The Andrea Yates Case: The Insanity Defense On June 20, 2001, in Houston, Texas, Andrea Pia Yates was charged with the murder of her five children, which she drowned in the bathtub one at a time, and was found not guilty by reason of insanity under the Texas Law Insanity Defense. The legislative history of the Texas Law Insanity Defense begins with the British test for right and wrong, known as the M’Naghten, being adopted in the majority of American states. The M’Naghten test for right and wrong required a mental disease that kept the defendant from controlling their actions and that cognitive impairment is the cause for the defective reasoning of what is right and what is wrong. Beginning in 1973, Texas adopted the American Law Institute’s …show more content…
For Dena Schlosser, the issue of insanity was less clear. In Schlosser’s first trial, the jury ended up deadlocked as to whether or not Schlosser was legally insane under the Texas insanity defense law. Similarly, in the second trial, the defense and prosecution let the judge decide the verdict, which was not guilty by reason of insanity, and it was revealed that Schlosser had a brain tumor, which could have led to her religious delusions telling her to cut off her baby’s arms, fatally injuring the daughter (New York Times). In the simpler case of Deanna Laney, Laney suffered religious delusions that led her to crush her sons’ skull with rocks, and the expert witness, Park Dietz, said, “Laney didn’t realize her actions were wrong, which means she was legally insane under Texas Law” (NBC). All five psychiatric experts in the trial said Laney qualified as insane under the Texas due to a “severe mental illness [that] caused Laney to have psychotic delusions that rendered her incapable of knowing right from wrong during the killings” (USA TODAY). Laney did not know what was morally wrong due to her psychotic religious delusions, causing a severe mental illness, but it can be said that she knew what was legally wrong because her first call was to 911 after the murders
Although the defences expert testimony agreed that Yates was psychotic, the law in Texas is that to be able to be considered insane you must have not known your actions were wrong which was hard to prove for Andrea since she was very capable of separating right from wrong and since she was very aware of what she had done. When asked about the murders Andrea asked very calm, she had no remorse and genuinely believed what she was going was the right thing to do. Andrea was very heavily influenced by her religion and truly thought that she was saving her children from growing up and becoming sinners to avoid hell. Since Andrea admitted to waiting for her husband to leave for work to kill her children to Dr. Michael Welner, the Prosecutors were easily able to prove this was a thought-out murder which very possibly qualifies this murder as a very possible first degree murder. Testimony from Dr. Dietz also very heavily impact the jury’s decision.
According to medical experts, who examined Morgan on three separate occasions, Morgan was declared legally insane at the time of the murder based on the M’Naughten standard. The experts reached their opinion utilizing Morgan’s history, various psychiatric tests along with the medically accepted technique of hypnosis. The expert testimony was presented to the trial judge in the jury’s absence as well as during the penalty phase of the trial. The appellant does not deny killing the victim; the issue being decided was his sanity at the time of the murder and the exclusion of medical
There has been many law changes for determining insanity in the legal setting. The first major law change was the case of Andrea Yates who pleaded insanity after killing her five kids. Ms Yate suffered from postpartum mental illness, which at that time qualified for insanity. Her case was extremely conversional because many people believe that she knew the differences from right and wrong. Therefore, resulting into an outrage of people and a change in the law for insanity.
Casey Anthony and the Missing Girl Caylee. Casey Anthony killed her daughter Caylee, she later then used multiple lies to cover it up. December 11th 2008, a body was found little under half a mile away from the Anthony residence. Later found out the body was confirmed to be Caylee. Several months before this, Casey anthony did not report Caylee Anthony until 31 days after she was actually missing.
Susan Cox Powell mysteriously disappeared one night after her husband and two sons went on a camping trip. On the morning of December 7, 2009, Susan did not show up to daycare with the boys which is not like her. People became concerned as to where she was and eventually found out that she disappeared and nobody, including her husband Josh, knew where she was. Although there was no evidence against Josh Powell for the murder of his wife Susan, it is highly possible he committed the crime based on his behavior and what his children shared about that night.
After reading chapters one and two of the Psychology in Everyday Life book and learning about the four big ideas in psychology, and also while trying to figure out the contributing factors of Andrea Yates’ murder of her children. I have to focus in on and think about big idea two, the biopsychosocial approach, that integrates three levels which are biological, psychological and social/cultural; all together these factors influence and give insight into behavior and mental processes. (CITE BOOK) After reviewing these, the psychological factors that I believe to have contributed to Andrea Yates’ murder of her children are, firstly biological, Andrea had a genetic predispositions, which means Andrea had an increased likelihood of developing
As Suzy Spencer, a reporter following the case and author of the book Breaking Point, pointed out that many of the people she interviewed said “This could never happen in my family. My wife would never do that.” Thus during the first trial, although no one disputed Andrea as being sane in the time of the murder, the court dismissed her claims of madness. They sentenced her to life in prison in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice with the qualification for parole in forty years. However this decision led to the public and the media to question how can mental illness affect a person’s judgement and how mental illness should be
Even though she was mentally unstable it was said that Aileen was aware of her actions and the consequences. The death penalties stood in
Let me explain- she was insane Andrea Yates was a mother of five children ranging from six months old to seven years old. One day, after a normal morning, Andrea’s husband left for work and Andrea drew a bath and drowned her five children in the bathtub. The reason for this?
Many people may think of Andrea Yates as the disgraceful mother who murdered all 5 of her children. Also many people do not know that she was severely ill. In fact she was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life, but a court of appeals reversed the conviction and found her insane. She was diagnosed postpartum depression and psychosis. For the people who do know what postpartum depression mean is that each time she gave birth she got more depressed due to hormone change or fatigue.
Case Gone Wrong: Anthony vs State of Florida Case No. 5D11-2357 If ever there was a botched case it was this one with inconsistencies on the part of the State being overwhelming. I watched this trial intently and read everything available.
A case can be changed due to the call of the insanity plea. Nevertheless, This may cause a possible difference to the charge of the defence. In a court case dealing with murder such as the issue with the Clutter family, the Insanity plea was brought into thought to test if Perry and Dick were mentally stable during that time. By definition, the insanity plea is an argument stating the defense was not responsible for their actions due to a psychiatric disease at the time of the act, consequently, making him/her unaware of the occurring actions moreover the later consequences. In the book, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the main characters Perry and Dick killed the Clutter family committing the crime of the century.
The opposing side of the argument may say Mary planned on the death of her husband though evidence says otherwise. When Mary went down to the freezer she “took hold of the first object she found” displaying how Mary didn’t deliberately grab a weapon to use on Patrick’s death and his actual killing was not clearly thought-out by Mary, proving diminished capacity and not murder. Mary Maloney deeply loved her husband and her child, through Patricks’ violence push her to her limits. No criminal intent was for sought when Mary’s state of mind obscurely went after Patrick. All in all Mary wasn’t in her right mind whyen all of this took place.
Monique Chavez Professor Wenzell English 100 8 April 2015 Paper #3 The Casey Anthony Trial: The Verdict That Shocked The Nation On July 5, 2011 Casey Anthony was found not guilty of killing her two-year-old daughter, Caylee Anthony, in an Orlando, Florida courtroom. The Casey Anthony murder case became the Social Media trial of the decade, hundreds of people showed up each day to watch the case unfold. Many people arrived to the courthouse before 8 a.m. to secure the best seats.
The word insane has created many new ways to define the term. Andrea Gates was arrested for the murder of her kids in 2001 and then in 2005 she pled that she was insane and ended up being place in a mental hospital. Andrea Yates was known to have a mental illness according to her doctor and she was being prescribed medicine for it until week before the death of her kids. According to Andrea Gates Satan was telling her that he was going to go after her kids and harm them. Andrea Gates knew that killing her kids would be frowned upon GOD