An Iowa mother of two, Michelle Kehoe, is currently on trial for murdering her two-year-old son and attempting to murder her seven-year-old son. Her defense is that she was legally insane at the time of the crime.

Recently, in North Carolina, a young man, Alvaro Castillo, also pled insanity after murdering his father and then going on a shooting rampage at his former high school, injuring several students.

In the case of Alvaro Castillo I argued that he ought to be found not guilty by reason of insanity, because I felt he met the criteria of the so-called McNaughton Rule. He clearly was delusional at the time and had a history of psychotic behavior in addition to serious depression and suicide attempts.

Since I am not a slave to consistency, though, I have to say that I think Michelle Kehoe ought to be found guilty. Why? Because she was depressed, not delusional, at the time of the crimes. If every depressed murderer is acquitted, then we might as well make murder a disease that’s covered by health insurance.

A few weeks ago we watched TruTV’s live coverage of the Michael King murder trial. King was brain-damaged and had a history of psychotic behavior, but he did not plead insanity. And with good reason: his mental impairments did not prevent him from understanding what he was doing.

Let’s face it: murder is not a rational act.

I suppose, arguably, a sociopath could rationally murder someone. But this only proves that there is no logic to the insanity defense. Sociopaths have a mental disorder, but sociopaths are not legally insane, even though they cannot tell right from wrong. To a sociopath everything is right as long as it’s what he wants to do.

The only rational solution to the problem of psychotic murderers is to let juries find such people “guilty but insane.” Then, criminally insane convicts could be segregated from the general prison population and humanely treated for their mental disorders.

Much as I feel pity for Michelle Kehoe (a victim of childhood sexual abuse), if I were on the jury I would find her guilty. The grotesque murder and attempted murder of her sons is as horrific a crime as Michael King’s.