A Winnebago County judge ruled 42-year-old Jody Kossow not guilty by reason of insanity.
The Rockford resident was charged for the Sept. 2013 stabbing death of her eight-year-old son Thomas.
Officials say Kossow had “spiritual preoccupations” that led her to believe her son was possessed and needed to be killed; it also says she suffered from depression for months before the incident.
Marc Falkoff, a criminal law professor at Northern Illinois University, says judge John Lowry had several factors to consider in the ruling.
"What happened is the judge decided that because of some mental disease or defect, so it could be depression, it could be schizophrenia, it could be bipolar, whatever," he says. "Because of that mental disease or defect, she failed to appreciate the criminality of her conduct.”
Insanity defenses are raised and successful in less than one percent of cases; Falkoff says public opinion is mixed on the insanity plea.
“So there’s this perception that this defense is raised all the time and it’s successful, and all those lawyers are getting murderers off, which is absolutely not true," Falkoff said.
The Department of Human Services will conduct a mental health evaluation on Kossow. Then, a separate hearing will determine a long-term care plan.