Accountability

My friend Lenka pointed me to this story of the "Bus Beheader" Vince Li. The man gruesomely removed the head of a sleeping passenger in a traveling Greyhound Bus. Earlier this week, the man was "found not criminally responsible" of the murder as he did not know that what he was doing was wrong. He is to be sent to a maximum security institution for treatment.

Anyone who felt bad (or good) after taking psychotropic substances like alcohol can attest that a person's mood doesn't always have anything to do with reality. Taking it farther there are quite a few drugs that can induce psychosis rather fast in an individual. By watching enough of those events, we start to realize that these interactions between external and internal mental modifiers are what make up our personality. This personality is what makes us ourselves and this is what affects our behavior.

All this is to say that a person's abnormal behavior can be explained by neurological defects but that this should not exempt them from any of the consequences. To give an example, saying that Li was not criminally responsible for his actions because he was schizophrenic is similar to saying a drunk is not responsible for running over a little girl because he is an alcoholic (different diseases, but alcoholism has genetic predispositions and is not always entirely the fault of the drinker).

I have no problem with Li going to a mental institution instead of prison. He is clearly sick and deserves treatment. But I think he should still be held responsible for what he did.