Dark Knight Movie Killer Defense Rests on Subjective Psychiatry

The largest number of casualties of any shooting in U.S. history took place inside Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado during a midnight screening of the film, The Dark Knight Rises, on July 20, 2012.

James Holmes confessed to being the shooter but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The Arapahoe County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Holmes.

The defense rests its case; and Holmes will not testify.  This is a key move by the defense team to avoid across examination to shield the failed “mental health” treatment and Holmes involvement in mental health research at the University prior to the mass killings.  James Holmes was a promising neuroscience doctoral student at the University.

According to the LA Times, Holmes at the time of the shooting was on two mind-altering drugs. Investigators found prescriptions for sertraline, a generic version of Zoloft, used to treat depression, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder; and Clonazepam, usually prescribed to treat anxiety and panic attacks.

Jenny Deam of the LA Times reported, “About a month before the Aurora movie theater rampage left 12 dead and at least 70 injured in July, James E. Holmes told a psychiatrist he was having homicidal thoughts and she concluded he could pose a danger to the public, according to documents released Thursday.

University of Colorado-Denver psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton told a campus police officer about her concerns June 12, the day after she met with Holmes for their only session. Her fears were revealed Thursday when the new judge presiding over the case unsealed a host of search warrants and arrest documents.

Fenton also told Lynn Whitten, a campus police officer, that after she stopped seeing Holmes he “threatened and harassed her via email/text messages,” the documents said.

Whitten deactivated Holmes’ ID so he could not get into University classrooms and laboratories, the documents say. That appeared to contradict what University officials have said: that Holmes was not banned from the University because of a threat but because his ID was deactivated as part of the normal student withdrawal process.”

Like the case of Adam Lanza, in the Sandy Hook mass shooting, another mental health research center was involved, Yale Child Study Center.  Recall Nancy Lanza reported to Yale Child Study Center, Adam was experiencing an “adverse drug event” from the psychiatric drug, Celexa.  The treating team at Yale Child Study Center labeled Nancy Lanza “non-compliant.”

The Insanity plea is nothing more than making the mental health patient a mental health prisoner, allowing the mental health research centers off the hook, and the giving treating psychiatrists a pass.

In the end, will society actually benefit either way at the close of this trial?   Until the psychiatrists and the mental health research centers are held responsible, and investigators seriously consider the subjective nature of psychiatric diagnosing and the known harmful side effects of psychiatric drugs, these unfortunate and needless situation will continue.

Let’s not forget the failed political reactions, the movie theater killings and Sandy Hook killings led to a political debate about gun control, and the need for more mandated mental health treatment, and most recently the South Carolina killings has engaged the Country into a debate about a flag.

The Insanity here is spending more money on failed, dangerous mental health treatments, and watching the end of this mass murder trail rest on the subjective nature of psychiatry.