Insanity, it’s a mental illness that causes craziness. This may be a real affliction that people suffer from, whether they are born with it or it is acquired, but its existence is undeniable. However, pleading insanity in order to duck a heavier sentence in the justice system is bogus.

Whether or not you’re insane or sane really matter when talking about crimes and justice. In fact, if you think about it, pleading insanity should hurt instead of help. I mean, if someone is insane and has a history of violence, doesn’t that make them pretty big threat to the general public? Most other people commit crimes with understandable motive, but a perpetrator who kills on a whim, without being able to help themselves, is even more dangerous than their counterparts.

An example of this outrageous plea being used, was in Wisconsin where two girls attacked their schoolmate and friend in order to appease the internet character Slender Man. How is hiding behind the guise of insanity make what these girls did any less horrendous?

Okay, if they stabbed their friend multiple times for being more popular than them or cheating with their boyfriends would make some sense, despite how horrible that sounds, but trying to kill someone for a character they discovered online might be even more disturbing. The fact that these girls were perverted so drastically by others through this character, shows one of the worst sides of humanity. Not only were they so corrupted by this idea of Slender Man, but it led them to commit unspeakable crimes.

It’s true that these girls are minors, and that they were influenced by others, but in the end it was their own, conscientious decisions’ to go after their friend. They may have done this to try and put an end to what they believed were threats made against themselves by Slender Man, but it was still them who committed the crime.

Even if we don’t understand their thinking and perspective, their decision to commit a murder is universal in all minds. Life is about perspective, and just because the “normal” minds don’t understand the workings of another, does not necessarily mean that either one of them is more sane than the other. Is there a single brain that is the standard for perfection and sanity? Is there one that exhibits total and undeniable insanity? No, there’s just varying perspectives.

Because this is the case, murder is murder, no matter what “world” someone finds themselves in; whether that be a land of rainbows and kittens or paranoia and fear. Whatever their rational was, they still came to the conclusion that someone else’s peril would solve or alleviate their problems. To me, that’s proof enough that they understood what they were doing. Maybe they were out of touch with our reality, but if they are sane enough to kill someone, they are sane enough to answer for their crimes.

Even if someone is diagnosed as insane, they still committed a crime. How does just letting them go ensure justice for the victims and safety for everyone else? Letting them go like that just doesn’t make sense. Sane or not, murder is murder.