Odgren pleads not guilty

Lincoln-Sudbury student pleads not guilty in slaying:

John Odgren pleaded not guilty today in the stabbing death of James Alenson. So let me get this straight. He stabs James Alenson to death, basically confesses to the crime to police at the scene, then pleads not guilty. Just once I want someone to plead guilty. Why has he pleaded not guilty? I sense someone laying the grounds for an insanity defense…

Odgren, a 16-year-old sophomore from Princeton, looked puzzled during the proceeding as his attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, asked the judge to transfer his client from jail to Westborough State Hospital so he could receive medication and psychiatric treatment. Odgren’s condition has deteriorated, Shapiro said, and he has been on suicide watch for the last four or five days.

Judge Isaac Borenstein ordered that Odgren be sent to Westborough State for observation for 20 days.

Call me a cold-hearted bastard if you want but I’m not buying it. I think Odgren and his lawyer are trying to use his Asperger’s to their advantage. I would lay odds that during the trial they’re going to make it seem like that all Asperger’s patients are all just time bombs ready to go off and kill someone at any given moment.

Let’s not forget what Odgren did either…

Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bennett said that Odgren slashed Alenson’s throat before plunging a 5.5-inch knife through his ribs and then into his though the stomach. A third student was in a bathroom stall and heard Alenson say, “What are you doing, you are hurting me,” Bennett said.

That doesn’t sound like someone who “just snapped” to me. That sounds more like a stone cold killer.