As reported by multiple media outlets, Teresa Moses, 30, has been freed only three years after being sentenced for 25 years to life for torturing her eight year old son, Raijon Daniels, to death. In 2010, Moses was declared not guilty by reason of insanity for the 2006 San Francisco Bay area killing and has spent the last three years in a mental hospital receiving treatment for being what her doctors describe as "fleetingly legally insane".
Because she is now no longer considered insane, Moses is free to start a new life for herself. Stephanie Regular, Moses' attorney, told Contra Costa Times, "The incident which led to Ms. Moses' commitment is a horrible tragedy -- a tragedy which Ms. Moses will regret for the rest of her life. However, I also think it's important to remember that Ms. Moses was legally insane at the time she committed the crime. The person she was then is not the person who she is now."
Because of the particularly vile details of the case, a public skepticism regarding Ms, Moses "recovery" should be expected. After Raijon's body was discovered autopsy reports documented a bleak picture of what the boy's life was like: he'd been beaten, scratched and starved, and finally found dead next to a puddle of his own vomit.
As the case progressed investigators learned that Ms. Moses locked the boy in his bedroom, strapped him to his bed with duct tape and watched him on surveillance cameras. She used high pressure hoses to clean excrement off his body and forced him to bathe in a mixture of his own waste and Pine Sol cleaning detergent.
However, Ms. Moses was reportedly an outstanding patient during her rehabilitation, participating in every program the hospital offered. And now that she is considered sane, and not dangerous, she is free.
Ms. Moses' longtime friend told Costa Contra Times, "I know it's going to be hard to displace people's fears because her son died on her shift. I just hope that at the end of the day, people give her a chance to re-enter society, withhold judgment and not label her as a child murderer."
