Tennis coach’s killer ruled insane
Mike Robb, the Newport High School tennis coach, was killed in 2005 by a shotgun round to the head. Early this week, Robb’s killer Samson Berhe was found not guilty be reason of insanity and was acquitted of the murder charges. Berhe was sent to a mental institution indefinitely.
Yep…all I really have to say about this is that it’s a crappy situation. Beyond crappy. To make it even worse, Berhe had been in and out of psychiatric sessions prior to killing Robb. He’d also been pulled over about an hour before the 2005 incident happened but was released because a spelling error had failed to bring a juvenile arrest record to light.
I didn’t know Mike Robb. But odds are, he was a decent man. He coached tennis – he had an impact on a lot of young peoples’ lives and he had a family. And now what happens to his killer? According to King County Superior Court Judge Dean Lum, Berhe “will stay at Western State Hospital for up to life unless he can prove that he is no longer a danger to society.”
Yeah…okay. Who’s making the call on whether he’s no longer a danger to society? Isn’t that the same system that had him in and out of psychiatric help before he turned around and murdered someone?
