LafayetteLady
Posts: 7683
Joined: 5/2/2007 From: Northern New Jersey Status: offline
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It would have been nice if they were more specific about his "cognitive disorder." Cognitive disorder can mean anything from depression to Alziemer's or schizophrenia. Theoretically, they are saying he can't remember what happened during the crimes in order to participate in his defense. The question is did this cognitive disorder exist at the time of the alleged crime? In my opinion, if it didn't, his current "disability" should be irrelevant. Think of it like this: Ronald Regan didn't have Alziemer's when he was president. Therefore, any decisions he made as president could not be blamed on his cognitive disorder. However, such a current problem could affect what punishment was given for the crime. For instance, someone who was a quadrepelegic on a ventilator would not be placed in a high security prison and due to their condition could not likely pose any physical danger to others. Now I realize that is not likely the case with Johnson, but I would like to know more about his condition and when it developed. Further troubling is that he already was a registered sex offender. It would seem, he already served his time for that offense. Like it or not, our system rarely locks sex offenders up for life. You don't have to like or even agree with that, but it is what it is. So maybe the question everyone should be asking is why a woman with a child would marry a convicted sex offender and have no idea what was going on under her nose for 5 years? I find her at least partially responsible for the abuse of her daughter and niece. Sound harsh? Damn straight. In almost all cases where a parent is molesting a child, the other parent refused to see the signs. Sorry, I find that almost as bad as the molester. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, if addtional information becomes available.
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