Gallegos said there is no telling when Terribilini will be released from treatment. But while he may be in the hospital longer than he would have been in jail, the “truth is, he is getting treatment, medication and a safe environment.”
”Ultimately,” Gallegos said, “the crux of the matter is, people need to care about these people. If our position is: So long as we don't see them or deal with them then we're fine, then we're not taking any kind of care of them.”
Not sure about the point of the story, which seems to be lamenting the fact that said guilty plea has kept the guy in treatment longer than he might have served if convicted.
Terribilini was recommitted in early August by a panel of 12 jurors who listened to expert testimony given by his doctors. In his 2008 progress report, doctors stated that although he has shown significant improvement, Terribilini's social skills are still too poorly managed to grant him release. The jurors listened to the experts, and ruled to extend the commitment for another year....
”People who are mentally ill commit crimes on a daily basis,” he said. “It's a real illness of society -- how you measure society is how it treats these people.”
If the Humboldt court system had a more expansive budget, Klein said he thinks the best possible way to decide where and how mentally ill offenders would be treated would be to have a panel of psychiatrists to perform evaluations, which a judge would then use to form a decision. But Klein said that isn't the case.
”What we have is highly paid professionals. They testify, and you know who gets to decide? Twelve laymen,” Klein said. “It's an imperfect system. Something's wrong here.”
The thought occurs to me that his big mistake it seems to me is that he didn't wait until Gallegos was elected - I mean knock(ing) his girlfriend to the ground, repeatedly kick(ing) her in the ribs, then (holding) her down by the neck before stealing her cigarettes and running away - doesn't seem like that big of a deal, does it?
And I wonder if Mr. Klein understands that society is also measured by how it PROTECTS its people, and letting insane antisocial people run amok is not exactly a good idea... And, "twelve laymen" - a jury - is something you should have more respect for. What do you think?
So was Mr. Klein willing to waive a jury trial on the issue? I bet the defense was, because the
ReplyDeletefear factor is a big part of the prosecution's presentation in these cases. Mr. Klein can have his judge alone proceeding whenever he wants, as long as the defendant is willing to give up his CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. You know, the one's Klein is sworn to uphold.