Abuse of Disability Laws By Defense Lawyers in Homicide Trial

Colleen Ritzer, 24, popular Danvers, MA high school teacher, brutally slain by one of her students, who was 14 at the time.

Two outrageous implications of this man's testimony. One is that mental illnesses--speech and behavior which psychiatrists do not like or do not understand--are hereditary. Where is there evidence of such nonsense. The second part is suggesting there is a causal connection between mental illness, crime and violence. More pure nonsense. Would any testimony that black people are more violent and stupid than others be allowed or reported in newspapers? Lawyers, judges and courts perpetuate this negative stereotyping of persons with disabilities. More exploitation by criminal defense lawyers of laws intended to protect disabled persons from abuse. 

[From article]

Philip Chism’s family has a history of mental illness, the teen’s maternal grandfather testified yesterday — marking the first time one of the former high school sophomore’s relatives took the stand in the murder and rape trial of a popular Danvers High School math teacher.
Eduardo Barbieri of Pompano Beach, Fla., said his ex-wife, Chism’s grandmother, was treated with shock therapy at a Salem hospital in 1975 after suffering a mental breakdown.
“She had a nervous breakdown. ... She had shock treatment, not only once, but many times,” Barbieri said on the witness stand in Essex Sup
erior Court, where he referred to Chism as “my beloved grandson.”
Barbieri went on to testify that one of his daughters, Chism’s aunt, also suffered mental breakdowns that required treatment at psychiatric hospitals.
“I would say the same thing as my ex-wife,” Barbieri said of Chism’s aunt. “The same type of problem. She couldn’t handle anything.”
The testimony from Barbieri, Chism’s defense team’s first witness, was aimed at convincing jurors Chism was insane during the slaying of 24-year-old Colleen Ritzer, who was killed 
Oct. 22, 2013.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2015/12/philip_chism_s_grandfather_mental_illness_runs_in_family

Philip Chism’s grandfather: Mental illness runs in family
Antonio Planas

Wednesday, December 02, 2015