Has Gary McKinnon got off with Crime?

[Guinness]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

Point is there making this big deal about Aspergers Syndrome as a reason he should be treat with kid gloves. OK I get the impression people claim that this illness causes people to be obessive about certain subjects and in this case Computer Hacking and they spend all their time learning more about the subject. So this fact means that they don't suddenly do something that is abnormal to their normal behaviour and there is no fragmenting of their consciousness.

They are fully aware of what they are doing and can talk about it afterwards. Also this guy talks about seeing photos of UFO's on computers etc. Well if he's ill surely he's making up things that weren't real and what people want to hear.

If he's ill then we should take anything that he says with a pinch of salt!

How many times does the same thing have to be said..its a brain problem...sometimes you cannot tell if a person is suffering from Aspergers simply by looking or listening to them.

In an earlier post I used Tourettes and Dementia as examples of brain issues that people found believable and acceptable..maybe I should have used Epilepsy, you cannot tell if someone is suffering from Epilepsy simply by looking or listening to them, in fact even a specialist cannot diagnose some forms of epilepsy without using an EEG.

It's not about using 'kid gloves', it's about using common sense in deciding the fate of someone who has a mental problem. What really comes across in the video that MargaretR posted is that he does not think he has done anything wrong..he has a totally amoral way of looking at what he did...a classic sign of Aspergers Syndrome

[kestrelx]

Originally Posted by Guinness

How many times does the same thing have to be said..its a brain problem...sometimes you cannot tell if a person is suffering from Aspergers simply by looking or listening to them.

In an earlier post I used Tourettes and Dementia as examples of brain issues that people found believable and acceptable..maybe I should have used Epilepsy, you cannot tell if someone is suffering from Epilepsy simply by looking or listening to them, in fact even a specialist cannot diagnose some forms of epilepsy without using an EEG.

It's not about using 'kid gloves', it's about using common sense in deciding the fate of someone who has a mental problem. What really comes across in the video that MargaretR posted is that he does not think he has done anything wrong..he has a totally amoral way of looking at what he did...a classic sign of Aspergers Syndrome

Yeh but he's still doing the rounds on the chat shows and being interviewed by people in alternative thinking and is disussing UFO's and so on which is like saying "what I did was right!"

How many times!!!! Please don't patronise. I know what you are saying but I am disputing this - he should be charged and go to court. He knows wrong from right! A jury should be the ones who decide all these issues discussed on this thread! Fred West didn't know what he'd done was wrong - but he still had to be punished for it. Nor did Harold Shipley, they never admitted what they did was wrong.

[Margaret Pilkington]

No, of course you don't.
But this man has been seen by not just one psychiatrist, but two.

And while I do not wish to suggest that your situation is lesser....I think it is unlikely to have been on a par with that of this man - to spending the rest of his life in another country - in prison, separated from his family(for doing something, which if, US security had been on their toes would never have happened)......especially bearing in mind that he is suffering from a well documented and recognised behavioural condition.
It is a behavioural condition ...his brain is wired very differently to yours and mine.

I have tried to enlighten you that this mental condition isn't like Schizophrenia, Paranoia or other mental conditions which can(and are)be controlled by drugs.

I'm not aware that he was setting himself up as some kind of figurehead for UFO/Energy guru...if he had not been caught, and if there had been no campaign to stop his extradition, then I think that people like you and I would hardly know this man's name.

He may yet stand trial here...and then he won't have got away with anything ......so you are being a bit previous in asking this question.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

Yeh but he's still doing the rounds on the chat shows and being interviewed by people in alternative thinking and is disussing UFO's and so on which is like saying "what I did was right!"

How many times!!!! Please don't patronise. I know what you are saying but I am disputing this - he should be charged and go to court. He knows wrong from right! A jury should be the ones who decide all these issues discussed on this thread! Fred West didn't know what he'd done was wrong - but he still had to be punished for it. Nor did Harold Shipley, they never admitted what they did was wrong.

Is he doing the rounds on chat shows?
I certainly haven't seen any...and maybe if he is, it is so that he can now give his side of the story...which maybe wasn't possible before because of the case pending regarding his extradition.

And it was Harold Shipman.

As I have said in my previous post..he may yet stand trial and then you might be satisfied...unless he is acqitted and then that will be wrong too.

[Guinness]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

Yeh but he's still doing the rounds on the chat shows and being interviewed by people in alternative thinking and is disussing UFO's and so on which is like saying "what I did was right!"

How many times!!!! Please don't patronise. I know what you are saying but I am disputing this - he should be charged and go to court. He knows wrong from right! A jury should be the ones who decide all these issues discussed on this thread! Fred West didn't know what he'd done was wrong - but he still had to be punished for it. Nor did Harold Shipley, they never admitted what they did was wrong.

Sorry if it came across at patronising, it wasn't my intention. Was trying to point out that your argument has been answered a number of times in this thread already.

I'll try to put it another way...You say he knows right from wrong...I totally agree, yes he does..the problem with some forms of Aspergers is that wrong and right don't figure in the brains computation..which is why I keep banging on about him being amoral and that this is a classic sign of Aspergers...

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree, no point circling each other

[StevenWaling]

Considering that my way of coping with life is sometimes to bury my head in the sands and try to ignore it, I sometimes wonder if I've got Asperger's, but I've never been tested.

However, I have met people with Asperger's. One person I knew went to South America back-packing and never came back. Two years on, I still think about him. Another is very useful if you want to know about buses in Manchester. Or obscure '70's pop songs come to think of it.

Obsessive behaviour and not having a strong moral compass are a large part of Asperger's. I suspect the American justice system isn't geared up for dealing with conditions like this. It puts people with mental illness and disability on death row, despite they're having very little awareness of what they were doing. At least in this country he'd be fairly certain of having a fair trial. An awful lot of people in the States are there because they're black, not because they've committed any crime.