Charles Manson, dead at age 83

[Catholic_Lady]

Lack of conscience/empathy doesnt mean they dont understand that what they are doing is wrong. Probably why he had his followers go murder that family at night when they couldn't be seen. Are you saying then that Manson should have been found innocent?

Lack of conscience means they lack that intuition that tells them what is right and wrong. And no, legally, he wasn't innocent nor should he have been found as such. One need not be fully in control of their own actions in order to be held responsible for what they do.

But they learn it from the world, even if they don't feel a moral compass inside themselves. Clearly, an adult in the US knows it's illegal to break into someone's house and murder a pregnant woman and her husband. You'd have to be severely mentally ill or mentally handicapped to not know that.
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I think Manson got exactly what was appropriate. Life in prison where he couldn't hurt anyone else.

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Lack of conscience/empathy doesnt mean they dont understand that what they are doing is wrong. Probably why he had his followers go murder that family at night when they couldn't be seen. Are you saying then that Manson should have been found innocent?

Actually, it seems that a good part of their plan was to create a false flag operation because they thought they killed Bernard "Lotsapoppa" Crowe, a drug dealer with connections to the Black Panthers (in reality, said dealer not only survived to testify against Manson, he's apparently still alive, and the thing about the Black Panthers was a colossal bluff) and decided to A) cover their own tracks, and B) start up the "Helter Skelter" scenario they thought was supposed to happen earlier in the year.

Looks like they were all competent enough to understand what they were doing.