LET'S FIND OUT IF THE MAN IS NUTS
I know there was going to be a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, or at least a strong attempt at it. He wasn't in his right mind. He was distraught. I can't fund much paperwork about it, perhaps because it's not the kind of thing people talked about in public back then.
An insanity plea would get him help, rather than jail time. That was the hope around the house. My mom sent out requests for treatment information that looked like this
and I found a hand-written note for her attached to one of them.
This wasn't all idle chatter, because eventually it made its way to the state. In this document
my dad is asked to talk to an official doctor from the state, which would not have happened if a judge hadn't approved and allowed it.
So maybe there was something in the medical records to say that my dad wasn't of sound mind when he left the house at 3:00 a.m. to go try to kill Walt Suhaka. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out, does it?
I have mixed feelings about insanity pleas. If my dad hadn't died, and instead pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, then maybe they would have sent him to a nuthouse and he could have gotten help. (Though, having been to Greystone, I doubt he could have gotten much help at a place like that.) On the other hand, I think I would be morally outraged today if he'd gotten off scot-free without any treatment.
He should have paid for this act with something. His freedom of his life. Did he end up making a choice, or did the choice happen to him?
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