ...

[kdot]

What a sad, awful story. The children are with God now and in a better place. The mother hasn't had her court date with the One who matters.

[MeekOneGOP]

Sorry if anyone thinks that is crude ...

[sauropod]

those poor kids...

[Cicero]

As long as there was no ugly ulterior motive--collecting on life insurance, marrying some guy who didn't want kids, desire to free up more of the budget to buy evening clothes, or the like--it would be pretty hard to explain this as anything other than insanity.

[Oztrich Boy]

The Shrinks all pretty much agreed she was incompetent and thus I guess the jury was persuaded......

Just because she only managed two out of three does not esrablish incompetance.

[MeekOneGOP]

The mother hasn't had her court date with the One who matters.

Yes, but she will. Thank you.

[computerjunkie]

The children are with God now and in a better place.

Except for the 2 year old who is alive, but permanently disabled.

[MistrX]

How long will it take before lawyers submit that she is no longer crazy?

[sauropod]

You speak truth.

[John Thornton]

How long will it take before lawyers submit that she is no longer crazy?

I think they file that motion on Monday morning.

[DallasMike]

I know that I'll be flamed, but there really is such a thing as insanity -- it's a disease of the brain. Medications help many, but insane people who do these things need to be locked away in an asylum for life, not killed.

I grew up with a perfectly normal girl from a perfectly normal family who developed schizophrenia about the time she turned twenty. It was no more her fault than it's Ronald Reagan's fault that he has Alzheimer's.

[Spunky]

There is no equal justice in the system. I think a person would have to be insane to do that to their children, but Andrea Yates who drowned her 5 children got Life without parole and she was ever bit as crazy as this women. She also was in Texas.

Like I said justice is not equal.

[deport]

LANEY FOUND NOT GUILTY
BY REASON OF INSANITY

ASSOCIATED PRESS

April 03, 2004

TYLER, Texas (AP) - A woman who claimed God ordered her to bash in the heads of her sons was acquitted Saturday of all charges after a jury determined she was legally insane during the killings.

A jury found that Deanna Laney did not know right from wrong May 9 when she killed her two older sons, ages 6 and 8, in the front yard and left the youngest, now 2, maimed in his crib. Laney, 39, was found not guilty by reason of insanity of charges of capital murder and serious injury to a child.

Laney broke into tears as the verdict was read. Her husband, Keith Laney, sat emotionless. A few jurors cried and struggled to maintain their composure.

State law allows Laney to be committed to a maximum security state hospital. Medical evaluations will dictate when she will be released.

In closing arguments earlier Saturday, prosecutors portrayed the killings last Mother's Day weekend as deceptively planned and coldly executed.

"It was graphic, it was horrific and it was brutal," prosecutor Matt Bingham told the jury.

Laney had faced life in prison for the deaths of 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke, and the beating of Aaron, now 2.

Bingham pounded his fist in his hand as he recounted Joshua's killing: "He got strike after strike after strike on his head to the point that his brains were coming out of his head like liquid."

Defense attorneys argued that insanity was the only reason why a deeply religious mother who homeschooled her children would kill two of them and maim another without so much as a tear.

All five mental health experts consulted in the case, including two for the prosecution and one for the judge, concluded that a severe mental illness caused Laney to have psychotic delusions that rendered her incapable of knowing right from wrong during the killings - the standard in Texas for insanity.

Psychiatrists testified that Laney believed she was divinely chosen by God - just as Mary was chosen to bear Christ - to kill her children as a test of faith and then serve as a witness after the world ended.

Prosecutors portrayed the killings as deceptively planned and coldly executed. They said that even if Laney believed she was doing right by God, she had to have known she was doing wrong by state law. Her first call, they pointed out, was to 911 to summon authorities.