death penalty possible despite autism diagnosis
https://apnews.com/article/idaho-studen ... fd17b43a75
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funeralxempire
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America has no problem executing profoundly intellectually impaired individuals. It's not shocking that they'd execute autists as well.
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lostonearth35
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Kohberger didn't kill four people because he has autism; he killed four people IN SPITE OF his autism. In other words, his autism had nothing to do with murdering four people, not any more than some other killer's neurotypical wiring made HIM commit murder. Kohberger's autism shouldn't even be an issue. If anything, autistic people have a higher sense of justice and following rules than do NTs. I gather that he had things happen to him when growing up that totally f'cked up his head; never mind he's autistic.
With all that said, I'm AGAINST the death penalty because this shortens the time that someone will spend living inside a cage and being forced to shower with other men, eat prison food, and suffer from all that prison has to offer.
Let this young man spend the next 60 years living in a cage and thinking about what he did, not 15.
funeralxempire
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With all that said, I'm AGAINST the death penalty because this shortens the time that someone will spend living inside a cage and being forced to shower with other men, eat prison food, and suffer from all that prison has to offer.
Let this young man spend the next 60 years living in a cage and thinking about what he did, not 15.
'In spite of' seems inaccurate. Autism doesn't make one less likely to kill people, just like it doesn't make one more likely to kill people.
He killed people and he has autism. It wasn't because of and it wasn't in spite of.
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If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. —Malcolm X
Just a reminder: under international law, an occupying power has no right of self-defense, and those who are occupied have the right and duty to liberate themselves by any means possible.
nick007
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I actually do think that autism can be a factor for committing murder & various other crimes. Us autistics do tend to get mistreated & struggle in society more than our NT peers do. Autism is NOT the cause of murder though. The root cause is a society that values status & power & belives that those without are not deserving of respect. People have breaking points aboout how much mistreatment & abuse they can take & us autistics tend to take more. That said it's important to note that there's lots of exceptions.
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Why should we be exempt from capital punishment? Autism doesn't prevent us from knowing right from wrong and stabbing was a choice. They compared autism to intellectual impairment, like he has a very low IQ he can't tell that you shouldn't stab someone?
Not that I believe in capital punishment.
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nick007
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Not that I believe in capital punishment.
considering that there might be DNA evidence against him when he started stabbing. The claim of autism here is a Hail Marry attempt to avoid the death penality. I want to know Kohberger's real motives for killing. Was he majorly bullied by them & had a bad meltdown? Did he have a mental disorder or was taking drugs that caused a brief psychotic episode?
I do not support the death penality in general & I think society needs to to focus a lot more on addressing the root causes of crime like poverty, child abuse, bullying, drug & alcohol addiction, & lack of easily accessible free quality mental & physical health care.
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I was glad to hear he didn't get to use autism as a defense. He also has this weird thing that he says he experiences called "visual noise" where he sees something like static. Hm.
This would have opened up a dangerous path to taking away personal decision making rights and rights to one's independence. Seeing as how willy nilly autism is being diagnosed in children, this could be a big problem for young adults who are trying to make their way in the world. Both those who were diagnosed correctly and those who were misdiagnosed so that they had access to services.
I was following this case at first when it unfolded. He was somewhat of a loner in high school and was described as awkward and overweight. Then he lost a lot of weight- I believe in some kind of dramatic way. He had a classmate who said that she discovered he was using hard drugs to keep the weight off. He then went into criminology in college and was studying that at the graduate level when he *allegedly* (ahem) committed the crimes. From his work in college he seemed interested in what a criminal felt as they were committing crimes. I used to read true crime books when I was a young person. I do not recall much attention being paid into the feelings of the criminals. So the fact that Kohberger was exploring that was a bit of a red flag to me.
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