What Religion Does To Some People

[Ratboy]

Mother Says She Stoned Sons to Prove Faith

[scott_harpell]

what does mental illness do to mothers?

[JoshK]

Religion sucks.

 

As my grandfather once said "Christianity and Communism, two of the best ideas on paper that turned out to be failures."

[Double_E]

As my grandfather once said "Christianity and Communism, two of the best ideas on paper that turned out to be failures."

 

claassic.

[Ratboy]

what does mental illness do to mothers?

 

Religion, mental illness. Same difference.

[catbirdseat]

Sounds like a chicken and egg thread to me.

[Stonehead]

Andre Thomas, the Sherman man accused of killing his wife, son and his wife's young daughter a week ago, quoted a Bible scripture Friday night after he apparently used his hands to pull out his own right eye.

 

Grayson County Sheriff Keith Gary said Thomas was in a jail cell directly across from the book-in station when he turned his back on the jail staff. Gary said the staff heard a scream, and then Thomas turned around with his eyeball in his hand.

 

Thomas is charged with one count of capital murder for the death of Laura Christine (Boren) Thomas. Police also contend that Thomas killed his son Andre Lee Boren and Mrs. Thomas' daughter, Leyha Marie Hughes. All three of the victims were discovered March 27 in Ms. Thomas' Sherman apartment. The bodies of the three victims had been mutilated.

 

Thomas, who apparently turned his knife on himself, walked into the Sherman Police Department later that same day and confessed to killing his wife. He was suffering from knife wounds and was taken to Wilson N. Jones Medical Center, where he underwent surgery. He was later transferred to the Grayson County Jail and placed on "suicide watch."

 

Gary said Thomas was still under that watch when he plucked out his own eye. The jail staff, Gary said, rushed to Thomas' aid and took him to the hospital.

 

Gary said Thomas quoted a Bible verse to the jail medical staff when they rushed in to help him. He quoted Mark 9:47, which states, "And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell."

 

 

R.J. Hagood and Bobbie Peterson have been appointed to defend Thomas against the capital murder charge. On Monday, Hagood filed a motion to have Thomas evaluated by a mental health professional. That evaluation was expected to take place Monday afternoon or Tuesday.

 

Judge James Fry, of the 15th state District Court, will hear the capital murder case and has approved Hagood's motion. Fry gave the doctor 30 days to turn in a report on Thomas' mental health.

 

Monday afternoon, Hagood said he doubted it would take that long for the report to be completed in this case. In his motion, Hagood said his client is "unable to communicate" well enough to help with his defense.

 

Grayson County Attorney Joe Brown said the injury Thomas caused himself is not a clear cut indication of mental illness. Brown said people do desperate things out of fear of punishment, as much as they do it out of insanity.

 

Brown said he expects to present the capital murder charge to grand jurors on April 15. When asked if he intends to charge more than one count of capital murder, Brown said his office is still in the process of investigating the case.

 

He said the case could go before several grand juries before it is completed. Brown said the capital murder charge is based both on the fact that more than one person was killed and the age of two of the victims. Those are two of the few criteria under which Texas law allows a person to be charged with capital murder.

 

This case is the first one in Brown's tenure as the County Attorney that has qualified for the death penalty. Brown said while he is not happy to have the case, he is looking forward to the challenge presented by it and plans to secure a conviction.

 

Some estimates say the case could cost the county more than a half a million dollars to try. Brown said he will be keeping the Grayson County Commissioners Court appraised of the cost involved.

 

"You can't decide on justice for two dead babies and a 20-year-old mom based on a dollar figure," Brown said.

 

Although cases are generally assigned to district courts based on the first letter of the last name, Thomas' case has been set for the 15th rather than the 336th court.

 

Fry said the district courts have generally tried to rotate the capital murder cases, and Ray Grisham, who currently sits in the 336th, tried the last one. Fry is expected to hear the case before the end of the year. However, if the case is not tried by then, Fry is expected to hear it anyway rather than turn it over to Jim Fallon, who won judgeship for the 15th state District Court in the Republican Primary when he beat out challenger Amos Mazzant. No Democrat filed for the office.

 

http://66.15.115.161/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=117771?news

Edited April 7, 2004 by Stonehead

[Scott_J]

Wow, just think if he had committed adultery. He’d be known as "one nut"!