Nation : Slayer’s ‘Mental State’ at Issue
John E. List acted as a “hideous angel of death” when he carefully planned the killings of five family murders, a prosecutor said today in summations at List’s trial.
Defense attorney Elijah L. Miller urged the jury to acquit List or find him guilty of second-degree murder. The state has accused List of first-degree murder in the slayings of his wife, mother and three children in their 18-room Westfield mansion Nov. 9, 1971.
Miller said List, a devoutly religious accountant whose whole world was going to pieces, killed his family because of a personality disorder and twisted religious faith that left him no choice.
“He failed at family,” Miller said. “He failed at work. He looked at religion . . . and he corrupted his faith. He believed that this was the only solution.”
But Union County Assistant Prosecutor Eleanor Clark scoffed at the argument.
“There is no doubt that this defendant murdered, systematically murdered every member of his family,” she said.
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