Alaska mom on trial in sons' deaths

A woman who shot her three teenage sons should be acquitted of murder because she is insane, even by Alaska's particularly strict standard, her lawyer told the judge who will decide her fate.

Cynthia Lord, 45, was tortured by delusions, unable to tell fantasy from reality, defense attorney Fred Dewey said Monday as her nonjury trial began.

"She thought her children were being turned into clones or robots," he said.

Knowing the difference between right and wrong _ the legal standard for insanity in many states _ is not sufficient for an insanity defense in Alaska, where acquittal essentially requires that a killer believe the victim is not human.

"If Cynthia Lord is not the definition of not guilty by reason of insanity in this state, there is no definition of insanity in this state," Dewey said, noting that she once shot at an imaginary spy in her apartment.

Prosecutor Sharon Marshall is asking Superior Court Judge Philip Volland to find Lord guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of up to 99 years in prison. If acquitted, Lord would be hospitalized for treatment for a mental condition for which she takes medication.

In a videotaped confession aired in court, Lord admitted shooting Christopher, 19; Michael, 18; and Joseph, 16, on March 16, 2004.

She told the detectives she saw satanic messages in food labels and on TV and hears things other people can't. Lord, who lived alone with her sons, said no one understood her or believed her.

Lord told police she planned for months to shoot her sons, which Marshall argues is proof she is not legally insane.

The night before the killings, Lord crushed some of her pills and stirred them into a drink she served her sons to drug them to sleep so the other two wouldn't hear her shoot Michael in the head as he lay on the sofa, she told investigators.

"I stood with my arm over him and killed him while he slept," she said.

Hours later, she woke Joseph and sent him to school. Michael's body was still on the couch, covered with a blanket.

The oldest son, Christopher, woke up about 10 a.m. and helped his mother vacuum, she said. She told detectives she killed him when he sat down to play video games.

When Joseph returned home from school, Lord waited until he was preoccupied with the computer before shooting him, too, she said.

Lord said she considered killing herself, but two hours later she walked to a supermarket and dialed 911.