The verdict, in which the jury found Dahmer sane on all 15 counts
of intentional homicide, touched off more talk of healing and
understanding. Dahmer himself said he had found God, and had found relief
in hearing the doctors testify that he was sick and not evil. Victims'
family members said they had found justice, and joined black community
leaders in saying it was now time for healing.
Jurors said they had found new understanding of mental illness,
which helped them see Dahmer as a person with problems who needed
treatment. They said they also found reassurance in realizing that the
much-cnticized Milwaukee police had not been negligent after all when
they had escorted the naked. drugged, Laotian boy back into Dahmer's
apartment--only conned by Dahmer, like so many others.
Local and nationally known psychiatrists and attorneys said that
the city's gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial had been cathartic,
helping the community to face the horror loosed by Dahmer and to begin to
heal. Legal and mental-health organizations were announcing plans to use
taped segments of the trial as a teaching device, clarifying issues of
mental illnesses and the insanity defense for law and psychiatry
students.
Jerry Boyle hit hardest on this theme of healing. "People speak of
the harm to Milwaukee by these 15 people murdered. Nonsense. We have
spotlighted Milwaukee as the best place to get the fairest trial!"
Boyle also stated that arguing Dahmer's insanity plea had reminded
him of his pride at being an American during the Persian Gulf War. He
said the trial's "star professionals" had cleansed Milwaukee's image in
the eyes of the "state, the nation, and the world," reassuring "the great
people of Milwaukee [that] this sort of thing can happen
anywhere."
Speaking on television after the sentencing, Boyle also said he
didn't think that two officers should have been fired after Dahmer's
arrest. "They were just doing their job," he said.
(Boyle failed to mention that he is a leading defense lawyer for
the Milwaukee police. He also failed to note that the police could have
done a better job.)
True, they might have violated the law, as Boyle claimed, if they
had opened the door to Dahmer's bedroom, where his most recent victim
still lay decomposing. But a routine computer check would have shown
Dahmer's past arrests, and that he was still on probation for a recent
conviction for sexual misconduct.
Their prompt follow-up on the missing-person report filed by the
Laotian boy's family might have also brought police back to Dahmer's
apartment, at least in time to save the four youths he killed
afterwards.
The first really sane talk I heard after all this came from the cab
driver who drove me to the airport after the verdict was announced.
"Those psychiatrists talk a lot, but they don't know what they are
talking about," he said. "They can't agree on anything. First they should
define sanity."
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): Jeffrey Dahmer
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY JOAN ULLMAN
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