California Woman Who Stabbed Boyfriend Over 100 Times Gets Probation Because Of Cannabis Induced Psychosis
Research on cannabis-induced psychosis is spotty, but a case in California brought some increased attention to the phenomenon. Bryn Spejcher’s 2018 stabbing of her boyfriend Chad O’Melia was blamed on the condition and Judge David Worley decided to give Spejcher probation because a psychotic episode caused her involuntary manslaughter conviction.
The Independent reported, Spejcher received a suspended four-year sentence, which could still be served if she violates the conditions of her probation. According to a press release from Ventura County, O’Melia and Spejcher were taking hits from a bong when she had a reaction to the marijuana, which resulted in Spejcher stabbing O’Melia over 100 times, as well as herself. When officers arrived on the scene, they found O’Melia covered in blood and Spejcher screaming hysterically and attempting to plunge a long serrated knife into her own neck. Officers tased her and used a baton to remove the knife from her grasp. Paramedics pronounced O’Melia dead at the scene.
According to her attorney, Michael Goldstein, the sentence was fair because of the circumstances of the case, noting that even the prosecution’s expert witnesses could not say with certainty that his client had full control of her faculties.
“Today, Ventura Superior Court judge did the right thing and imposed a sentence that was fair and accurately reflected,” Goldstein said.
“It was clear that she had no control of her faculties and never intended to cause any harm. All of the medical experts agreed, including the expert called by the district attorney’s office.”
Though this case is clearly an outlier with unique properties, such as the existence of a woman who experienced cannabis-induced psychosis, a June 2021 report from the California Budget and Policy Center sets forth that the incarceration rate for women in California has declined in general, and the incarceration rate for Black and white women dropped by nearly 50% between 2010 and 2019. Although incarceration rates among those groups received the biggest drop, the report cautioned that Black women and Indigenous American women were the most incarcerated groups in California.
According to the report, “ In 2019, Black women made up more than one-quarter (26%) of women incarcerated by the state — more than four times higher than their share (6%) of all women in California (Figure 4). American Indian women comprised almost 2% of incarcerated women — nearly five times their share of all women in California (0.4%). Latinx women’s share of incarcerated women was roughly equal to their share of all women in the state (about 35%). In contrast, white women were not overrepresented in state prisons in 2019.”
Additionally, even though there were improvements in the rate of incarceration for those groups due to reforms, inequality still persists. “The incarceration rate for Black women dropped by 53% from 2010 to 2019 (Table 4). Moreover, the rates for white and Latinx women each declined by more than 40%, and the incarceration rate for American Indian women fell by over one-fifth (23%). However, American Indian women and Black women continued to have the highest incarceration rates, with the rates for both groups exceeding 160 per 100,000 in 2019 — substantially higher than the rates for Latinx and white women.”
The report says that during the 2010s, Black and other women of color continued to be more likely to be incarcerated than white women, “Black women saw a larger drop in incarceration than white women during the 2010s. As a result, the disparity between Black and white women diminished slightly, from 6.1-to-1 in 2010 to 5.5-to-1 in 2019 (Table 6). Even so, the gap between Black and white women remains large: Black women were 5.5 times more likely than white women to be incarcerated by the state in 2019. Moreover, American Indian women were incarcerated at a rate that was 5.8 times that of white women in 2019, up from 3.8-to-1 in 2010.”
The disparity ratio for Latinx women was roughly the same in both 2010 and 2019: approximately 1.2-to-1.” In its conclusion, the report establishes that the State of California needs to do more, including pushing anti-racist incarceration policies. “Policymakers must do more to address the racist policies and practices that have created and sustained racial disparities. A companion publication to this report will outline an array of policy options, including reforming sentencing policies, strengthening behavioral health intervention/treatment, addressing the structural barriers that block communities of color from economic and health opportunities, and reducing prison and police budgets and using the savings to fund investments in communities of color and justice system reforms. Advancing antiracist policies would help to improve the lives of Californians of color, including American Indian, Black, Latinx, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander communities, which have long faced discrimination and continue to be exposed to the damaging effects of racism inside and outside of the justice system.”
According to the Vera Institute, part of the problem is how much money the State of California invests in its mass incarceration economy. According to the institute, in 2023 the state was estimated to have spent $18 billion on the criminal legal system, not including city or county-level spending. A report from the institute sets out what the failure of the state to invest in survival infrastructure means for the over-incarceration of the Black citizens and citizens of color that are failed by the State of California.
“The state is set to spend over $18 billion on the criminal legal system in fiscal year 2023, which does not include city- or county-level spending. In 2021, California cities spent $14 billion on policing, and counties spent $19 billion on policing, jails, probation, and the judicial system. And despite the state’s commitment to racial equity, people of color disproportionately carry this burden—a direct result of decades of policy failure and systemic disinvestment in housing, employment, treatment, education, and other social services. Although Black and Latinx Californians make up 47 percent of the state’s population, they together comprise 66 percent of the county jail and 74 percent of the prison populations.”
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