Where is Paul Sobricki?

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I noticed during Carter's conversation with Samantha Sobricki that Samantha mentioned that Paul was at some place (the name escapes me) which she guesses is the main place for Illinois. Is it a mental hospital or a jail? Because regardless of his mental status, he killed Lucy and what he did to Carter could be viewed as attempted murder, right? Would he be in a high security area of a hospital or a mental ward of a prison or what? I have no clue about how that stuff works. Will he even be tried because of his mental status? Would Carter have to testify? I read way too much into this stuff.

-- Joanne (bucklind@hotmail.com), April 29, 2000

Answers

I don't know Illinois well enough to be sure, but my understanding is he's in the state's mental hospital which is what she named. It's too early for him to have been tried and, if they determine he's of diminished mental status, he probably won't ever be. You can't be tried and convicted of a crime you were not mentally capable of understanding (it or the sentence). I'm not a lawyer, but that seems to be the way it'd go.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 29, 2000.

I think someone said in an earlier thread that Chester is a place for the criminally insane. I don't imagine that Paul is even able to stand trial. Don't you have to be able to differentiate between right and wrong and have the ability to understand the charges that are being brought against you?

-- Linda (l.brown@mindspring.com), April 30, 2000.

Something I have never understood, and maybe you all can shed some light ... didn't Paul stab Carter and Lucy in the back specifically as revenge for the spinal tap? Like he wanted to hurt them as badly as he thought they hurt him, and in the same place? In that case, wouldn't he have known what he was doing?

-- Cindy (tailchasers@earthlink.net), May 01, 2000.

He stabbed Carter in the back. Lucy had a back wound, two chest wounds, and was stabbed in the neck (am I right?). Just because he hit the right spot and even the right people doesn't mean he'd understand that he could fatally wound or mame someone. He also said they were trying to take his internal organs and he had to protect them, not exactly the words of a sane person. If he's covered much more at all, I think he'll be hospitalized and not tried or convicted. He just doesn't have the mental capacity and even if he gains it later through meds and therapy, he didn't have it when the crimes were committed. Think about John Hinkley.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), May 01, 2000.

If I recall correctly, he stabbed them because he thought they were trying to steal his internal organs and he needed to protect himself.

In other words, he was so confused that he thought he was acting in self-defense, NOT revenge.

I don't know what the legal ramifications are of that, though.

-- Elizabeth (ebs42@yahoo.com), May 02, 2000.



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