Overall, though, this is a case where mental health and criminal behavior need to be the center of focus. That’s really the only way to bring clarity to the case. Only once the mental behavior is understood can people like you or I speculate exactly why this woman turned to a racist stereotype with any certainty. Was it a psychopathic, calculated fabrication intended to cause harm? Or was it as has come out in court, that she attempted to commit suicide with the acid but panicked and came up with the cockamamie story because she was suicidal, depressed, and suffering with mental illness?

I don’t know. Maybe the judge was even unsure. The fact that Storro apologized is meaningless and unremarkable; of course practically anyone will apologize in order to reduce his or her court sentence. It would only have meaning if she intentionally did not apologize. That would be an actual statement. However, that was not the case. The racial element in play here can only be understood in this story by first having a clear understanding of the mental illness that spawned both the incident and the false statements she gave to the police and media. Until then, it is impossible to tell just how and why the racial component first came into play.