Search results for query: *

I've never said it was a defence to anything or even a mitigating factor, and nor have I seen a comment from anyone else that it would be a mitigating factor. It is a possible component of what happened is all, in the same way as it is possible there was more than one person, that they had a...

I posited a few days ago that one of the thoughts I had about this was that the perpetrator might have been under the influence of something given the frenzied, brutal nature of the crime and, if they have arrested the correct person, his age. I don't think it's really any different to any other...

This is the federal indictment affidavit: https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/cb910ec413ebe6c9/b4aa3510-full.pdf

You are lumping all users into one category, though. There are plenty of recreational users who don't neglect their responsibilities, and have fulfilled relationships, and live successful lives. It's also untrue to say that users tend to associated with predominantly other users because again...

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday about this and he suggested PCP/Angel Dust as a potential drug that could have influenced the brutality of the murders. I didn't think it was around really in the 70s, but it turns out it was the opposite - it was big in the 70s and 80s...

Thanks for reading it. I find the reaction to all this one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen in the US, which is really saying something. I understood the venting outrage in the immediate aftermath. People had been frustrated for years and wanted to let it out. Plus I suspect a lot...

Why am I not surprised to see a Church involved in pursuing a whistleblower about CSA and potentially harbouring a prolific CSA predator? They have a lot to answer for in this situation as well.

Yes. It never ceases to amaze me that people in the US who I would otherwise consider sensible and similarly minded suddenly launch into a huge defence of their right to guns and completely ignore the overwhelming evidence worldwide that limiting access to guns works. The love their guns.

I personally fully support focusing on protection for innocent people. If you convict an innocent person you've destroyed the life of someone and done nothing to help the victims because the perpetrator has not faced any accountability. I don't think that, overall, we are much better at judging...

To me it's more about how messed up the public is in the US. They are more interested in celebrating the shooting of a healthcare executive than they are doing something about school children getting shot.

The judicial system is set up to ensure protections for the innocent, which necessarily means that much of the process protects the accused and that there is a high standard of proof. It also means that there are circumstances in which a person who has committed the crime will not be found...

I hope they have other DNA. If they preserved things from the crime scene they should hopefully have been able to get other DNA with more modern techniques. He could also explain his running due to being involved in the crime but not the actual murderer or just being guilty of the post mortem...

It is my understanding that a tobacco salesman entered the house after the murders and checked a phone number, and that SA's boyfriend and his brother visited the house after the murders and left a note on the table. All these people claim they didn't see the bodies or hear the child. I think...

I think the fact that it is a post mortem SA may present a problem for the prosecution. He could present a story that he went to burglarise the house, came across the bodies, and did that. He then pocketed the murder weapon as a souvenir. Obviously this still makes him sick and twisted, but...

I've been waiting for this. I don't necessarily think the feds want to impose the death penalty, but that it is to be used as a bargaining chip to pressure him to plead. A perpetrator is far less likely to take the risk with a trial when death is on the table. It also gives them other options...

Whether or not they do, I can see a couple of stories he can provide that could account for the evidence without rendering him responsible for the murder.

That certainly indicates a bad trip can result in a crazy, vicious, random attack. Thanks for finding it; that was a pretty shocking read.

While we are on slightly different/left field theories, I have wondered if it could have been someone in the police. There is no direct evidence of this, but the shoddy police investigation coupled with the intensity of the focus on John and Patsy that was almost to witch hunt levels has given...

Of course. I'm about the same age as Thompson and Venables and I remember when that was all over the news when it happened. As a kid I became acutely aware that my peers could be evil. I don't believe in raising the age of criminal responsibility; if we had done those two boys would have faced...

I think that was one of the points of the ransom note - to make them believe she'd been kidnapped so they didn't search the house as thoroughly. The killer had concealed her enough that at a glance she wasn't there. So even if prior to finding the note John and Patsy ran around and did a...

I definitely think it's strange, but I don't think it's incompatible with them being in shock or emotionally overwhelmed. I don't mean that they would have been completely frozen but perhaps better explained as unable to connect with the reality of what was happening. So yes they'll do things...

No, I don't think it was, either. Which is not to say that I think Patsy and/or John wrote it, but that whoever wrote it did it as some sort of message, game, or deflection.

How would the kidnapper have expected him to go to the bank on Boxing Day, though? They wouldn't be open.

I too find it strange that they weren't searching like crazy, but I also make room for the possibility that they shut down emotionally in fear and shock. There are also people who are very deferential to and trusting of authority and if John and Patsy fell into that category they may have had...

I don't, if the intruder was someone who knew them. There are so many relationships in which spouses don't have information about each other's finances but other people know. I'm not necessarily saying that this indicated there was any issue between Patsy and John, either. It could have been a...

It's things like this that highlight why much of the public hold the police in contempt. There are innumerable examples of CSOs who don't stick to one gender, even if they have a preference. With such a prolific offender there are almost certainly going to be young boys who were targeted as...

Yes, it's possible the note was written in advance. That is something that has definitely occurred to me over the years. The person could even have taken things from the office and returned them when they came back. It's not like John or Patsy would be particularly disturbed by a missing notepad...

There are numerous problems with handwriting analysis. One of them is the immediate bias. People who compare two samples of handwriting are looking for similarities. It would be somewhat different if an expert was given an array of similar examples from different people and told to determine...

Yes, to me what happened suggests the perpetrators knew John and Patsy, and something like this is a very plausible scenario. In addition, if a person known to John and Patsy came in the house they could well have felt comfortable enough to take time to write the ransom note before doing...

There are a huge amount of recreational drug users, and of course people who drink, who lead incredibly successful lives and have very connected relationships. In fact I would argue that if you account for the statistics on the amount of people who have done drugs, many many more are perfectly...