Natural Born Victims: Autism, Terrorism & Mass Murder.

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what is the legal definition of rational thought what is rational choice defense attorney boris potenski said those are the key words for justice anne malloy to define when she delivers her verdict alec monassian has pled not criminally responsible for killing 10 people and injuring 16 others on april 23 2018. manasseen's defense believe his autism spectrum disorder has rendered him unable to understand that his actions were morally wrong alexander westfall is a forensic psychiatrist from yale university who specializes in autism he testified minassian displayed classic signs of the disability including impaired social skills but most striking was his lack of empathy reading from a previous ncr decision by the supreme court potenski highlighted the accused must possess the intellectual ability to know right from wrong in an abstract sense but he or she must also possess the ability to apply that knowledge in a rational way to the alleged criminal act a lack of remorse the defense argued this is evidence of it alec minassian alone in a police interrogation room so the the targets who are the targets for the this uprising be all of the alpha males all the alpha males so the chads yes so that's those are the people that you want to kill yes okay all right and who else any of the stacies who uh do not wish to give their love and affection to the incels so they they they're a target as well yes just hours before minassian had driven a rented van into pedestrians killing 10 people and injuring 16 others but the defense argues he is not criminally responsible because he could not appreciate what he did was wrong okay what about the normies we don't necessarily wish to uh kill the normies but we do wish to subjugate them in order to make them understand that our type is uh the more superior one right right so when you say subjugate what you mean by that meaning uh either imprison them or put them in a lower position in society so that they acknowledge the incels or the pepe the frog types as the more superior ones so i want to put the autism issue to rest so i brought in an expert her name is elizabeth largeson she's an autism expert and assistant clinical professor here at ucla dr largeson please tell us what you think about this issue is as it pertains to asperger's in this case you know as you've discussed dr drew um asperger's which is a high functioning form of autism it's it's a diagnosis that's characterized by difficulty with social communication and developing and maintaining meaningful relationships with people but it's not characterized by aggressive behavior now that's not to say that people with asperger's don't engage in violent behavior it's just not part of the diagnosis so how did you learn of elliot i saw one of his posts we just talked about each other and got to know each other and we found each other very interesting we both had the same uh frustrations on society right despite being separated by distance so far apart right right his act i know took place in 2014 but i wasn't aware of the exact date what day was it may 23 uh 2014 may 23rd yeah you said that so when did you last speak to him may uh 20. and so what did he tell you he told me that he has to go he is on a very important mission and he might not make it back alive so what did you say to him i uh kind of had an idea in my head of what he was planning but i didn't want to i think it was true at the time so i said sorry replied and said i wish you good luck with that in a trial held in virtual court menacing's lawyer presented his client's diagnosis of autism as the basis of his defense and questioned his father vaheminasian told the court his son was gentle but rarely showed empathy and didn't understand consequences of his action when you say radicalized what do you mean by that meaning i felt it was time to take action and not just sit on the sidelines and to just fester in my own sadness okay i was thinking that i would inspire a future masses to uh join me in my uprising as well the crown argued minassian grew up in a loving home would have known killing people was wrong i was fairly confident that others would be inspired to repeat the same actions as me basically just to overthrow society manassian's father broke down when he told the court he keeps wondering what signs he missed and says he can only conclude his son didn't truly understand what he did a defense the crown will continue to challenge when court resumes tomorrow joanna rumiliotis cbc news toronto