Dylann Roof sentenced to death

Post Reply New Topic

A couple of psychology journals published he was diagnosed with Aspergers?

I would need to see it with my own eyes before I believe he was autistic or otherwise it's just a armchair diagnoses people are giving him.

I would need to see it with my own eyes before I believe he was autistic or otherwise it's just a armchair diagnoses people are giving him.

In subsequent correspondence with Newtown Public School personnel, the community psychiatrist referred to evaluations he had conducted of AL in September, October, and November 2005 that led to his conclusion that AL had Asperger’s Syndrome. Again, he recommended that AL be excused from attending school indefinitely:50

"AL is a 13 year old boy who I have evaluated on 9/30/05, 10/18/05, and 11/15/05. He meets the DSM IV criteria for Asperger’s Disorder. AL presents with a significant social impairment including lack of peer relationships, avoidance of eye to eye gaze, lack of understanding of how to play or interact with peers. He avoids peer interaction and is very anxious around strangers. He lacks empathy and tends to employ a very rigid systematic thought process. He demonstrates intense emotional rage when his systematic world is threatened due to his extreme need for routine. He tends to take a very literal interpretation of written and verbal material. Concepts like metaphor, symbolism and intangible references are exceedingly difficult for him and can cause significant distress. He tends to have an overly precise quality of speech and tends to not comprehend emotional expression in others. He is phobic [of] physical contact, even with his own mother who has been his most constant and consistent individual in his life.Due to his extreme anxiety and emotional discord due to minor changes in routines and/or his expectations he is unable to attend school"

There is no official evidence that he was diagnosed with anything although he may be undiagnosed. There is some behavioral similarity with Adam Lanza (US mass shooter) Anders Breivik (Norway mass shooter) and Martin Bryant (Australian mass shooter) who all had Aspergers.

Wrong person, we are talking about Dylann Roof, not Adam Lanza.

Anders Behring Breivik does not have a diagnosis of Asperger's. It was mentioned as a possibility during his assessment for the trial, but they decided he didn't have it.

What he did have was a traumatic upringing, which there is evidence for. He and his mother were committed to a help centre for troubled families, where they were assessed by mental health professionals, when he was still a toddler. Based on that, and other things, social services wanted to remove him from his mother's care, but they lost the court case.

I completely, 100% disagree with the punishment. Did anyone involved in his case look at that kid's history. To wit:

1. Roof exhibited "obsessive compulsive behavior" as he grew up.
2. obsessing over germs and insisting on having his hair cut in a certain style.
3. In nine years, Roof attended at least seven schools in two South Carolina counties.
4. His maternal uncle, Carson Cowles, said that he expressed concern about the social withdrawal of his then-nineteen-year-old nephew.
5. "he still didn't have a job, a driver's license or anything like that and he just stayed in his room a lot of the time".
6. When his sister planned to be married, he did not respond to her invitation to the event.
7. Dylann Roof was likely subjected to the double whammy — he inherited a genetic predisposition to a personality disorder, and then experienced the terrible parenting of a sociopathic father.

How do you sentence someone to death with all these extenuating circumstances?

According to Norway's top court psychiatrist he does
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... trist.html

Regardless, I hope people focus on his Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and not his Asperger's.

I think people are over reacting to the data...just because a handful of people who are serial killers or mass murderers happen to be autistic does not mean all autistic people will be murderers...

Dylan roof certainly comes across as having autistic traits but the vast majority of the mainstream population just think he's nuts.

According to Norway's top court psychiatrist he does
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... trist.html

I hope so, but I fear we as a group might be demonized as potential murderers.

Charleston church killer Dylann Roof suffers from “blushing attacks,” believes his forehead is “too large and ugly” and likely suffers from autism, attorneys representing him told an examiner, according to a recently unsealed evaluation.

The Nov. 15 report was written after several examinations were conducted to see if Roof was mentally fit to stand trial by order of presiding federal judge Richard Gergel. The report reveals extensive details involving Roof’s past, including his drug and criminal history, and his admittance that he has “all kinds of anxiety.”

The evaluation, unsealed on Wednesday along with hundreds of documents, was conducted after Roof submitted a letter to the prosecution claiming his attorneys were preparing to use a “lie that he was autistic.” He would later tell court-appointed evaluator James Ballenger he learned of the “autism idea” from his father, Franklin Roof.

Charleston church killer Dylann Roof suffers from “blushing attacks,” believes his forehead is “too large and ugly” and likely suffers from autism, attorneys representing him told an examiner, according to a recently unsealed evaluation.

The Nov. 15 report was written after several examinations were conducted to see if Roof was mentally fit to stand trial by order of presiding federal judge Richard Gergel. The report reveals extensive details involving Roof’s past, including his drug and criminal history, and his admittance that he has “all kinds of anxiety.”

The evaluation, unsealed on Wednesday along with hundreds of documents, was conducted after Roof submitted a letter to the prosecution claiming his attorneys were preparing to use a “lie that he was autistic.” He would later tell court-appointed evaluator James Ballenger he learned of the “autism idea” from his father, Franklin Roof.

The evaluation delayed the start of the federal trial until December.

Other details the report revealed noted Roof’s drug use dates back to when he was 12 years old and used marijuana three times a day. Roof told Ballenger he stopped using marijuana when he was 16. He allegedly told people he had stopped using marijuana because it caused him to be paranoid and hear voices.

Roof also told evaluators he had suffered from perhaps one panic attack and previously had been placed on medication for anxiety, the report, written by psychiatrist Dr. James Ballenger, said. Yet, his defense attorneys told Ballenger that Roof did not want pictures shown in court because he suffered from “blushing attacks” that take place when he’s upset in public.

At the end of the report, Ballenger gave his opinion: Roof was competent to continue with his ongoing death penalty federal trial in the 2015 white supremacist slayings of nine African-American Bible study group members at a historic Charleston church.

Among his conclusions, Ballenger said Roof had “perhaps some Autistic traits” and meets the criteria for “Social Anxiety Disorder, probably Generalized Anxiety Disorder, possible Autistic Spectrum Disorder, a Mixed Substance Abuse Disorder, depression by history and a Schizoid Personality Disorder.” None, however, would seriously impact his competency to stand trial, Ballenger concluded.

On Wednesday, Gergel denied motion for acquittal or a new trial by Roof, who argued he should not have been tried in federal court because his crime did not meet interstate commerce standards