There's an interesting new theory on unguided use of antidepressants, a sort of ironic one, too. It applies to the sorts of docs that just throw some pills at the patient and tell them to come back next month.
The idea is that while the antidepressant is not enough to cure the depression, it is just enough to get the person moving from absolute inaction to just enough action to do something drastic to "end it all"...like a
Happened to a college buddy of mine.
Was depressed for years, kinda trudging through life with no direction after college. It would cycle, get better, get worse.
On his last upswing he got motivated enough to off himself and was successful. He was moral enough to just do himself in and not kill anyone else, for which I am thankful.
Yeah there's no justice.
A paranoid schizophrenic should definitely be treated as though he isn't a paranoid schizophrenic.
Or in the real world - he's not going anywhere for a very long time, and that is quite correct. He's dangerous, but that doesn't mean he is responsible.
For the family of the victim who was killed, beheaded, dismembered, and eaten, you are correct:
there was no justice served.
FTR, I am not on board with the "somebody's not responsible because they have mental illness" viewpoint.
Since we are dismissing evil, there is no, "The Devil made me do it," defense. No, the person who does this sort of thing ought to bear the responsibility for their actions, however we judge their mental state. I think they ought to get the same punishment (in the case of the death penalty) or similar punishment (in case of a prison sentence). Meaning, a secure mental hospital for, at minimum, the same number of years they would have gotten in prison were they judged sane.
If this were to occur where I was situated to prevent it or stop the nutcase, I hope I would do so, ASAP. Considering he is armed and has just killed someone, shooting to stop him is morally justifiable.
Locking up these people in a mental institution protects society just as well as a prison. Not executing the mentally ill protects humanity from the trend towards state-mandated eugenics, which is dangerous in its own right.
I am with you in opposition to eugenics, but executing the mad slasher is not eugenics. The reason for his execution would not be his mental illness, but his actions.
Also; given the track record of mental institutions releasing folks
for which they have discretion who end up taking up their old, violent ways; I think an asylum does not rate with a maximum security prison and a parole board of flinty-eyed citizens.