Attorney: Psychosis prevented coherent motive in Knox bar slaying

Attorney: Psychosis prevented coherent motive in Knox bar slaying

www.knoxnews.com

Exhibit A in a defense bid to cast a man prosecutors say is a cold-blooded killer as, instead, a psychotic unaware of his actions - the bite-marked chunk of flesh he left behind.

Defense attorney Phil Lomonaco told jurors in Knox County Criminal Court Monday that Herbert Mike Merritt did not set out to kill Anthony Laymon "Tony" Ford, 45, inside the Friends Sports Bar & Grill in Halls in June 2008.

"He went to that bar in a psychotic state," Lomonaco said. "He reached down and pulled out what he thought was (Ford's) heart and ate some of it. You'll see a picture of (the flesh) on

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short article, i want to dig a bit further, but a friend who is in the area e-mailed me this link.
found it twisted enough to post on ats.
part crime drama, part mental instability, part cannibalism.

was he mentally unstable enough to not be charged with 1st degree?
reported he stopped taking his meds 2 weeks prior?

infection caused damage to his brain?





www.knoxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This defense could have been used by most of the basest serial killers of all time.

I'm not sure that it is an excuse to detach guilt from the act.

But the law is not the same thing as justice.

What would it take to make crime an illness?