Slender Man
There are many different sides and factors that play a role in the whole slender man case that affect how one might view it. When it comes to deciding who's guilty and how to punish them, it becomes even harder to understand what is right and fair. From afar, it looks like two little girls who are monsters because they tried to murder their best friend, as we look a little closer we learn that it's not this simple.
This is due to the fact that those two girls explained that they were doing what they did for "Slender man", an online fictional character. From their perspective, they were doing what was necessary to protect their families from him and also to prove to everyone that slender man is real. The case would already be so hard to deal with because of the young age of the perpetrators and the seriousness of their actions, but when the whole "slender man" story comes in it adds a whole new level.
My initial reaction was that the two girls had some sort of mental disability considering how involved they were with Slender man and that they genuinely believed all the stories they read about him. However, while we got further into the documentary and we saw the interviews with both the girls, it seemed like they weren't mentally disabled, but more towards the criminal mastermind side, at least Anissa. The reason is that although she wasn't the one who stabbed Bella, as they girl referred to their friend, she seemed to be the one who orchestrates the stabbing. The two girls worked together to plan the stabbing but when it came to the actual day, Anissa forced Morgan to kill Bella told her to "go crazy" when doing it. Anissa also told Bella as they were leaving to lay down and not move because she will bleed slowly which makes it seem like she is showing remorse, but in reality, she knew that she would bleed out in the forest before someone found her if she staying laying in the same spot.
On the other side, Morgan kept saying sorry and apologizing to Bella as she was stabbing her which shows remorse. Morgan looks more guilty in terms of facts because she was the one who did the stabbing but in the interviews after, Anissa seems to be the one who was more involved and invested. The way I interpreted the girls planning, Anissa understood that Morgan had some sort of mental disability and used this to manipulate her to completely believe in the slender man world, and thus convincing her that she needed to kill her friend in order to protect her family. Overall, I think this is a very interesting court case because there are many factors that play into the ruling, one of which is mental health which complicates the severity of the punishment.
This is due to the fact that those two girls explained that they were doing what they did for "Slender man", an online fictional character. From their perspective, they were doing what was necessary to protect their families from him and also to prove to everyone that slender man is real. The case would already be so hard to deal with because of the young age of the perpetrators and the seriousness of their actions, but when the whole "slender man" story comes in it adds a whole new level.
My initial reaction was that the two girls had some sort of mental disability considering how involved they were with Slender man and that they genuinely believed all the stories they read about him. However, while we got further into the documentary and we saw the interviews with both the girls, it seemed like they weren't mentally disabled, but more towards the criminal mastermind side, at least Anissa. The reason is that although she wasn't the one who stabbed Bella, as they girl referred to their friend, she seemed to be the one who orchestrates the stabbing. The two girls worked together to plan the stabbing but when it came to the actual day, Anissa forced Morgan to kill Bella told her to "go crazy" when doing it. Anissa also told Bella as they were leaving to lay down and not move because she will bleed slowly which makes it seem like she is showing remorse, but in reality, she knew that she would bleed out in the forest before someone found her if she staying laying in the same spot.
On the other side, Morgan kept saying sorry and apologizing to Bella as she was stabbing her which shows remorse. Morgan looks more guilty in terms of facts because she was the one who did the stabbing but in the interviews after, Anissa seems to be the one who was more involved and invested. The way I interpreted the girls planning, Anissa understood that Morgan had some sort of mental disability and used this to manipulate her to completely believe in the slender man world, and thus convincing her that she needed to kill her friend in order to protect her family. Overall, I think this is a very interesting court case because there are many factors that play into the ruling, one of which is mental health which complicates the severity of the punishment.
I agree that is a complicated, interesting case. One thing that defines this case from my perspective is the ages of Morgan and Anissa, and the fantastical "Slenderman" element. This is in contrast to the Andrea Yates murders, where Yates, who killed her five children, was deemed only secondarily guilty by reason of insanity and postpartum psychosis. In the Slenderman case, the insanity plea could not totally work because the two girls are not hallucinating exactly, more caught up in a fantasy world. Another thing jurors have to decide is whether these 12-year olds are capable enough of distinguishing real from fake. It's interesting that in such a case, they aren't exactly being tried for mental illness, rather more for mental incapacity and immaturity, similarly to Lionel Tate's case. On the other hand, Slenderman is also different from Lionel Tate in that there's this fantasy character that compromises Morgan and Anissa's reliability, making it more similar to Yates's hallucinations about Satan.
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