andyt andyt:
You sure love to misuse the word autistic, don't you? If he really was autistic that's a pretty good defense in court.
Autism is a spectrum. Lots of people exhibit some degree or another of it. I'm one of them. I have problems with perceiving selected social cues that a doctor told me was like being "emotionally color blind".
My brother-in-law is diagnosed as autistic and he loves his pets and gives not one single fuck about other human beings. Never has. When the neighbor's house was burning he got out the garden hose and started wetting down the roof on his own house to make sure nothing happened to it.
Did he call the fire department to help the neighbor? Nope.
When asked about that his reply was, "Our house wasn't on fire so why should I call the fire department?"
I also work with a lot of engineers most of whom are autistic or Asperger's to some degree or another so I see a lot of it every day.
That said, it is not a defense. If someone has a problem it's incumbent upon them to deal with it and not foist it on everyone else.