Man accused of stabbing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro during campaign acquitted due to mental illness.

Adélio Bispo de Oliveira after his arrest. BBC/Reuters.

Adélio Bispo de Oliveira, the man accused of stabbing President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, has been acquitted due to mental illness. BBC. A federal judge ruled that Oliveira can not be charged under Brazilian law because he wasn't aware of his actions at the time. President Bolsonaro said he would appeal the ruling and said that the attack was politically motivated and that Oliveira had help. Bolsonaro was almost killed at a campaign rally after Oliveira stabbed him in the intestines. Bolsonaro went on to win the presidency and has recovered from his wound. 

My Comment:

Wow, talk about a miscarriage of justice. There is zero question of whether or not Oliveira did the attack or not so it's crazy that he wasn't put on trial. He came very close to killing the president of Brazil and you would think that would be enough to give him his day in court. But apparently not. 

I've always been of two minds of insanity defenses. At least in the US they are rare and don't often work out well for the defense. Even if you win, you still end up in a mental ward, which is not that different from prison. I do think that some people really are so mentally ill that they can't really be held responsible for what they do but then there are cases like this, or the attempt on Ronald Reagan back in the day, that ruin it for the truly mentally ill. 

Oliveira was probably somewhat mentally ill, but I doubt he was so insane that he didn't know the difference between right and wrong. His plot took a bit of planning and he was very open in his hatred of Jair Bolsonaro. I'm no expert but I think that whatever his illness he knew that trying to kill a presidential candidate was not a good thing to do. 

President Bolsonaro suggests that Oliveira might have had help with his plot. I don't know if that's true one way or the other, but it's certainly possible. Bolsonaro has many enemies as he is a right wing politician in a part of the world that usually elects left wingers. It's very possible that someone helped Oliveira in some way. I also have to note that terror groups often appeal to the mentally ill for recruits, so I don't know why political assassination would be any different. 

I do think that Bolsonaro probably got quite a boost from being attacked by Oliveira. He probably was going to win anyways, but having your candidate stabbed is a huge motivating factor for voters. He also probably impressed people by surviving something that should have by all rights killed him. In a perverse way, Oliveira probably helped Bolsonaro's chances more than he hurt them. I remember when this happened I thought to myself that Bolsonaro was going to win for sure and it turned out I was correct.