Dylann Roof's lawyers appeal death sentence citing autism

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yeah, there seems to be no direct evidence in this case.

Henry Ford's early childhood and adult life make him sound autistic and I have seen autistic websites that promote him as such. He was also known for his dislike of Jews. With the Aspie tendency to hyper-associate (to form way more connections than most people would about something) I personally believe it is easier for autistic people to be racists than not, and have always suspected D. Roof was autistic.

Unfortunately the idea that autistics can be racists, and in fact may have a predisposition to it, is unpopular: the narrative of autistics as poor fragile butterflies surviving in a neurotypical hailstorm is a lot more amenable to a newspaper editor's pocketbook.

Our tendencies to generalize, to wallow in self-pity (here's looking at you, Wrong Planet) and to identify by something specific rather than by human nature, all these can tend and contribute to problems. It is not an orderly state. I do not think autism causes mass murders any more than it causes the sunrise, but it may have helped to cement his racial prejudices.

From personal experience I can say autism does not cause uncontrollable behavior but can make behaviors far more difficult to manage. I speak of panic and of crazy ideas and all that--sometimes it feels like a sort of compulsion.

One other thing--Root is not only a murderer, but he is also a terrible writer and should have been ashamed of himself for allowing that manifesto to get to print.

According to the law a person with a mental health or intellectual disability can not be put to death,so if his conditions are provable he could be spared death,he will still die in prison though.

Well..the burden of proof is on you - to explain how autism CAN cause criminal behavior. Not on me to argue that it cannot.


I am seriously curious as to how you imagine that being autistic could contribute to criminal behavior anymore than being left handed, or being mechanically inclined, or being mechanically inept, could "contribute to criminal behavior".

Make up a hypothetical in which autism would contribute to you being a mass murderer.

In the Black ghetto its NT kids who join the Bloods and Crips, and not autistic kids. So does being NT "cause" criminal behavior" too? Should being NT be used as a "stay in jail, but avoid the death penalty, free" card? Why not just give everyone a get out of jail free card?

That's easy.

Autism --> PTSD -->criminal violent behavior

Autistic people suffer tremendous abuse, heck, they're killed pretty often by their parents or relatives.

You can't abuse people and expect to get a well-functioning human.

That's a ridiculous claim: the majority of abused people or those diagnosed with PTSD do not become violent criminals

And such claims do nothing but perpetuate the prejudice against victims of abuse.

No one is talking about a "majority".

They also support the prejudice against all men as "Toxic Males", since it's mostly men who are diagnosed with Autism and/or PTSD.

No one really knows if anything causes criminal behavior,some circumstances can make it more likely one will become a criminal.Very few autistics turn to crime but some do and that can be a valid mitigating factor in some circumstances.These are all complex debatable issues that there are no clear answers to.

Dylann Roof's attorney's will maximize every mitigating factor in a effort to spare his life,thats there job and connstitutional mandate,and if they don't pull out all the stops to save his life,that is also grounds for an appeal.

Most extremely violent criminals were abused as young children,but most abused children don't grow up to be violent.

Would you care to explain then why you offered this as "proof": Autism --> PTSD -->criminal violent behaviour?

The fact that abuse can lead to criminal or violent behaviour does not prove that autism will cause people to go on a murder spree.

Edit: thank you, vermontsavant, that's spot on.

I showed causality.

Autistic people are very abused.

I was tortured.

As Child: bright lights, teachers laughing at me, making fun of me.

As Adult: At job interviews, people laughed at me. Always failed at things.

I was fired from like five jobs.

I am surely one of the lucky ones.

Do you think such abuse has no consequences?

You showed strong correlation, leaving out the things that you did that got you fired. Were you chronically late? Were you a slow worker? Did you show lack of respect toward your supervisors and coworkers?

Sure, your childhood was rough, but it was your actions that got you fired, not your past.

People who are disabled do get mistreated on the job for no fault of there own,you don't know if the fireing's or mistreatment was his fault.You have no way of knowing that,you don't know the individual whose post your responding too,sounds more your trolling.

Did you ever hear someone say "autism age"?

Autism age = .75 * NT age.

That's why.

I was too naïve, and not understanding what I should do.

People would get angry at me for doing the *wrong thing* like ARE YOU STUPID or something?

One boss said, "I was a "yes person".
One boss said. "You need a new brain".
One time I was fired for simply using another person's computer when trying to fix a problem.

That's why my lifelong dream was to be smart like other people.

No need to lecture me, I grew up in the system and known in my childhood and youth pretty much every conceivable form of abuse and mistreatment. And yes, it shaped my personality to some extent and limited my choices.

I'm sorry you had a hard life, many people here went through hell and didn't become murderers, nor do they feel a misguided need to find excuses for premeditated mass-murder, not to mention racism.

Your narrative does nothing but reinforce the prejudice against us, this is the only reason I'm posting here.

Should I even bother mentioning there's not a shred of proof that this man is on the spectrum?!