“The criminal justice system continues to struggle for a method to distinguish offenders whose mental illness is so severe that society should not morally responsible for their behavior, from whose actions, while perhaps objective irrational nevertheless merit punishment.” There are also a few tests following that assessment of the insanity plea. The M’Nagten test or the Brawner test followed by the irresistible impulse test. The “M’Naghten” test is when “an offender is insane under this test if mental illness prevents the offender from knowing the difference between right and wrong.” Whereas the Brawner test is defendants are insane if, because of a mental illness or defect, they lack the substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of their actions or to conform their behaviors to legal requirements. Followed by the irresistible impulse, under which offenders are insane if a mental disorder prevents them from resisting the commission of an illegal act that they know is wrong.

One viewpoint is from the person who’s claiming that they are mentally ill or the person defending the insanity defense.
It’s not a “Get out of jail free” card, defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity are rarely set free. Instead, they are almost always confined in mental health institutions. They may remain confined for a longer period of time than had they been found guilty and sentenced to a term in prison. States may compel defendants adjudged insane to remain in a mental health institution until they convince a judge that they are no longer legally insane. The defense may argue that due to a mental illness or disability it caused them to not know right from wrong regarding their actions or a third party factor that lead them to do the things that they did.

Another viewpoint is from the person opposing the insanity defense and believe that it’s just a tactic for criminals get off scots free. Many may argue that criminals, “insane” or not, still committed the crime at the end of the day and deserve punishment. Like for example, a teacher who thinks that his brain tumor was the cause of his pedophelia. Yes, the brain tumor may have caused him to have those urges, but they might have brought out prior urges to become a child molester and he used that brain tumor as a justification for his actions. One of the viewpoints is that it’s just an excuse. Many criminals are said to have planned out their killings, so if they had the mind to plan an intricate plan to kill someone they must know what they were doing.


The two most famous real-life examples are from Jeffery Duhmer & John Wayne Gacy. Both heinous men who did heinous acts against humanity.
Jeffrey Dahmer is a notorious serial killer and sex offender in 1991. His long list of offenses involved sex, cannibalism, necrophilia, and dismemberment. Since he was a child, he had shown symptoms of withdrawal and avoidance of any social interactions. He would collect dead animals, then dissect, dissolve, or mutilate them in various waters. In the trial, Dammer pled not guilty by reason of insanity. The plead was rejected and Dammer was convicted of all 15 murders charges and sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences.
John Wayne Gacy is a profilec serial killer in the 1970s. He was notorious for dressing up as a clown and performing at parties and events. He later raped and killed 33 young boys and men in Chicago. Many of his victims were lured into his home and then murdered by asphyxiation. He pled not guilty by reason of insanity, and was able to produce psychiatric experts who would testify for his case. But he was found guilty.

Whether you believe that the insanity defense is probable we need to acknowledge that there are many mentally unstable people who deserve the help they need.


http://listverse.com/2012/04/11/top-10-most-notorious-insanity-defense-cases/ 

http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/insanity-defense.html 

http://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-defense/criminal-defense-case/pleading-insanity-a-criminal-defense-case

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/aron/qa227.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/faqs.html

• Group members present during the discussion: Amanda, Adowa, Sattera, Nashay 
• What your club discussed: Whether the methods in the book manipulate people 
• How you discussed it: We brought up different examples and what we found deceving. 
• Any points of conflict/disagreement in discussion: The main conflict is that we all feel like there are certain samples that are not considered as sufficient samples to derive a conclusion from. 
• Questions that came up as a result of the discussion: How did you guys feel about the book so far? etc. 

  On June 10th, 1991, the unthinkable happened to Jaycee Lee Dugard. The eleven year old was walking to school before coming to the realization that a car had stopped right along side her on the road. Soon before she knew it, Jaycee has been abducted. Convicted sex-offender Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy snatched her on the side of the road and held her captive for 18 years of her life, stopping her from experiencing her preteens and adolescents years, stopping her from going to prom, and keeping her from her loved ones for years. 

Although this novel is graphic and detailed, it tells of a taboo incident that nobody would ever have dreamt of actually happening. In all honesty, it was hard for me to read at first because I was in shock that this event occurred. After a while, I chose to continue to read it because I was curious as to what happened and how she survived. Even though most of the book is repetitive, it was extremely well written. She was very straight forward with her points and feelings. She would not sugar coat anything. The sequence of the book was not in chronological order because she jumps from one part of the experience to another. In the beginning, she narrates about her first encounter with Phillip. Honestly, I wanted to stop and put down the book as fast as I read that a forty year old man kidnapped and sexually assaulted an eleven year old. It makes me feel violated, nervous, and cautious about my surroundings from now and so forth. Although this event wasn’t necessarily preventable, it made a huge impact on my life. I took away several different methods of life that I should always cherish and no longer take advantage of. While her basic human rights and freedom were striped right from under her, I am grateful for the life I have now. 

  The book is written and structured like a memoir. Jaycee is telling her story based on memories and old journals. At the end of each chapter, there’s always a reflection page summarizing and explaining her thoughts and feelings on what happened during an incident that she told in the previous chapter. I feel like the reflection page is really helpful because it helps me understand what she was trying to say, elaborate how she felt, her inner thoughts etcetera. 

  She decided to write the book because she didn’t want to “protect” her abuser anymore. She felt like she had preserved his identity enough throughout the years and writing the book publicizes the incidences that occurred while held captive. In her opinion, she felt like she could help others who are facing with difficult situations, showing them that it will be better. I also think that she wrote the book because throughout the 18 years she’s been imprisoned, she couldn’t really express her true feelings to anybody. Now, she finally has the chance to let thousands of people know what went on in the Garrido’s backyard. 

  I wouldn’t say there’s an obvious theme of the novel because it’s to every independent person’s opinion. But what I get from it, is that through any tragedy there will always be a brighter side. During her interview with Diane Sawyer, she mentions a lot about hope and how she nor her mother lost any hope during her disappearance. “There is life after something tragic” - Jaycee on Oprah. This is an amazing quote coming from someone who went through the toughest situation and still seems to put a smile on her face. Even though, her story’s immensely horrifying, Jaycee Lee Dugard is a survivor.

In my opinion, overall the book was interesting and eye catching. First page you read instantly grabs you in and makes you want to read more. But this was by far the hardest book I’ve ever had to read because of the subject of the matter.  I recommend this book to anybody who is interested in real life events. I wouldn’t highly recommend this book to a fellow high-school student because it’s such a mortifying and graphic story.  It just depends on the certain comfort level you have with sensitive topics. 

"a stolen life" by Jaycee Dugard 
Publisher: Simon & Schuster 
Published: 2011 
Pages: 273 
Genre: Memoir 

Creative Project: 
This collage of what seems to be random things, symbolizes some of the many things that occurred in the time she was kidnapped.
Pine cones: In the book, she says that it was the last thing she had grasped onto before getting taken by the Garridos.
The two hands represent her two daughters.
Why her name is in big fonts is because during the entire 18 years, she was not allowed to say her name. Once she broke free, I interpreted it on the canvas like she's the main subject. Her name just had to be known and visible. 
The tv represents the little small television that Phillip gave her in the beginning of her kidnap where she only watched infomercials.
During her kidnap, Phillip gave her 3 kittens the ball of yarn and the cat on the side represents that.
The wawa symbol represents the fast food he fed her every single day.
The little butterfly charm on the side was the only thing she had left from her childhood. Before she got abducted, she was wearing a butterfly ring.   

    Throughout the year we’ve gone from learning about the keystone pipeline to writing plays on civil rights, to looking into another culture from a native perspective lens. 

  From a playwright’s perspective, you can write from different personalities and you can understand the situation from different points of views.
    When Mr. Block announced that my play was going to be performed. I was already thinking of the actors to be in it. I had so much to do in so little time. The main focus points of the play is “How do people find hope in the face of struggle? How does change happen? In what different ways do people struggle for rights?” Well the first thing that popped up in my head was a student in school struggling with multiple problems and rights they deserve from everybody they’re surrounding. The main character Paige is struggling with a weight problem and she realizes school nor home is a safe place for her. Along the way she goes through obstacles that make her realize she doesn’t need to be a certain way to fit in and be popular. 

It regards back to our civil rights unit because the main character in my play should be treated equally regarding her physical appearance. My play reconnects to many things we’ve done this year in history class. For example, going back on the Cortes trial, each individual of our class had a to defend a role from that situation in a mock trial. My group had to defend the system, they weren't actual human beings but a line of laws Europeans have to follow. This is a google doc where my group and I collaborated on during the trial to write important information and notes. The Aztecs were defenseless against Cortes and his men and Paige in my play is defenseless against the “popular kids” at her school. Even though they’re two different scenarios they still relate to a base of “Civil Rights” and “Struggling with a problem”. 

Like the my Civil Rights play, we’ve done things like learn about Revolutions. As a class we studied about the French Revolution from 1789 to 1799. We also made a revolution Guidebook Project. We talked about different topics regarding revolutions. Where the lower class attacked the higher classes because of unfair treatment and high raises in taxes. It wasn’t fair for the lower class because they couldn’t afford to eat and provide for their families. In this case, the third class is struggling with a problem and fighting back for civil rights. Without giving away the ending of my play, the main character goes through the same realization that she should fight back whenever something’s unfair. 

Here's some extra information: 
Amanda's Journals: Here

Quotes:

1:Boys are taught to only show the parts of themselves are defined as what’s “manly” Journal # 46 
2:  “ Yes a person’s past can heavily affect someone’s well being and future events.” - Journal 44 
3: “Each man’s labor is just as important as another” - Gandhi film questions. 
4: “We are the system of empire. The more property that we have, the more security the people will have. Therefore, we travel to different lands to find empty properties in order to protect and give opportunities to our people.  We should not take the blame for other people thirst for money because our main goal is expand our society into a bigger place.” - Cortes trial: opening statement. 
5: “All I’m saying is that we should care about this environment instead of digging it up and replacing that land with a metal pipe. You shouldn’t call yourself a protest leader you’re just a creature who has no soul and no regard towards other people except for yourself.” - History pipeline monologue 
6: “ANYTHING, CALL SECURITY DO SOMETHING BEFORE I BODOSE OVER THEIR TREE HUGGING BODIES MYSELF!” - History pipeline monologue 
7: AARON

See this potato? yeah, that’s you, and this french fry can be you if you stopped eating half of the damn fridge. (Eats the french fry) - History Playwright.
8: There could be many different things to cause revolutions. Greed, shortage of supplies, high rise taxes, inequality between estates, and much more. - Revolution Benchmark 
9: As you all know, I am Napoleon Bonaparte. I am a Corsican-Italian who became the Emperor of the French after a coup-d-etat. - French/ Haitian Role play.
10:

IS IT LOVE OR IS IT A LABEL? - Religion unit. 

Negative space is the space between the figure or object. It's not the object it's the areas around it. 

    B. Explain how you found negative space in 1. your cut out?, I found my negative space by cutting around the bird. all the access paper is the negative space. 

  C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space? It helps an artist to see in negative space because it's easier to see the entire picture not the small pieces of the drawing. 

    D. Does seeing in negative space enhance drawings, why or why not? It depends on the artist if they put specific detail in their negative space then it might look really nice. But for me, I pay attention to detail so negative space doesn't help me as much. 

Since the second blog, I’ve taken my plans into action. Almost every week on Thursday, I’ve asked some class mates to come and join the SLA Support Group Lunch. Surprisingly a hand full of students arrived. It’s fine to start small, it’s easier to control.  I’ve had about 4-5 or so support group lunches and they’re around an hour long. I hold this lunch in my english teacher’s room during Y band lunch. This group of kids are ranging from 9th grade to 12 grade. My idea was to generate a “theme” for each week. For example, our discussions have been well organized with the help of Siobhan, our school's counselor's intern. She’s been guiding my support group lunch into something more planned out.

The first week, which was the introduction, consisted of getting to know each other and explaining what “Safe Space” is. Safe space is basically an area where students can say anything they wish and not get judged. Also in the safe space, we’re not allowed to discuss what happens outside of the area, therefore defeating the purpose. The students who came to the lunch, understood and followed that main rule. At first the group of kids were extremely shy about sharing. I thought, I’d talk about myself and my story first so my peers can see that it’s fine to talk about personal infomation regarding their lives. Everybody only shared little things in the beginning, which I’m alright with. They were making progress. It turned out totally different than what I imagined before the actual lunch took place. In blog one, originally I wanted to create a formal support group where everybody sat in a circle and discussed their problems. I've looked up images of "Support Groups" and that was the major theme of them. Here's one example that I looked off of when thinking about a support group.  Thinking back to it, that was such a horrid idea. I' I'm glad how it's really chilled and relaxing, and not stiff. 
The next week I held the gathering, we talked about what depression is, what it looks like (symtoms), and how does one cope with it.  The great thing about having these free discussions, is that we jump from one topic to another. In that hour lunch time we might either talk about the main subject or a couple different ones regarding depression. During the second or third lunch, I’ve been noticing an abundence amount of comfortablity within the members. They’ve been sharing more and they are comforting each other. This project has already impacted my life because I have this bond and trust with this group of people I’ve never thought in a million years I would ever talk to in my high school life. People are actually looking forward to my lunches now on. The people who are attending frequently are my motivation to go on wared through out my four years of high school.
This picture was taken on April 18th, 2013.

           From the pie chart at the bottom, you can tell that the majority of the participants are females. This shows that the males weren’t as eager to answer as the females in this survey. 

    This conspicuous question, “Are you Sad/Depressed?” was asked, and the outcome is very close. 57% of the students answered no, while the other 43% said yes. 

    

• Insecurities
• Low self-worth 
• Seeing people better than me, or better off. 
• School 
• Stress with my relationship with my boyfriend/girlfriend 
• Changing how I look at myself; disappointment
• Family
• Benchmarks
• Rumors 
• Bullying 
• My Past 
• Loneliness 
• I occasionally feel extremely dysmoprhic. Or as though I don't matter to others.
• Love, how I feel that nobody loves me. 
• Self-esteem 
• Self image 
• Life and Death 
• Hormones 
• My Weight 
• Not having any friends
• Girls 
• Language problems 
• Thyroid condition 
• Negative enviornment 
• Drugs 
• Problems of the world 
  
  

One of the most popular answers for causes their sadness is family issues. For instance, there could be many problems at home; Divorce, death of a loved one, abuse, arguments, etc. This can have a lot of impact on a teen. Another main problem found in my suvery was stress regarding school. Most people went to school and delt with school work, homework, projects etc. 

Since this book consists of many mini stories, I’m going to summarize a couple of them that stood out to me. L. Canale is in love with her best friend Carol. These two are inseparable. She’s in a situation regarding her conservative christan father; He does not approve of same sex relationships, yet it’s happening under the same roof. She feels unaceppted and different because her parents downgrades her sexuality. In the beginning of the story L. Canale was trying to keep it a secret but her father ess-dropped on a phone call between the lovers that discovered the hidden relationship. She despises him. All of her thoughts and feelings are written down in a diary form. Her emotions torwards them are horried and agressive. In her diary she uses an abundance amount of curse words and repeatly saying how they should accept her because she’s their daughter. The main conflict in this story is person vs. person because her parents are against her being gay and it creates many problems. The next story is written by a transgender who is now a male named Evin Hunter. When he was younger as a straight 10 year old girl in the 5th grade, he heard about a boy named Matthew Shepard who was murdered because he was gay. He was abducted and left to die in the cold night. This hasn’t struck the writer back then because she barely knew what the word “Gay” meant. Since he is now a different sex it has a much more impact on his life than it was in the 5th grade. He feels that it could happened to him at any moment. There were many “Gay Bashings” which means that they would punish the people who were openly gay. He describes how fear pushes people into sucidal thoughts and actions. The conflict in this story is person vs. society. Many groups around the country are anti gay, which puts gays in jepordy and harm.

For me, I’m straight but everybody has their gay moments. At a point I was bi-curious just to find out my sexuality. Since I cannot relate to being gay, I can relate to the feelings of being an outcast. People can make you feel important and apart of something good, or can tear you down with words and actions. I’ve been in their place. I’ve felt like I was alone and that everybody hated me but I just did not know why. Even though you’re different from most people does not make you a weird or wrong, it makes you an individual.

In my opinion, I was in love with the book. The strengths of the book was that it was in fact written by real teens with real emotions. I felt that there weren’t any weaknesses in the book. I think, that the book was very well written and explained very nicely. If I would have changed anything in the book, I would organize the topics better. For example, I’d put the sexualities in different parts. For instance, gays into one part, transgender in another and so forth. I would also put narratives into one place and poems into another just to make it easier to read.

I would recommend this book to people who like to read anything regarding teens and their lives or like stories about kids in highschool having trouble with their sexuality.  

Why did I chose how to place this slide.
My name is Amanda Thieu, this slide is to respresent me as a person, following regulations from the website presentation zen. For tech class 2012 we are being introduced to making visual slides than text slides. For example, we are learning to how use slide to capture the main image and make it stand out the most, trying not to let the text over power the image.


I placed my picture of the griaffe in three sections because it was too long to fit on one slide fully. I used the dark to light background, because it gave contrast to my picture and also the text as well. I am using the method bleeding a picture to create three separate sections because it looks neater. Since, humans are more comfortable seeing things from left to right, I placed the Giraffe's head first, it's neck next, and the rest of it's body last. I put the text at the bottom because I wanted the picture to be the main view of the entire slide. You can tell what the image is at first glance, and if you leave the image in just one main picture it would be terriably small. Making the image be the main point in the slide is very imporant. There are several reasons why I chosse the quote. Why? It respresents how some people are meant to be tall and others be short, it does not matter how you turn out. 

El eś Josué Hutcherson. Eś chico. Soy de Kentucky, pero vivo en California. El eś diecinueve anos, le feliz cumpleanos octubre doce. Le no me gusta nada, leer. El eś bueno en bailar. Le encanta comer. El eś súper cómico.