Legal Lunacy: Love Struck Astronaut's "I Left My Mind in Outer Space" Defense

Former Astronaut US Navy Captain Lisa Nowak pleads temporary insanity - as if she had a choice

The Charge: Attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm AND battery AND burglary of a vehicle using a weapon.

The Alleged Victim: Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman, the "romantic rival".

The Theory: The notorious Love Triangle

Facts at Issue: a 900 mile drive from Nowak's Texas home to Shipman's home state of Florida, recovery of soiled diapers, a mallet, a BB gun and a knife from Nowak's car, and Nowak's own statements to police that she drove simply to "confront Shipman" and wore the diapers to "cut down on the number of stops she needed to make."

The Problem: Meeting the stringent insanity defense standards.

One would have to be INSANE in this modern age if technology - iPhones, iPods, Blackberries and more - to drive 900 miles, or drive at all, to confront an alleged romantic rival when she could have simply phoned, text messaged, emailed or IMed her. That, however, is not grounds for an insanity defense.

This is where chess-style lawyering comes in handy. Fortunately for Ms. Nowak she has an advocate to do that, her attorney Don Lykkebak.

Lykkebak has reportedly requested of presiding Judge Lubet to "throw out Nowak's statements to police and suppress evidence collected from her car" on the basis that the statements were coerced under duress and that the search of Nowak's vehicle was conducted without permission and without a warrant, a clear violation of her 4^th Amendment rights protecting her from illegal search and seizure. Police contend that Nowak authorized the search. That's when the arresting officer found used diapers in the back seat and more, unused, diapers in the trunk.

Here's the thing, the diapers that police say were in Nowak's car were baby diapers, for a 1 year old. Not even Paris Hilton could fit into baby diapers, so how could Nowak?

Honestly, if Lykkebak wanted to fortify the insanity defense, he could allow the statements and the search. They can only help Dr. George Leventon and Dr. Dr. Richard Pesikoff, who will both be testifying on Nowak's behalf.

Reportedly, according to recent court documents, Nowak was obsessive-compulsive, depressed, and psychotic, among other things. Allegedly.

This brings us back to the temporary insanity defense. Nowak is from Texas, which incidentally has the most stringent insanity defense standards in America. Section 8.01 of the penal code, based on the M'Naghten Rule, states that at the time of the conduct charged...as a result of severe mental disease or defect, [the defendant] did not know that the conduct was wrong." This leaves a jury of Nowak's peers (good luck with finding a jury of love-crazed astronauts) to apply the statute as they deem fit. It will be difficult; in the Andrea Yates case, the jury decided that she did not meet the Texas standard for the insanity defense.

Most interesting bit to all of that is the fact that Nowak wanted her ankle monitor removed because it was "restrictive".

Silly me, I though that was the point.

CNN reported the device was "intended to keep her [Nowak] from traveling ...to where Shipman lives."

The only device that can keep one from traveling across state lines is a set of prison bars, not a human LoJack.

Let that be a lesson to you all that office/outer-space romances NEVER work.

The upcoming trial is scheduled for next month.