Although Harris was present and active in her trial hearing, report states that in court she was "calm, sometimes smiling while her family periodically wept" (Blanco). During pretrial hearings she was described to be smiling slightly with her eyes downcast, laughing to herself, and sometimes rocking back and forth (Blanco). Nonetheless, Harris was able to understand and rationally participate in the court process because she did show understanding of what she had done and knew what the consequences of these actions were. The issue was that she did not believe that her actions were considered wrongdoing. .
Lashuan Harris had reportedly been hospitalized six times during the 20 months leading up to the murder of her three sons (Blanco). Harris' attorney, chief public defender Teresa Caffese, argued that she never once received proper treatment for her illness. She was first hospitalized in February 2004 after suffering alleged domestic abuse from her children's father, at which time she talked about "giving her babies to Jesus" (Blanco). She was released without ongoing mental care and soon reported smelling dead bodies and hearing voices, leading her back to the hospital for paranoia and talks about "spiritual warfare," but was released the following day (Blanco). She had her first psychotic episode when she tried to jump out of a window in February 2004. Harris was again temporarily hospitalized and released shortly after without any ongoing treatment, but was prescribed Haldol, a drug used to treat schizophrenia, which she eventually stopped taking unless forced to by her family members (Blanco). She was hospitalized again that month after wandering around at night, trying to jump out of moving cars, and speaking in sentence fragments. In the spring of 2005, Harris and her three sons went to stay with her sister in Florida, where she was soon hospitalized for talking about spiritual warfare again and repeating the phrase "reverse the curse' (Blanco).
