Comments on: Child Murder Trial Takes Another Disgusting Turn

By: Nixzmary Brown’s Mother Sentenced to Longer Term than Girl’s Actual Killer : The Curvature

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:25:59 +0000

[...] have previously written about the horrific crime that was Nixzmary Brown’s murder. Her killer and stepfather Cesar Rodriguez got the maximum sentence [...]

By: Cara

Cara — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:18:05 +0000

Well there you go. You learn something new everyday.

By: Violet

Violet — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:09:17 +0000

Cara -
In the courts, insanity is based on whether or not the person who committed the crime knew that what they were doing was wrong. Sociopaths etc know that they are doing something wrong, they just don’t care, or feel entitled, or whatever.

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:34:02 +0000

A large part of the problem is that many if not most parents see their children as property, not people – it starts with “you can’t tell me how to discipline MY child” and ends with what happened to Judith Barsi and Samantha Ritchie.

By: brandann

brandann — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:54:33 +0000

i can’t even get through this whole thing w/o tearing up. people are sick. people can even fool themselves in to believing they have done nothing wrong and will try to make others doubt themselves for not believing it.

i don’t know how the jury is getting through this.

how is it that this case is taking so long?

By: Holly

Holly — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:10:04 +0000

I can barely imagine what the jury must be going through emotionally when hearing all of this. Just by reading your post and the link to the CNN story I’m in tears.

By: Cara

Cara — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:08:17 +0000

Really? Huh.

By: Ran

Ran — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:07:03 +0000

Re:

First impressions would suggest that Rodriguez is a pathological liar and sociopath. But the defense isn’t arguing insanity or mental impairment of any kind.

I don’t believe there’s any state where sociopathy/psychopathy/Antisocial Personality Disorder is considered “insanity” for legal purposes.

By: harlemjd

harlemjd — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 01:47:51 +0000

you can sue your attorney for malpractice. it won’t get you out of jail, but it will be a major pain in the ass for your attorney and cost him time and money to defend.

not saying that’s what this guy is doing, but it might be. playing CYA against a claim of ineffective cousel isn’t as likely, because those are HARD to win (cause the result is your conviction gets thrown out. with malpractice, you stay in jail but you get money).

By: Violet

Violet — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:07:04 +0000

“It doesn’t work with the jury, but it covers the lawyer against a malpractice suit from the defendant after he gets convicted”

I don’t think that defendants can sue their attorneys*, however they can appeal their case on the grounds of ineffective counsel. I don’t know how often that works, but they can try it. With a lawyer like this though, I doubt it would work. So paradoxically the worse he seems in court in his defense, the more likely the guy will remain in jail after his sentence and not receive an appeal, which would be good.

Once I was watching a trial on CourtTV of a woman who had killed her abusive husband and left the body in the main bedroom of their trailer for months. She claimed she feared for her life and the life of the child she was pregnant with at the time. She testified that her husband had kicked her in the stomach. The prosecutor brought up the fact that she had been kicked in the stomach during a previous pregnancy, and wasn’t that child born healthy? Yup, he suggested that kicking a pregnant woman in the stomach wasn’t cause for concern. And the defense didn’t even object! I was fuming for about a week after that.

*I could be wrong