She belongs in a hospital, not a prison.” “It’s a tragic case,” Shefferman said after the judge’s ruling Thursday. “She clearly at the time thought that this was the proper and moral thing to do.” “The only way to understand her actions in this case is to factor in her mental illness, her delusional belief that her children were being possessed by demons,” one of those experts, psychiatrist Neil Blumberg, testified in court. They designated her “not criminally responsible.” A Montgomery judge agreed at a hearing in January 2015 and ordered Sanford’s confinement at Perkins.īut the doctors reached a different conclusion on Avery, saying that she knew what she did was illegal because, among other factors, she took steps to evade consequences - by running out the back of her townhouse - after the crime.īut Avery’s attorney, Brian Shefferman, challenged that opinion and retained two defense experts. The state doctors concluded that the answer for Sanford on both fronts was yes. Were they so delusional they didn’t know their actions were wrong? And was their mental illness so severe that it overran any rational thoughts, leaving it impossible for the women to “conform” their conduct “to the requirements of law.” The big legal questions turned on what their mental state was at the time of the crimes. Perkins forensic psychiatric hospital in Jessup. Later in 2014, each woman was evaluated independently at the state’s Clifton T. Avery won’t slaughter other children in the future is her compliance with a strict regimen of anti-psychotic medication, I don’t foresee that day when this member of the court will take that risk.”Īfter police took Avery and Sanford into custody on the day of the attacks, the women spoke openly about their beliefs in demons and exorcisms - statements that were at the core of mental health issues that had to be sorted in their cases. “If the only guarantee this court has that Ms. “Someday the defendant will be asking this court to release her from a psychiatric institution,” McGann said. McGann seemed leery of such a move, noting that about a month before the crimes, Avery quit taking her psychiatric medication - apparently because she thought God had cured her. Under Maryland law, Avery could be released from a psychiatric hospital if she is deemed to not be a risk to herself or to others. What rational normal-thinking human being could possibly conclude that their children would be better off dead than alive?” “The inescapable conclusion I draw,” he added, “is that she believed she was providing for her children’s salvation. “I find her statements inconsistent with a rational brain.” “Her mission and plan were quite convoluted, disjointed and elaborate,” Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Terrence McGann said Thursday. The women attacked the children with a serrated paring knife, stabbing the youngest more than 20 times, because they thought the killings would cleanse the children of demons and send them to heaven.Īvery, who has a history of mental health issues, put forward a defense through her attorney this week that she was not criminally responsible at the time of the attacks, leading to the bench trial over whether she was criminally insane. ![]() 17, 2014, in a Germantown townhouse by Avery and her roommate, Monifa Sanford - drew national attention. ![]() ![]() The horrifying violence - carried out in the early hours of Jan. (Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office) On Monday, a defense attorney for Zakieya Avery played this video in a Maryland courtroom, hoping to bolster his argument that in 2014, when Avery killed her two youngest children during a bloody exorcism, she was insane.
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