the onion field

An Irish Jury has declared murderer Saverio Bellante not guilty by reason of insanity for his brutal murder of Tom O'Gorman. 

(Saverio Bellante's insanity apparently, not the Jury's.)

Saverio Bellante murdered Tom O'Gorman.

He should be executed for the crime he committed in taking the life of Tom O'Gorman.

That is my opinion as a citizen.

Of course every murder is insane.

Every murderer can point to his own insanity when seeking to obtain a get out of jail free card for the murder he or she has committed.

But most of us wouldn't let murderers use their insanity as an excuse to remove any punishment from them for the crime of murder.

I was talking to an American liberal tonight.

Surprisingly we agreed about the invidiousness courts allowing murderers to claim their insanity renders them unaccountable for the murders they have committed.

She told me that in American courtrooms it was very hard to get away with the insanity defence because Americans had gotten wise to it as a standard manoeuvre used by murderers caught in the act.

And after a few years the murderers all claim to have been healed.

And they're released.

In the late 1970's a Hollywood film called The Onion Field focussed on a real life case where cop killers beat the rap using the poor me  defence.

The film was advertised with the slogan: "What happened in the onion field was murder. But the real crime happened afterwards."

Irish courtrooms are the onion field.

We have to put a stop to this.