Michigan Medical Student Admits To Killing More Than A Dozen Dogs Out Of Anger

Andrew David Thompson, 24, is studying to be a doctor at Michigan State University. His career, however, in osteopathic medicine has been delayed a bit by an anger issue and his tendency to kill dogs. Police say that Thompson has admitted to killing more than a dozen dogs — all Italian Greyhounds — out of anger by beating them on the floor or against the walls.

Thompson is charged with killing 13 dogs since September 2010. Police said that he would cry all the way to the dumpster as he got rid of each victim. And you thought HMOs were scary.

By the way, if you beat over a dozen dogs to death, you are still only subject to a maximum of four years in Michigan and that is higher than what he would get in other states. He is also charged with a misdemeanor count of animal neglect for one of the dogs that survived.

We have previously seen defendants who take out their anger over girlfriends, jobs, or life on pets. Of course, many just find it funny or arousing to torture or kill animals.

In Thompson’s case, I cannot imagine a stronger case for a maximum sentence absent a possible mental illness defense. However, Michigan appears to have eliminated the diminished capacity defense, leaving only the more restrictive insanity defense. That would require that his lawyer Kimberly Savage show that he “lacks substantial capacity either to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his or her conduct, or to conform his or her conduct to the requirements of the law.” Given the crying on the way to the dumpster, that could be difficult to show.

Source: Lansing State Journal