Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative

[ProudMNDemocrat]

7. Time to look at the M'Naghten Rule regarding insanity, which this man will likely use...

The M'Naghten rule is a legal test for determining insanity in criminal cases. It essentially states that a defendant is not guilty by reason of insanity if, at the time of the crime, they were suffering from a disease of the mind that prevented them from knowing either the nature and quality of their act or that it was wrong. This rule is also known as the "right-wrong test". In Vance Boelter's case, his attorneys may use this ploy to determine that their client is NOT GUILTY by reasons of insanity. Vance Boelter KNEW what he did was WRONG.

A case in point from February 1988 of the murder that took place in Rochester, Minnesota involving a family my husband and I knew and my children knew the younger children involved through the small Catholic School they all had attended. It is a long story and the brutal deaths at the hands of an older son towards his parents and younger siblings remain embedded in my memory forever. The youngest member of the family attended my son's 11th Birthday party that previous Friday before the murders took place the following Ash Wednesday. They had been friends and classmates since 1st Grade. The murder, the reference hearing, and eventual trial left a mark on my son that plagued him for many years as he suffered from PTSD when in his teen years.

The person in question, David Brom, murdered his family and younger siblings. His attorney, who I knew, used the M'Naghten Rule to try to get David off after it was determined through the Court system that David would be tried as an Adult for this terrible crime, rather than that as a Juvenile. He was 16 at the time of the murders. The District Court in Olmsted County tried David as an Adult and was found Guilty on 4 counts of Murder in the 1st Degree. David is currently serving time in prison for this and will be eligible for a parole hearing when he is 70. To this day, he has expressed no remorse for what he had done.