耶穌命令母親用石頭砸死自已三個小孩

約翰-斯普林格報導

法院電視臺

圖:左邊的迪安娜-拉尼Deanna Laney被指控用石頭砸死了她的兩個兒子。第三個兒子則幾乎失明。

德克薩斯州蒂勒市 -- 迪安娜-拉尼無法停止哭泣。週一，每當檢察官、警官或她自己的律師描述她的兩個兒子被她殘忍地用石頭砸死以及第三個兒子也被攻擊幾乎失明時，這位39歲的德克薩斯州婦女就會抽泣起來。

在達拉斯和路易斯安那州交界處的這個小鎮上，當拉尼的謀殺案開庭時，控辯雙方在一個重要問題上達成了一致。拉尼告訴警方，耶穌指示她要殺死她的孩子，當她在2003年5月11日用石頭砸死她的兒子時，她應是瘋了。

史密斯縣地區檢察官馬特-賓漢姆（Matt Bingham）在12分鐘的開場白中說，儘管控方、辯方和主審法官聘請的四名法醫精神病學家認為拉尼精神錯亂，但只有陪審團才能以精神錯亂為由認定她無罪。

我只是殺了我的孩子

蘭尼週一在法庭上的哭泣與她用手機撥打911時的舉止形成鮮明對比。穿著睡衣的拉尼聽起來很鎮定，她說："我剛剛殺了我的孩子們。"

"女士，你做了什麼？"男副警長問道。

"我剛剛殺了我的孩子們。"

在38分鐘內，拉尼平靜地回答了副警長的問題。同時，她與被派去調查的警官交談。根據陪審團播放的電話錄音，接線員問道："孩子們現在還有呼吸嗎？"。

"沒有，"拉尼說。

"你說你殺了你的兩個兒子？"警官問。"你為什麼這麼做，女士？"

拉尼實事求是地回答說："我不得不這樣做"。

根據檢察官的說法，拉尼把她的兒子約書亞（8歲）、盧克（6歲）和亞倫（14個月）放到床上，然後回到自己的房間。她的丈夫基斯-拉尼緊隨其後。當天晚上，拉尼醒來，試圖將她熟睡的丈夫鎖在他們的臥室，然後去了約書亞和盧克的房間。

她護送盧克到他們家前院的一個岩石花園，這個花園被白色的分欄柵欄包圍著。拉尼讓她的兒子躺下，把頭放在一塊石頭上，她拿起另一塊大石頭，把它舉過頭頂，用力擊落在他的頭骨上。

然後她以同樣的方式殺死了約書亞。兩個孩子被發現時胸前都躺著大石頭。

嬰兒在搖籃中被襲擊

另一小孩亞倫在搖籃中被石頭襲擊，但沒有死亡。

拉尼打電話給員警並告訴他們她所做的事情後被拘留。

當副警長和基斯-拉尼處理亞倫的傷勢時，迪安娜-拉尼仍在外面與911調度員通話。"發生了什麼事？你有什麼不高興的事嗎？"接線員問。

"我只是做了我必須做的事，"拉尼說。

"你做了你必須做的事？你為什麼這麼說，女士？"

"那只是我被告知要做的事，"她說。

"誰讓你這麼做的？"調度員繼續問。

"耶穌上帝，"拉尼說。

週一，拉尼身穿棕色夾克和橙色高領毛衣出庭。坐在法庭的第二排，他丈夫基斯-拉尼低著頭，揉著淚水。他仍然很支持她，仍然戴著他倆的結婚戒指。其他親屬也站在這位虔誠的女教徒身邊。

 在許多方面，檢察官都在走過場。他們有充分的證據證明拉尼殺害了她的孩子，包括與被告方達成的相關協定。

這個被隔離的陪審團所面臨的問題是，辯方是否能夠履行其法律責任，證明拉尼在殺人時神智不清無法分辨是非。

相信耶穌上帝命令她去殺人

辯護律師F.R. "Buck "Files告訴陪審員，拉尼愛她的丈夫和孩子，對上帝、教會和家庭很忠誠。他說，她是一個深具靈性和私密性的人，

根據律師的說法，拉尼在被拘留期間告訴精神病醫生，她相信上帝在以不同的方式對她說話。例如，在殺人的那天，她相信她收到了上帝的資訊，他希望她的孩子和他在一起。

拉尼告訴精神病學家，她拒絕使用長矛或勒死，決定用石頭來殺死她的孩子。拉尼相信她的兒子約書亞，也就是第一個死去的男孩，會在那年7月的生日上復活。

拉尼不確定她是否應該殺死最小的孩子亞倫。

"亞倫在他的床上。孩子在他的床上。我不認為我殺了他，"拉尼告訴911調度員。她後來告訴接線員，她認為她 "對亞倫做錯了"。

911錄音特別令人不寒而慄，因為拉尼的聲音很平和，沒有感情，幾乎像個孩子。

雖然法庭上許多人在播放電話和律師講述故事時都哭了，但陪審員們仍然保持鎮定，認真傾聽。

如果他們認為拉尼的精神狀況沒有影響到她的推理，以至於她在法律上是個瘋子，那麼拉尼可能面臨終身監禁。然而，如果陪審員認為拉尼因精神錯亂而無罪，她可能會被送入精神健康機構。

 補充:1

2003年5月的一個晚上，拉尼醒來，把約書亞帶到她在德克薩斯州新教堂山的家的院子裡，她把一塊巨大的石頭舉過頭頂，用盡全身力氣砸向他的頭骨，殺死了他。她對盧克做了同樣的事情。後來，她試圖以同樣的方式殺死她最小的兒子，14個月大的亞倫。他倖存下來，但頭部受到嚴重傷害。

 在調查期間，拉尼聲稱耶穌上帝命令她敲打她兒子的頭。她是一個神召會教堂的成員，在那裡她在唱詩班唱歌。 一年前，她曾告訴她的教會成員，世界末日即將來臨，上帝告訴她要把她的房子整理好。後來，她告訴一位精神病醫生，她希望她和安德列-耶茨(另一位淹死自已五個小孩的基督教徒母親)最終能作為上帝在世界末日的唯一證人一起工作。

在拉尼的案件中，有五位心理健康專家接受了諮詢：控方和辯方各兩位，法官一位。他們都得出結論，她患有精神病性妄想症，這使她在殺人時無法辨別是非。 史密斯縣法院裁定她因精神錯亂而無罪。她被關在凱爾維爾州立醫院8年，直到2012年5月獲釋。然而，她受到一系列條件的限制，包括她不能在沒有監督的情況下與未成年人接觸，並定期接受藥物測試，以確保她服用所需的藥物

補充:2

●●●拉尼姐姐說拉尼正減肥，殺人前猛讀聖經

莉莎-法爾肯伯格

。2016年7月30日晚上10點44分

美聯社撰稿人

拉尼的姐姐(帕姆-塞普莫里)含淚作證說，他妹妹拉尼在攻擊她的三個兒子的前幾個星期裡正在減肥，且猛讀聖經，更常不出去吃午飯。

帕姆-塞普莫里(Pam Sepmoree)是第一個作證的拉尼的家庭成員，她注意到拉尼~這位39歲的家庭主婦在上個母親節週末用石頭砸死她的兒子之前有輕微的變化。

"她很低沉；且沮喪。也不怎麼說話，"塞普莫里在週四的證詞中說。她的妹妹是一位有愛心的母親，會在家裡做飯和換小孩尿布的人。

"男孩們是她的生命，"塞普莫里說。"我相信她病得很重，瘋了才會這樣做。" 

拉尼在達拉斯東南100英里的小城~新教堂山對她的孩子進行家庭教育，她現以精神錯亂為由，對謀殺和嚴重傷害兒童的行為表示會尋求無罪辯護。她因8歲的小孩約書亞和6歲的盧克的死以及當時14個月大的亞倫被毆打重殘而被起訴。

她說，這將使她精神失常。

她說，拉尼確信她是上帝所選的人，就像瑪麗亞被神選中生下耶穌基督一樣，她要殺死她的孩子，然後在世界末日後，充當見證人。正如瑪麗亞默默接納上帝的命令一樣，他妹妹拉尼相信她也必須這樣做。

拉尼的丈夫基斯-拉尼在審判的大部分時間裡一直保持著沉默，在看完他妻子平靜的對小孩暴打的說法後，他抱著頭，似乎要哭了。

雷斯尼克說，她很平靜，因為她的精神病使她的情緒變得沉默。

雷斯尼克說："她在心理上已經脫離了所有的恐怖，她只是一個肩負神聖使命的女人，在執行主耶穌的意志，"。

拉尼回憶起她剛剛打殘亞倫並準備殺死盧克後的那一刻。"我告訴他，寶貝，就在這裡躺下，把你的頭轉向這邊。亞倫照做了，我就拿起躺在他身邊的石頭，開始猛擊打他的頭。"拉尼說，另一兒子盧克仰面躺著，他的頭靠在一塊石頭上，她站在他身上，把一塊晚餐盤大小的岩石猛敲他的頭骨，敲了好幾次，直到破裂。

當他還有呼吸時，她再抓住他的腳拖拉進後院，再把他的屍體掩藏起來，以免另一兒子約書亞看到後 "驚恐"。據稱，這母親以同樣的方式將約書亞打死。

雷斯尼克說，這種妄想症在她妹妹殺人前幾周就開始了。雷斯尼克說，在幾天前，

拉尼認為上帝給了她一個土豆砂鍋的食譜，並說耶穌的聲音如此強烈地出現在她面前，以至於她轉過身去看誰在和她說話。

在謀殺案發生後的監獄裡，在拉尼接受抗精神病藥物之前，雷斯尼克說她從地上和馬桶裡舔水，因為她覺得她沒有完美地執行耶穌上帝的命令。他說，她不確定自己是否應該毆打亞倫至死。

檢察官一直在努力對抗他們提供的精神病學證人，以證明拉尼知道她的行為是錯誤的，是有罪的。

他們將拉尼這些攻擊描述為自私的行為，在這些行為中，她犧牲了她的孩子，以拯救她自己的靈魂免受永恆火湖的詛咒。他們說拉尼在襲擊過程中具有欺騙性，試圖鎖上她丈夫睡覺的臥室的門，並在喚醒另一個男孩之前將其屍體藏起來。

最重要的是，他們試圖說服陪審員，無論拉尼是否相信她是在為上帝做事，

她都必須知道她在犯罪。檢察官指出，她的第一個電話是打給911，召喚當局。

精神病學家派克-迪茨（Park Dietz）作證說，拉尼在殺害男孩時並沒有考慮到州法律，但承認她當時可能知道她的行為是非法的。

Mother goes on trial for stoning sons

By John Springer

Court TV

 Tuesday, November 1, 2005 Posted: 1830 GMT (0230 HKT)

story.laney.jpg

Deanna Laney, left, is accused of stoning two of her sons to death. A third son was left nearly blind.

TYLER, Texas -- Deanna Laney could not stop crying. The 39-year-old East Texas woman sobbed Monday each time a prosecutor, police officer or her own lawyer described the brutal stoning death of two of her sons and an assault that left a third son nearly blind.

 The prosecution and defense agreed on a major point as Laneys murder trial opened in this small town between Dallas and the Louisiana state line: Laney, who told police that God instructed her to kill her children, was insane when she stoned her sons to death on May 11, 2003.

 Although four forensic psychiatrists hired by the prosecution, defense and the presiding judge at the trial concluded that Laney was insane, only a jury can find her not guilty by reason of insanity, Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham said during a 12-minute opening statement.

 I just killed my boys

Laneys crying in court Monday was in stark contrast to her demeanor when she used her cell phone to call 911. Wearing her pajamas, Laney sounded composed as she stated, "I just killed my boys."

"Maam, you did what?" the male deputy inquired.

 "I just killed my boys."

 For 38 minutes Laney calmly answered the deputys questions. At the same time, she spoke to officers sent to investigate.

 "Are the boys breathing now?" the operator asked, according to a recording of the call played for the jury.

 "No," Laney said.

"You said you killed your two boys?" the officer asked. "Why did you do that, maam?"

 Laney replied matter of factly, "I had to."

According to prosecutors, Laney put her sons, Joshua, 8, Luke, 6, and Aaron, 14 months, to bed and then went to her own room. Her husband, Keith Laney, followed. Laney awoke later that night, tried to lock her sleeping husband in their bedroom and then went to Joshua and Lukes room.

 She escorted Luke to a rock garden in the front yard of their home, which is encircled by a white split-rail fence. Laney told her son to lie down with his head on a rock and she took another large rock, raised it over her head and brought it down onto his skull.

She then killed Joshua in the same manner. Both children were found with large stones lying on their chests. 

Baby attacked in crib

Aaron was attacked with a rock in his crib but did not die.

 Deanna Laney was taken into custody after calling police and telling them what she had done.

As the deputy and Keith Laney attended to Aarons injuries, Deanna Laney remained on the phone outside with the 911 dispatcher. "Whats going on? Are you upset about anything?" the operator asked.

 "I just did what I had to do," Laney said.

"You did what you had to do? Why do you say that maam?"

 "Thats just what I was told to do," she said.

"Who told you to do that?" the dispatcher continued.

 "God," Laney said.

 Laney wore a brown jacket and orange turtleneck to court Monday. Seated in the second row of the courtroom, Keith Laney bowed his head and rubbed tears from his eyes. He remains supportive and still wears his wedding ring. Other relatives also are standing by the devoutly religious woman. 

In many ways, prosecutors are going through the motions. They have ample evidence that Laney killed her children, including stipulations with the defense to that effect.

 The issue for this jury, which is sequestered, will be whether the defense can meet its legal burden of proving that Laney could not distinguish between right and wrong at the time of the killing. 

Believes God ordered her to kill

Defense attorney F. R. "Buck" Files told jurors that Laney loves her husband and children and was devoted to God, church and family. She is a deeply spiritual and private person, who never told anyone about several psychotic episodes that preceded the killings, he said.

 According to Files, Laney told psychiatrists while she was in custody that she believed God was speaking to her in different ways. On the day of the killings, for example, she believed she received a message from God that he wanted her children with him.

 Laney told psychiatrists that she rejected a spear or strangulation and decided to use stones to kill her children. Laney believed her son Joshua, the first boy to die, would be resurrected on his birthday that July.

 Laney wasnt sure if she was supposed to kill Aaron, the youngest, or not.

 "Aaron is in his bed. The baby is in his bed. I dont think I killed him," Laney told the 911 dispatcher. She told the operator later that she thought she "did wrong by Aaron."

 The 911 tape is particularly chilling because Laneys voice was even, devoid of emotion, almost childlike.

 Although many in the courtroom cried as the call was played and the story told by lawyers, jurors remained composed and listened intently.

 If they conclude Laneys mental condition did not cloud her reasoning to the point that she was legally insane, Laney could face life in prison. If, however, jurors find Laney not guilty by reason of insanity, she would likely be committed to a mental-health facility.

The trial is expected to last less than 10 days. Court TV is broadcasting the proceedings.

=============================Laney woke up one night in May 2003 and took Joshua to the yard of her home in New Chapel Hill, Texas where she lifted a huge rock over her head and brought it down with all her strength against his skull, killing him. She did the same to Luke. Later on, she tried to kill her youngest son, 14-month-old Aaron, in the same way. He survived, but suffered severe head injuries.

 During the investigation, Laney claimed God ordered her to bash in her sons heads. She was a member of an Assemblies of God church, where she sang in the choir.[2] A year earlier, she had told her fellow churchgoers that the world was coming to an end and that God had told her to get her house in order. Later on, she told a psychiatrist that she hoped she and Andrea Yates would end up working together as Gods only witnesses at the end of the world.

Five mental health experts were consulted in Laneys case: two each by the prosecution and defense, and one by the judge. All of them arrived at the conclusion that she suffered from psychotic delusions which made her unable to know right from wrong at the time of the killings. A Smith County court found her not guilty by reason of insanity. She was committed to Kerrville State Hospital for eight years until her release in May 2012. However, she is subject to a list of conditions, including that she have no unsupervised contact with minors and submit to regular drug tests to ensure that she takes required medication

.---------Sister says Laney lost weight, read Bible more before killings

LISA FALKENBERG

Updated: July 30, 2016 10:44 p.m.

Associated Press Writer

An East Texas housewife who bashed her sons skulls with rocks lost weight while appearing to fast, read the Bible more and stopped going out to lunch as often in the weeks before she attacked her sons, her older sister said in tearful testimony.

Pam Sepmoree was the first family member to testify that she noticed even the slightest changes in Deanna Laney before the 39-year-old stay-at-home mother admitted to bludgeoning her sons with rocks last Mothers Day weekend.

"She was low; she was down. She didnt talk much," Sepmoree said in testimony Thursday. Sepmoree said her sister was a loving mother, the one who cooked and changed diapers in the family.

"The boys were her life," Sepmoree said. "I believe shes very sick and insane to do this."

Laney, who home-schooled her children in the tiny town of New Chapel Hill, 100 miles southeast of Dallas, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to capital murder and serious injury to a child. She has been charged in the deaths of 8-year-old Joshua and 6-year-old Luke and the beating of then 14-month-old Aaron.

uld make her insane.

He said Laney was convinced she was divinely chosen by God _ just as Mary was chosen to bear Christ _ to kill her children, then serve as a witness after the world ends. And just as Mary pondered silently the orders of God, Laney believed she must do the same.

Laneys husband, Keith Laney, who has remained stoic during most of the trial, held his head in his hands and appeared to weep after watching his wifes calm description of the beatings.

She was calm, Resnick said, because her psychosis muted her emotions.

"Shes separated psychologically from all the horror of it and shes simply a woman on a divine mission carrying out the Lords will," Resnick said.

Laney recalled the moments just after she maimed Aaron and was preparing to kill Luke: "I told him, Baby, just lay down right here and turn your head this a way. And he did and I just picked up the rock that was laying right beside him and I started hitting him on the head."

Laney said Luke was lying on his back, his head against a rock, as she stood over him and hammered a sandstone the size of a dinner plate into his skull several times.

While he was still breathing, she dragged him by his feet across the yard to hide his body so that Joshua wouldnt see it and have a "conniption fit." The mother allegedly bludgeoned Joshua to death the same way.

 The delusions began weeks before the killings, Resnick said. Days before, Laney thought God gave her a recipe for potato casserole and said his voice came to her so strongly that she turned around to see who was talking to her, Resnick said.

In jail after the murders, before Laney accepted anti-psychotic medicine, Resnick said she lapped water from the floor and out of a toilet bowl because she felt she hadnt carried out Gods orders

Laneys defense attorneys were expected to continue arguing their case Friday.

On Thursday, jurors watched a video recorded six days after the attacks in which Laney calmly recounted beating her children and says she was awaiting their resurrection.

It was a chilling contrast to a video jurors saw a day earlier that depicted Laney seven months after the attacks, sobbing, emotionally broken and seemingly tortured by her actions.

The video shown Thursday shows Laney wide-eyed, smiling at times and animated as she described the events leading up to the attacks.

"I feel like that I obeyed God and I believe there will be good out of this," she told psychiatrist Phillip Resnick in the interview. "I feel like he will reveal his power and they will be raised up. They will become alive again. They will be healed completely. They will walk on the earth."

In the tape shown by defense attorneys as they began their case Thursday, Laney told Resnick that she never thought of the consequences of killing her children and had no regrets

Resnick, like all other mental health experts consulted in the case, concluded that Laney had psychotic delusions caused by a severe mental illness that made her incapable of knowing right from wrong at the time of the killings. Under Texas law