I missed y’all last week. I took the week off to hang out with my son, who graduated from kindergarten. (Go monkey go!!!) Now, of course, I’m paying for that week off, with hundreds of emails in my inbox. Scary overwhelming. First I’ll be catching up on last week’s news, including the following:
The Orange County Register reported that Sheryl Lynn Massip, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1988 for running over her infant son with the family car, has petitioned for a restoration of sanity. Massip said she was compelled by voices in her head when she ran over 6-week-old Michael Massip.
"Defense attorney Milton Grimes argued during a headline-making trial that the petite woman was driven insane by postpartum psychosis, an extreme form of ‘baby blues’ experienced by many women after childbirth.
She was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder, but Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald shocked prosecutors on sentencing day when he reduced the murder verdict to voluntary manslaughter and ruled that Massip was insane at the time of the killing …
Her case focused attention on postpartum psychosis, a severe syndrome that some say strikes three out of every 1,000 mothers and is believed to be triggered by a shift in the hormones caused by childbirth …
Massip has been a model patient for more than 19 years now, Grimes said Thursday. She has attended every therapy session and completed every treatment program.
He said that the former beautician has remarried, and is living with her second husband in San Bernardino County, where she is raising a 12-year-old daughter.
‘She has a wonderful loving relationship with her daughter, who is as happy and as healthy as any 12-year-old can be,’ Grimes said. ‘I think it’s time Sheryl be allowed to go one with her life and not be restricted unnecessarily.
‘She is doing great,’ Grimes added. ‘I think she is living the best she can after going through what she went through …’
She is seeking a court order restoring her sanity and an unconditional release from obligations to report for mental health treatment and therapy. CONREP authorities agree that Massip no longer needs treatment, Grimes said."
It would seem by all accounts that her petition should be granted. What an awful thing for everyone involved, though. And the reporter who wrote the article obviously knows nothing about postpartum mood disorders, which you’ll see if you click the above link and read it.
