Mother stoned two sons to death

JURORS in the trial of a woman who stoned two of her sons to death will be asked to decide if she knew right from wrong.

Psychiatrists for both the defence and prosecution agree that Deanna Laney was mentally ill when she carried out the horrific attacks in Texas last year, which also severely injured her third son.

Her lawyers say she is innocent by reason of insanity, but prosecutors will argue she knew she was doing wrong and should be found guilty of two counts of capital murder and one count of serious injury to a child. The prosecution is not seeking the death penalty.

Previous court hearings were told Laney, 39, a deeply religious woman who educated her children at home in the tiny town of New Chapel Hill, 100 miles southeast of Dallas, called police just after midnight on May 10 and said: “I’ve just killed my boys.” She said God ordered her to do it. Police found eight-year-old Joshua and six-year-old Luke Laney lying in the garden in their underwear, their skulls smashed and stones the size of dinner plates lying on their bodies. Their year-old brother Aaron was found alive but bleeding from a fractured skull, a pillow over his face.

Laney’s husband, Keith, who apparently slept through the attacks, has supported his wife, attending several court hearings over the past year.

Experts said Laney had four psychotic episodes before the killings and had probably suffered from delusional psychotic disorder for at least three years.

Laney called the police after the killings, which some say jurors could see as an awareness of wrongdoing.