Michelle Wierson rear-ended a car that was stopped at a red light, and the crash caused the death of a young boy. The matter is not in dispute.
What is in dispute is whether she should be criminally liable for this action. Prosecutors want her punished, but her lawyers are arguing that she shouldn’t be criminally liable due to her mental state at the time of the crash.
The crash occurred in September of 2018 in DeKalb County, Georgia. Weirson was speeding through neighborhood streets in her Volkswagen Tiguan SUV because she believed that God had told her that she needed to do so in order to save her daughter’s life.
Her daughter was at school at the time.
As Wierson sped towards her divinely-ordained destination, she plowed at full speed into a Toyota Corolla, which was stopped at a traffic light. The impact pushed the Corolla into the intersection, where it hit another car. Miles Jenness, age 5, was a passenger in the Corolla. His spine was severed and he sustained a massive brain injury. He died a few days later.
Wierson is a psychologist in the Atlanta area, and has a long history of struggling with bipolar disorder. She has been charged with reckless driving and vehicular homicide and related charges, to which she has pled not guilty, by reason of insanity.
Prosecutors are not pleased by this move, and have petitioned the court to disallow the use of the insanity defense. However, if the judge decides to allow the defense, prosecutors have petitioned for the right to introduce evidence that, according to them, indicates that Wierson was not properly taking her medication at the time of the incident.
Wierson’s attorneys, on the other hand, argue that if the state prevails in its petitions, the insanity defense will become meaningless, both in this case and in general.
The state of these petitions currently rests in the deliberations of a three-judge panel of the Georgia Court of Appeals.
