A New York judge declared a mother who killed her two children in a shelter not guilty by reason of insanity for allegedly suffering from "postpartum psychosis", in a case that bears chilling similarities to that of nurse Lindsay Clancy, the infanticide that feminists turned into a symbol.
The mother, Dimone Fleming, 26, escaped any criminal responsibility despite confessing to murdering her two children —Daishawn Fleming, 3 years old, and Octavius Canada, 11 months— in a family shelter in the Bronx. The forensic psychiatrist who evaluated her stated that the accused was "severely psychotic and disconnected from reality."
According to the professional, Fleming committed the homicides because she was suffering from hallucinations, was convinced that the world was ending, and believed that a spirit had invaded her body, so she had to "purify" her children by taking their lives. The accused had been hospitalized in a psychiatric facility for two months, where she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and prescribed medication.
