Religion and the law

If you haven't figured it out, I'm fascinated by the fact that religion causes people to do crazy things. These include kidnapping, murder, and blowing themselves up just to name a few. Naturally, I'm interested in the Elizabeth Smart case. I found this article explaining what difficulties can happen when religion and the law come together. (http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/15/on-trial-faith-delusion-or-an-excuse-for-criminal-action/) There have been cases or murder in the name of the devil that have resulted in both jail time and an insanity pleas. How does the jury go about making a decision. The article discusses the problem by saying " "One man's vision is another man's delusion. One person's cult is another person's spiritual path". To me this means that there are many forms of religion out there, they can have positive or negative effects depending on the person. I think trials involving crime and religion and difficult to handle because I'm sure everyone has a different opinion of what's acceptable. I'm sure there are some people who approve of Brian David Mitchell acting on his vision from God. It will be interesting to see how things play out.