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 Adom
Totally Nude
Registered: 09/30/01
Posts: 10,877
Loc: Way Up North
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 a rapist and killer, freed by Iowa jury 
#4233280 - 05/29/05 12:16 PM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pb...=73209547456304
Loren Huss, a 42-year-old rapist and killer, walked out of jail a free man Wednesday when a Polk County jury ruled he is no longer a danger to the public.
Jurors deliberated one day before they ended Huss' 19 years in state custody and declared he is not a sexually violent predator who needs to be confined in a state treatment program.
A stunned Huss and his lawyers smiled Wednesday when the decision was read.
His family, apparently shellshocked, stood outside the courtroom and declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Dorothy Wallace paced and shook her head.
"It's a sad verdict," said Wallace, whom Huss robbed, beat and left partially naked on an east Des Moines parking lot in 1980.
"They turned a rapist and a murderer loose today," Wallace said. "God help us all. . . . Every woman in this town is in danger."
Huss, convicted of robbery for the attack on Wallace, blamed the incident on a combination of alcohol, drugs, immature behavior and a bad attitude toward women. He cited mostly the same reasons for his role in the gang rape of a young woman near Saylorville Lake the following year.
But Huss testified last week, and psychiatrists confirmed, that his attitude had improved by the time he left prison in 1984.
By 1986, Huss was living with Marilyn Sheets in a Des Moines apartment. He says he began to get messages from the radio and television that urged him to fight the devil.
Defense-paid psychiatrists testified at his seven-day trial that Huss suffered a psychotic delusion and was in the manic state of bipolar disorder when he attacked Sheets on May 19, 1986.
Huss said he attempted to get the devil out of Sheets when he beat her to death, gouged out her eyes, bit off her nose and wrote on the walls in her blood.
When police found him with Sheets' naked body in a mostly demolished apartment, Huss was shouting and jumping up and down. It took five officers to subdue him.
Huss was convicted of first-degree murder in 1987, but a federal appeals court later awarded him a new trial. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2001.
Two years later, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that Huss, who had shown no symptoms of the bipolar disorder since 1986, was not dangerous and could no longer be held for mental treatment. By then, state prosecutors had filed papers to hold him indefinitely as a sexual predator.
Lawyers with the Iowa attorney general's office argued to the end that Sheets' murder was a sexually motivated crime. State-paid psychiatrists insisted last week that Huss remains dangerously attracted to nonconsensual sex and is more likely than not to reoffend.
"The state obviously is disappointed," said Doug Hammerand, an assistant attorney general. "But that's why we leave these cases to a jury to decide. We have to respect their decision."
Huss, through his lawyers, declined to comment Wednesday.
Doctors testified during the trial that Huss plans to move in with his mother and sister for the time being in the Des Moines area. Through prison classes, Huss has accumulated more than 50 hours of college credit at the University of Iowa and has said he intends to work toward a degree, probably at Iowa State University.
Huss told jurors that he intends to do "whatever is necessary to keep everybody safe," but as of last week he had not settled on a long-term medication plan to keep the bipolar disorder at bay. He said he plans to continue work with a doctor.
"He can do whatever he wants," Hammerand said. "He can see different groups and different doctors. But that's entirely up to him."
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker
Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,991
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: a rapist and killer, freed by Iowa jury [Re: Adom]
#4233296 - 05/29/05 12:21 PM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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That's a good decision. We need that jail space for narcotic-users, after all.
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So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
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SuperD
Cacti junky
Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 6,648
Loc: The bridgesii bridge
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Re: a rapist and killer, freed by Iowa jury [Re: Ravus]
#4234514 - 05/29/05 08:25 PM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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Honestly that's exactly what was on my mind, and I'm sure it was on the mind of anyone who read this article too. Welcome to crazy world.
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    D
Manoa said:
I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin. 
Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s),  me if you have any for trade
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
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Re: a rapist and killer, freed by Iowa jury [Re: Adom]
#4234649 - 05/29/05 09:16 PM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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YAAAAAAAAAAAAY AMERICA!
I'm a psycho killer, I'll murder anyone
Write with their blood on my walls just for fun
But it's not my fault, my TV told me to do it
It told me all of these horrible crimes to commit
So they locked me away in a crowded jail
Gave me my jumpsuit and put me on kitchen detail
But it wasn't long before they kicked me to the curb
After all, they needed to make room for those hippies smoking herb!
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SuperD
Cacti junky
Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 6,648
Loc: The bridgesii bridge
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Re: a rapist and killer, freed by Iowa jury [Re: DNKYD]
#4234800 - 05/29/05 10:08 PM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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Despite the circumstances surrounding the reason you chose to create that poem, it was still awesome  
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D
Manoa said:
I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin.
Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s), me if you have any for trade
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MOTH
Wild Woman
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 23,431
Loc: In the jungle
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Re: a rapist and killer, freed by Iowa jury [Re: DNKYD]
#4234985 - 05/29/05 11:20 PM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
DNKYD said:
YAAAAAAAAAAAAY AMERICA!
I'm a psycho killer, I'll murder anyone
Write with their blood on my walls just for fun
But it's not my fault, my TV told me to do it
It told me all of these horrible crimes to commit
So they locked me away in a crowded jail
Gave me my jumpsuit and put me on kitchen detail
But it wasn't long before they kicked me to the curb
After all, they needed to make room for those hippies smoking herb!
Best and most sadly true poem I've probably read recently.
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looner2
ABBA fan
Registered: 06/20/04
Posts: 3,849
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Re: a rapist and killer, freed by Iowa jury [Re: Adom]
#4235992 - 05/30/05 08:22 AM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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Stupid psychologists.
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I am in love with Acidic_Sloth
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