Allie Beth Stuckey warns against ‘empathy-based justice’ in Lindsay Clancy trial

The trial of Lindsay Clancy has become a boiling point in the national debate over mental illness, motherhood, and criminal responsibility — and while BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey doesn’t dispute that the mother was struggling psychologically, she doesn’t agree that it should excuse such an alleged horrific crime.

Especially considering almost no one who commits murder is mentally sound.

“Jeffrey Dahmer, probably not super sane. Ted Bundy, probably not the most mentally composed guy,” Stuckey says.

“If you are going on a[n] [alleged] killing rampage, especially one as relentless as this one, you probably are not firing on all cylinders mentally, of course,” she explains. “But if we were to dismiss every person who had some kind of mental illness as not being criminally liable, then most of our prisons would be empty, and that wouldn’t be a good thing.”

The world, she notes, would “be a lot less safe.”

“So this case is really not about whether Lindsay Clancy was suffering mentally. Nearly everyone agrees that she was. I agree that she was,” Stuckey says.

“This case is not about our mental health system or how it treats women or what’s in the DSM5 and what’s not. That’s a distraction to get you angry and passionate about an important issue, but an issue that’s not on trial here,” prosecutor Jennifer Sprague said at the trial.

However, none of this has stopped women from voicing their support for Clancy — which prompts Stuckey to address them with a question.

“Would you show the same mercy to Lindsay if she had killed your children? Would you feel the same deep empathy for her mental struggles? Would you opt for keeping her out of prison because, well, she was having a hard time mentally and she had been taking pills on and off?” she asks.

“Hopefully not,” she continues. “I’m just afraid that too many women left and right think justice is dictated by how deeply we can relate to the people involved. Because some of you can see yourself in Lindsay’s depression or anxiety and can’t relate to her children, you feel compelled to defend her.”

But if these women ask themselves these questions and remain steadfast in their belief, Stuckey explains that’s “beyond” where she can reach them.

“Empathy-based justice is not justice at all,” she says. “Again, it’s partiality, which God calls evil."

“We don't make these decisions based on whether or not we can relate to someone,” she adds.

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