![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm sure you've seen this one -
Oct. 21st, 2005 11:18 amSAN FRANCISCO - The woman seen dropping her young sons into San Francisco Bay pleaded innocent Friday to three counts of murder.
ADVERTISEMENT
Lashuan Harris, described as mentally ill by family members, kept her head down and held her public defender's hand through most of the brief court hearing. She quietly answered "yes" when the San Francisco Superior Court judge asked if she was willing to waive her right to a speedy preliminary hearing.
Harris, 23, faces three counts of murder with special circumstances, making her eligible for the death penalty.
Her lawyer, Teresa Caffese, refused to address questions about Harris' mental state, saying only her client was under suicide watch. She's being held without bail.
"It's very, very difficult," Caffese said. "This can't be captured in words right now."
Authorities said Harris, a former nurse's assistant who was living in a homeless shelter, was seen putting her three boys in the bay Wednesday.
This is a mother who lost custody of her children once - because she was hospitalized for schitzophrenia. Her mother was granted custody - and less than six months ago, asked to have it back - because her daughter had stopped taking her medication.
Haldol.
I'm sorry. You need that to control any part of your mental state, you really don't need anything but a padded cell.
That's what they give the violently mentally ill to keep them killing anyone coming near them. Ask Rita Hayworth's daughter about caring for her mother in her last days with Alzeheimer's, and having to resort to Haldol to keep her calm.
I have every reason to believe that once she got those children over the edge, that mother was going to follow them. Killing her? Probably what she wanted in the first place. Boy, that's going to solve something!
Watch the caseworker get called in next - and blamed.
Truth of the matter? Somebody is that ill, they need following. For that kind of diagnosis, life-long. You want them to live, that is.
ADVERTISEMENT
Lashuan Harris, described as mentally ill by family members, kept her head down and held her public defender's hand through most of the brief court hearing. She quietly answered "yes" when the San Francisco Superior Court judge asked if she was willing to waive her right to a speedy preliminary hearing.
Harris, 23, faces three counts of murder with special circumstances, making her eligible for the death penalty.
Her lawyer, Teresa Caffese, refused to address questions about Harris' mental state, saying only her client was under suicide watch. She's being held without bail.
"It's very, very difficult," Caffese said. "This can't be captured in words right now."
Authorities said Harris, a former nurse's assistant who was living in a homeless shelter, was seen putting her three boys in the bay Wednesday.
This is a mother who lost custody of her children once - because she was hospitalized for schitzophrenia. Her mother was granted custody - and less than six months ago, asked to have it back - because her daughter had stopped taking her medication.
Haldol.
I'm sorry. You need that to control any part of your mental state, you really don't need anything but a padded cell.
That's what they give the violently mentally ill to keep them killing anyone coming near them. Ask Rita Hayworth's daughter about caring for her mother in her last days with Alzeheimer's, and having to resort to Haldol to keep her calm.
I have every reason to believe that once she got those children over the edge, that mother was going to follow them. Killing her? Probably what she wanted in the first place. Boy, that's going to solve something!
Watch the caseworker get called in next - and blamed.
Truth of the matter? Somebody is that ill, they need following. For that kind of diagnosis, life-long. You want them to live, that is.
