Guilty verdict reached in "American Sniper" killer trial

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AntDog
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24 Feb 2015, 11:10 pm

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/24/ju ... ing-trial/
A former Marine was found guilty late Tuesday of the 2013 shooting deaths of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the author of "American Sniper," and his friend Chad Littlefield.



Prof_Pretorius
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25 Feb 2015, 12:10 am

he was given the sentence of life in prison with no appeal. I thought that since the trial was in Texas, they would hang him.


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25 Feb 2015, 1:21 am

Kill civilians with surgical precision: You're a hero.

Kill the guy who kills civilians: Life in prison.

Justice is blind.



Kraichgauer
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25 Feb 2015, 1:56 am

I really hope he gets mental health care in prison, because even though the jury didn't give him a pass with his insanity defense, this guy is obviously three or four cans short of a six pack.


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AntDog
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25 Feb 2015, 11:43 am

Barchan wrote:
Kill civilians with surgical precision: You're a hero.

Kill the guy who kills civilians: Life in prison.

Justice is blind.

The problem is jihadists with bomb vests strapped on are not really civilians but savages.



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25 Feb 2015, 12:10 pm

Barchan wrote:
Kill civilians with surgical precision: You're a hero.

Kill the guy who kills civilians: Life in prison.

Justice is blind.


A "civilian" setting up to fire on a convoy with an RPG has given up his protection as a civilian.
They guy with the rifle that stops him and several others like him IS the hero.


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em_tsuj
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25 Feb 2015, 9:12 pm

I don't all the facts. Only the two dead soldiers and the killer know what happened for sure. However, it sounds like the killer was psychotic. I don't think it is fair to hold someone accountable for something they did when they were literally out of their heads. You can't really distinguish right from wrong when you are psychotic. I hope the sentence is reversed on appeal.



Prof_Pretorius
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25 Feb 2015, 9:22 pm

em_tsuj wrote:
I don't all the facts. Only the two dead soldiers and the killer know what happened for sure. However, it sounds like the killer was psychotic. I don't think it is fair to hold someone accountable for something they did when they were literally out of their heads. You can't really distinguish right from wrong when you are psychotic. I hope the sentence is reversed on appeal.


I'm not certain, but I believe the US newspapers were never told the details of how the killings took place. Those details were probably revealed in the court proceedings.
On a personal note, if someone is capable of pointing a gun at me and firing it, they are not insane.


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25 Feb 2015, 10:05 pm

Really hard to get a judgment for mental illness.
Snipers and drones make it easier to kill.you don't have to look your foe in the face.Makes it easy to depersonalize others.They become a target and not another human being.So now you have endless war,most vets that experienced hand to hand combat will mention the horror of killing another being.Now that horror is removed.


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26 Feb 2015, 3:45 am

em_tsuj wrote:
I don't all the facts. Only the two dead soldiers and the killer know what happened for sure. However, it sounds like the killer was psychotic. I don't think it is fair to hold someone accountable for something they did when they were literally out of their heads. You can't really distinguish right from wrong when you are psychotic. I hope the sentence is reversed on appeal.

He still deliberately killed someone. I don't buy this copping an insanity plea BS.
Hang him.


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26 Feb 2015, 3:57 am

Misslizard wrote:
Really hard to get a judgment for mental illness.
Snipers and drones make it easier to kill.you don't have to look your foe in the face.Makes it easy to depersonalize others.They become a target and not another human being.So now you have endless war,most vets that experienced hand to hand combat will mention the horror of killing another being.Now that horror is removed.


Actually, snipers often (or usually) do get a very good look at who they are about to kill. That's one of the biggest reasons they have to be psychologically screened before being selected for sniper school. They don't want whacko killers, but guys that can calmly apply a technical skill.


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Prof_Pretorius
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26 Feb 2015, 10:27 am

If you knew any thing about military history, snipers go all the way back to the American Revolutionary War.
They are not a recent invention.


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26 Feb 2015, 10:46 am

Snipers go back even further, from archers in trees, to spear-throwers, to slingers, and all the way back to the first person to fling a rock at someone's head from a place of concealment.

Sniping is not unique to America, nor even likely to the historical age.



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26 Feb 2015, 1:01 pm

Prof_Pretorius wrote:
If you knew any thing about military history, snipers go all the way back to the American Revolutionary War.
They are not a recent invention.


In fact, a British sniper had had the chance to pop George Washington, but had thought it would have been ungentlemanly.


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26 Feb 2015, 9:46 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:
In fact, a British sniper had had the chance to pop George Washington, but had thought it would have been ungentlemanly.


IIRC, because he would have had to shoot him in the back, and that just wouldn't do. Oops...


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26 Feb 2015, 11:41 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:
I really hope he gets mental health care in prison, because even though the jury didn't give him a pass with his insanity defense, this guy is obviously three or four cans short of a six pack.

The issue is that so many seem to believe that giving someone mental health treatment necessarily means not holding someone accountable for their actions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Proper mental health treatments means that individual prisoners and/or suspects who have special needs with regards to mental illness get these needs met. It is about both giving them proper treatment and ensuring the safety of others around them. And in many cases, giving suspects and/or prisoners proper mental health treatments means drastically lowering the possibility that those with mental health needs, which does include those on the autism spectrum, end up causing such violence and loss of life in the first place.

If anything, I think proper mental health treatments make it less attractive to use mental illness as a sort of get out of jail free card. Because then, if someone is classified as mentally ill, they will spend substantial amounts of time getting treated for it along with others who also have severe mental health issues. In most cases they will spend at least as long there as they would in conventional prison. So someone who wants a get out of jail free card is not gonna be inclined to use mental illness. And without these mental health centers, it seems like the possibility of mentally ill suspects getting back on the streets increases, as does the attractiveness of mental illness as a get out of jail free card.