After stabbing her classmate and leaving her for dead, a Wisconsin girl will avoid a prison sentence, due to a jury’s determination that she was mentally ill.
The 2014 case, which shocked the nation, occurred when Anissa Weier conspired with friend Morgan Geyser to lure Payton Leutner into a wooded area of a Milwaukee park where Leutner was stabbed 19 times, apparently in the name of fictional horror character Slender Man. All three of the children were 12 years old at the time of the crime. Leutner may have died were it not for a bicyclist who found her after the attack.
Now, Weier’s attorney, Maura McMahon, says she’s glad about the verdict delivered late Friday. “I’m very thankful to the jurors for taking the time to look at what was really going on with her,” McMahon said, according to the Associated Press. McMahon noted that the young girl was depressed, lonely and in need of mental treatment rather than jail time.
The decision was made after nearly a dozen hours of debate between members of the jury. 10 of the 12 members voted that Weier could not be held responsible for her crime.
