Could Adam have pleaded insanity?

If Adam didn't kill himself and was put on trial, could he have pleaded insanity and been sentenced to an Institution? I think with all of his mental issues (autism, anorexia, possible shizophrenia and psychosis), he could have stood a fair chance of being able to plead insanity if he was put on trial.

Probably not. I’m not really familiar with US laws since I’m not American, but I think Adam would have been declared legally sane just like James Holmes, Kip Kinkel, Jared Loughner and other mass shooters who are also very mentally ill. IIRC a perpetrator can only be considered insane if he or she completely lost touch with reality and had no understanding of his/her actions, which wasn’t the case with Adam.

lognifiiskurk wrote:

If Adam didn't kill himself and was put on trial, could he have pleaded insanity and been sentenced to an Institution? I think with all of his mental issues (autism, anorexia, possible shizophrenia and psychosis), he could have stood a fair chance of being able to plead insanity if he was put on trial.

They'd never put him in an institution simply because of the shock value of the crime.

QuestionMark wrote:

They'd never put him in an institution simply because of the shock value of the crime.

Yeah, that too. Even if all of his victims had been adults, 27 (including Nancy) is still a high kill count, and killing children is so much worse.

Mentally ill isn't criminally insane. However distorted his thinking (and as mentioned elsewhere in the thread, others were far more distorted) as long as he knew what he was doing, that it was illegal / wrong, and knew of the consequences, he would be treated as sane. Hell, 14 year old Andrew "I Died Four Years Ago, None Of This Is Real" Wurst killed just one and got 30-60 years.

However, it's as much a question of "could he" as "would he," and I doubt he would. If he got Kinkel'd and was taken down by a teacher or something, I believe he would exhaust every possible resource to commit suicide in prison before turning to the justice system and pleasing guilty, driving the case to the death penalty if possible. Given the crime (Dylann Roof killed 9 a third as many adults and may be given the death penalty,) I could see it being granted. There was no way he was letting himself be taken alive.

Looks like death penalty wouldn’t be an option for him though.

Quote :

On April 25, 2012, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed Senate Bill 280 (​2012), ending the state's death penalty.

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Doubt it.

I think he would have a good chance, especially if they would produce those private messages where he admitted to experiencing delusions.