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The Train Man
Los Angeles’ latest show trial is about to convene: a judge removed one of Juan Manuel Alvarez’s public defenders so the tribunal may proceed.
“The public is interested in knowing, hundreds of people want to know,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders said of the January 2005 train accident near Glendale, in which 11 people died. “I’ve reached the end of my rope.”
According to witnesses, Alvarez parked his Jeep Cherokee on the tracks, doused it with gasoline before getting out to watch the collision. It’s a classic mentally ill pattern — get all the fixings ready for the big self-immolation, then change your mind at the last minute. Alvarez probably had no clue that the forced meeting of his car and the train would be so fatal to so many. His mind was in a different place, resistant to clues.
His defense is expected to plead insanity — saying that Alvarez wanted to commit suicide but had a change of heart — but this will be hard to prove. Jurors want raving maniacs, slathering at the mouth, eyes bulging from their sockets, and calling out obscenities or unfathomable utterances. Alvarez’s purposefulness will strike them as a willful act: the prosecution will say that he wanted all those people dead. And because the mood of the judge, the county, the state is to have forceful resolution of the case, they will vote for the death penalty.
The law and the mood of the People is slanted against the mentally ill. Alvarez is no Andrea Yates. Worse, he is a latino in a state which is becoming increasingly paranoid about invasions from the south. I expect nothing less than the death penalty but that doesn’t mean I want it or think it is right.
Posted: September 21st, 2007 under California Watch, Justice, Suicide.
Comments: 5 |
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Comment from Joel
Time: 9/21/2007, 5:12 pm
He said that he was trying to commit suicide and changed his mind. Kind of reminds me of my attempt. I was sitting on a log, studying the veins in my wrist when the cel phone rang. I picked it up and it was my psychiatrist.
Now, what kind of person drops a matter as serious and as final as suicide for a telephone call?
Comment from Raine
Time: 9/23/2007, 12:28 pm
one that wants to know who is on the phone?
Comment from Raine
Time: 9/24/2007, 1:51 pm
you know…….I’m not saying he is or isnt mentally ill. But for your education so to speak….it has been my extreme unfortune to have known some convicts. They have bragged about suchs things as…….. faking depressions during the superbowl so as to be put in the “mental ward” where there is a television so they could see the game. Also it is common procedure to fake mental illnesses in jails and prisons to obtain seroquel and sleep your time away. The first thing a person does when caught committing a horrendous crime redhanded is yell” but I was insane” or something. perhaps he was trying to kill himself. Perhaps he stole a car and was burning it ….. perhaps……….. unless I have a documented mental history, I wouldn’t assume just because he said he was. This person who would play mentally ill to watch the superbowl and who would do it well and get away with it? He was in there for stabbing an unconscious man 17 times. He went back for taking off half a mans face with a hoe. He was evil.
Comment from Joel
Time: 9/24/2007, 2:10 pm
From what I gather, Raine, he set his own car on the tracks, set it afire, and then, when he found he couldn’t go through with it, got out and stood by while the train was coming through. I believe it is probable that he did not understand that his car would demolish the train — when I first heard about the story, I was surprised that so much damage was done, but the Laws of Physics are unappealable and it happened so.
His history of drug use (no violence) suggests mental illness as well. He was found with self-inflicted cuts and the Glendale police felt that he was trying to kill himself but had a change of heart.
I do not favor the Death Penalty (in all cases) and I do not think that this calls for First Degree, either. What I would favor is Second Degree with all eleven counts served consecutively (one after another). Which means that when he finishes his first 25 years or so, he begins his next. If he gets paroled, he immediately begins serving his next sentence. That will convey the understanding that he was mentally ill while keeping him off the street and able to do more stupid things. If he ever gets out, he will be a very old old man.
Time: 9/21/2007, 5:07 pm
why do you think he’s mentally ill? Does he have a history?