"Ecott did not deny having sex with the girl but said he had no memory of it happening." -- I wonder if he took a polygraph test (lie detector).

"'Sleep-walking is the only rational explanation for what I did.'" -- I could think of one that's a lot more rational: alcohol lowers inhibition and is complicit in many sexual encounters.

[According to the Canadian Psychiatric Association, sexual arousal is not present when sleepwalking. I guess the lawyer didn't realize this, or he would have tried another defense.]

"Senior Aircraftsman Kenneth Ecott, 26, broke down in tears after a jury took two hours to agree that he was not responsible for his actions." -- Typical liberal thinking

I wonder if anyone stopped to consider that the man was drunk -- "downed a bottle of vodka." Guess he's not responsible for that either, even though he knew that he was "prone to sleepwalking" and his girlfriend claimed that he had had similar behavior before (she "recalled a number of occasions").

I wonder if the raped 15-year-old girl "broke down in tears" when the rapist got off?

She also could say that "I went to sleep, then I woke up and my life was over," especially if she's pregnant or contracted one or more STDs. But she'll have to live with her wrecked life while the perp doesn't even get a slap on the wrist.

"'What worries and concerns me [the victim's mother] is that this verdict has given him a new lease of life to go and do it again to somebody else.'" -- Too bad that the jury didn't have as much common sense.

I wonder why a 15-year-old girl is at a birthday party sleepover with a 26-year-old man and who knows who else, sleeping on air beds in the living room together after a night of drunken partying. Too bad her 40-year-old mother wasn't worried sooner.

______________________________

Did you know that the first sleepwalking defense was first used in 1846 after a man slit a woman's throat so savagely that her head was nearly severed and after he started 3 separate fires (likely to cover up the evidence)? His lawyer claimed that the murderer was not responsible for his actions because he was sleepwalking when he killed his lover and set the fires. It took the jury less than two hours to agree. The slasher/arsonist got off with no punishment at all.

______________________________

"Man Acquitted Of Sleepwalking Murder Running For School Trustee in Durham"

"Skeletons in the closet are often a concern during political campaigns and the rivals of one candidate vying for a spot on the Durham District School Board [Canada] won't have to dig to [sic] deep to find them."

20 years ago Ken Parks was at the center of a high-profile murder case, but he was eventually acquitted (i.e., not held responsible for the crimes) of the murder of his mother-in-law and the attempted murder of his father-in-law after his defense of sleepwalking (somnambulism) while driving about 14 miles to their home, letting himself in with a key, and then brutally attacking his in-laws with a tire iron that he had brought with him.

"He got back in his car and, despite being covered with blood, drove straight to a nearby police station and confessed, turning himself in. 'I think I have just killed two people,' he told the stunned cops.

"It seemed to be an open and shut case, and because Parks was a compulsive gambler who had recently embezzled money from his own family, police believed that was the motive.

"And he wasn't sentenced to a psychiatric hospital because he wasn't judged insane."

______________________________

"Sleepwalking Defense in Arizona Murder Trial"

In 1997 a man stabbed his wife 44 times and then pushed her body into the backyard swimming pool and held her head under water while their children slept inside their home.

According to the prosecution, the defendant [Falater] changed clothes and placed his bloodied clothing along with the murder weapon -- a hunting knife -- in a Tupperware container. He then put the container in a trash bag with his boots and socks [and bloody gloves] and stashed the bag in the spare tire well in trunk of his car.

After hearing moaning, a neighbor watched from his yard as the murderer pulled on gloves and then dragged his wife's body over to the pool and rolled it in. The neighbor saw Falater hold his wife's head under water and that's when he called 911.

"Falater acknowledged that his wife and children never saw him walk in his sleep, that he was never treated for the disorder and that he didn't see a doctor for his alleged insomnia."

The Phoenix jury (Maricopa County) rejected Scott Falater's sleepwalking defense and found him guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to life without parole [after his children pleaded for mercy] although the prosecutor asked for the death penalty.

[Notice the difference in outcome: life without parole in Maricopa County U.S.A. vs. getting off scot-free in Britain & Canada.]

Court TV Trials

This case has been featured on American Justice.

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" When Can Killers Claim Sleepwalking As a Legal Defense?"

Dr. Meir Kryger, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the St. Boniface Hospital-Research Center in Winnipeg, Canada, wrote, "The potential for sleep disorders to become the 'Twinkie' defense of the 21st century is frightening."

Dr. Kryger said in an interview that in an increasing number of violent crimes, defendants are contending that they were asleep at the time and therefore not accountable for their actions.

But if a sleep problem is established, said Dr. Clete A. Kushida of the Stanford University Sleep Disorders Clinic, "the courts and the public have to accept that it's a disease like any other disease." [Glad he couldn't persuade the jury in AZ.]

Dr. Kryger added, "In my opinion, a person who commits a violent crime while asleep should not be held responsible for the act, but that person cannot be returned to society without treatment." [Like all other "mental" cases -- A little "treatment" and then back into society.]

______________________________

" Bunk, Junk & Juries"

"SHOULD THE OCCASION arise, I would prefer not to have a jury of my peers because, of late, juries of peers have shown themselves lacking in the discernment necessary for sorting through the bunk and junk floating around court rooms. Bunk-o-meters have been racing at full tilt in courts because jurors buy the flumdiddle offered up by desperate parties in desperate times."

. . . . . . .

" These wise women knew bunk when they heard it and found Falater guilty of first degree murder.

"This kind of wisdom and common sense in juries of our peers was in the minds of the forefathers -- the common sense of the common man as a means of checks and balances.

But the common man has become uncommon and jury consultants manipulate jury structure in order to avoid facing that uncommonly good sense. One lawyer explained that the last thing you want is a thinking jury."

Why can't we put this scum out of his misery??

It’s the second worse excuse ever, only behind John McCain’s Florida campaign chairman’s explanation for his arrest:

The Worst Excuse Ever!

ain't this something? Um um um, I'm just shaking my head, can't believe a defense like that. Riiiiight!

And I'm still awaiting the alligator story.