BRAUNSTEIN'S TRIFECTA: ANGRY, VINDICTIVE or MENTALLY ILL
The Virginia Tech massacre is not that far behind us - we still worry about the stigma of those with mental health issues and how to deal with its sufferers in an equitable fashion.
My latest trial fixation was on the Peter Braunstein case. Braunstein's defense made the age old 'but he was mentally ill and no responsible' plea. They even went so far as to try to paint his ex-girlfriend as a sexual temptress who drove him to it. (how many times do ex boyfriends try this one on a much smaller scale everyday?)
Baruch Hashem the jury saw through that in uner 4 hours. Braunstein is obviously mentally ill but there is a legal element distinguishing what he did from that of a deranged person - he was calculating. He assaulted & raped a woman, set up a situation to have her let him into her house to do so, and then ran from NYC going to hotels, flophouses and see hookers along the way only to end the chase with a dramatic moment of attempted suicide.
Braunstein, in my non-medical opinion is a sociopath. Sociopaths is the most malignant from of Narcissism and up there on the Cluster B personality scale. These people know what they are doing, they know right from wrong - THEY JUST DON'T CARE. In their selfish fixations on getting justice, what they feel entitled to and rage - they will do the most heinous acts. Almost in all cases they claim some extenuating circumstance - in this case mental illness - for what they did. In the past this disorder was called MORAL INSANITY. Frankly, they should bring that definition back.
Braunstein needs mental health treatment but he also committed an atrocious act against another human being. He was "with it" enough to plan his revenge, plan the act out, plan his escape and probably - plan his defense. Make no mistake - this man is a criminal and anyone who does criminal acts and then wants sympathy for THEMSELVES? Deserves to be punished. Hopefully they will send him to a criminal mental health facility where he will be kept away from rational society for the rest of his natural life.
Read more about sociopathy: CLICK HERE, HERE, HERE or HERE.
FROM NY1:
Is Peter Braunstein an angry, vindictive man who acted intentionally? Or is he so severely mentally ill, he's unable to plan anything? – opposing theories posited by prosecutors and defense lawyers during closing arguments in Braunstein's sex assault trial.
Braunstein is charged with kidnapping, robbery, burglary and sexual assault for a now-infamous attack on Halloween 2005. An attack in which he put on firefighters' gear, set off smoke bombs in a hallway and conned his way into his victim's apartment. Once inside, he knocked her out with chloroform and molested her for more than 13 hours.
The facts of the case are not in dispute; both sides say Braunstein committed the attack. The question is: why?
"The issue is: whatever happened, does it reflect such a severe mental illness that it could force him to be in a world of delusion?” said defense attorney Robert Gottlieb.
If the jury finds Braunstein lacked the ability to form intent, they could find him not guilty.
But not if the prosecution has anything to do with it.
In her closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal said Braunstein came prepared to execute the attack, bringing a gun and knife to threaten his victim, chloroform to knock her out, rope and handcuffs to restrain her and latex gloves so as not to leave any evidence behind.
She also attacked the defense theory that Braunstein isn't culpable because his brain is defective, suggesting instead that he was arrogant and angry.
"Nobody's arguing the defendant is the picture of mental health. Clearly that's not the case,” she said during her summation, adding that on that night, "This defendant acted knowingly, deliberately and intentionally."
But Braunstein's father, who has been a fixture at the trial vehemently disagrees.
“If you have cancer, you have cancer; this is a cancer of the brain but nobody wants to see it,” said Alberto Braunstein. “Fiend, monster, for months we've had to go through all this. Well I hope finally he'll be vindicated."
It's no secret Braunstein has been heavily medicated throughout the trial. His attorney admits "sometimes he's there, sometimes he isn't" Whether that has an impact on jurors remains to be seen.
After deliberating for less than four hours Wednesday, a State Supreme Court jury found Peter Braunstein guilty of sexually assaulting a former co-worker in her Chelsea apartment in 2005.
The jury convicted Braunstein on ten counts of sexual abuse, robbery, kidnapping, and burglary. He was acquitted only on the arson charge.
Prosecutors say Braunstein disguised himself as a firefighter and set several small fires to gain entrance into a former colleague at Fairchild Publication's apartment, where he then allegedly knocked her out with chloroform and sexually assaulted her for 13 hours.
Braunstein, who was heavily drugged during the trial, did not seem to have any reaction to the verdict.
"The reality is, and people should understand that, the law has never understood how to deal with people who do horrific acts and who are also mentally ill,” said defense attorney Robert Gottlieb. "He's sick and the fact that he's convicted doesn't change the fact that Peter Braunstein is mentally ill and his reaction, his response, is all within that framework."
"I mean I'm terribly disappointed,” said Alberto Braunstein, Braunstein’s father. “I thought mental illness would finally be recognized in this country, but it hasn't, so what can I say."
The defense gave two hours' worth of closing arguments Tuesday, telling jurors that Braunstein is a paranoid schizophrenic and was so mentally ill, he didn't have the mental capacity to plan and execute the attack.
Braunstein admitted to the attack, but the question has always been whether or not he was too delusional for the attack to be pre-meditated. The prosecution argues that Braunstein was clever and methodical in planning the attack.
Braunstein will be held at Bellevue Hospital until he's sentenced on June 18th.
The defendant's attorney says he will appeal the ruling.
Braunstein faces up to 25 years to life in prison. His attorney says regardless of his mental state, he'll likely serve that sentence at a prison upstate as part of the general population.
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