It is Easy to Skew the Issues: An Analysis of Parents Deemed not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder for Committing Filicide of Children with a Disability

The media rarely reports on Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD) cases but when they do it is on the statistically rare cases that are violent and heinous in nature, which are then covered in a sensationalized and excessive manner depicting the individual as an innately dangerous criminal who will always be a public danger and who is escaping punishment. This dissertation analyzes a highly under-researched area: NCRMD cases where the parent commits filicide of a child with a disability. The cases in this dissertation were not covered as every other NCRMD cases but were instead covered as mercy killings where the parent became the victim. The importance of this research is highly significant for Critical Disability Studies and Mad Studies to understand the widespread societal ableism against children with disabilities and how that impacts how these specific NCRMD cases are framed by the media, legal system, and forensic mental health legal system: as mercy killings. Reporters turned to family members and neighbors for their initial quotes when they came upon a murder which led to highly prejudicial remarks being featured and setting the narrative for the murder. These were not balanced by engaging local or national disability rights self-advocates and experts. Many of the stories linked the decision to murder with the difficulty of caregiving by quoting neighbors, friends and other parents of children with disabilities. Meanwhile, the actual victims, the children with a disability, were depersonalized by the focus being on the extent of their disabilities and how much caregiving was required by the parent ultimately excusing the murderer and the murder.