Nathan Merrill XXJUN2012 PS208 Case Analysis of Andrea Yates After close review and careful examination of the case of Andrea Yates and the conditions which led to the drowning death and murder of her five children, I first wish to state the opinion around the conclusion of the watch case which was the majority consensus during the time of her trial and sentencing.
She was guilty of a horrible murder and although absolutely had mental problems, which is apparent by simply her actions that most entirely rational thinking human being and mother can be incapable of committing, and expertly used an insanity request to lessen the sanctions which will have and inevitably would have been helped bring upon her. The major problem in this whole case was not based upon if Andrea Yates had or perhaps had not committed the criminal offenses of killing five times more than on her very own flesh and blood or maybe if your woman was mentally sick.
The identifying line in this case is the model by which we judge madness and the range by which we all way the accuracy if someone convicted of a crime and pleads insanity was really aware that the crime they committed was obviously a wrong undertaking. The interpretations are controlled by base range analysis which includes changed with time since its inception on how we decide if a person is mentally competent of understanding their actions and thus needs to be held responsible for all those actions for the farthest extent of the rules.
Basically the case comes down to if perhaps Yates understood her actions were incorrect and if the lady made the conscious decision to killing her children, which in my own opinion is a resounding certainly. I would not argue the truth that Yates is psychologically ill but the this cased seemed to revolve around the fact of if your woman comes up with an excellent enough reason to devote such a terrible crime it can show up that the lady honestly thought by her actions she was protecting her children. The circumstances depending on religion turn into confusing yet could also be the result of a masterfully constructed security.
Granted, a life within a mental organization would be no walk in the park and even enjoyable although far less distressing than loss of life itself or possibly a life in the general populace of penitentiary living. My own conclusion is the fact yes, Yates is sick, but I believe a strong prospect of her understanding the wrongness of her activities to the associated with society but also in her view acted in the greater great based on religiously psychotic a sense of heaven and hell that has been a first step toward making a decision to adopt her kids lives when understanding it was wrong and should have been addressed by a swifter and more robust hand of justice.
My estimation aside this is actually the conclusion and information helped bring forth by simply unbiased exploration as to the case and research of Yates. Only one of any twelve mental health experts who testified concluded that the Yates was officially sane once she drowned her five children in the family bath. The see, called by simply prosecutors, was Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist plus the prosecutors’ only mental well being expert, Dietz and his testimony helped convict Yates. The conviction after was overturned. When Yates is retried, much of the focus again was on Dietz, who is again on the prosecution’s witness list.
And now, you will discover questions about Dietz’s results in the Yates case because of his account in another trial involving a Texas mom who wiped out two of her children. Concerns have added intrigue to a case through which prosecutors’ primary decision to get the loss of life penalty ignited a countrywide debate above how mental illness and postpartum depression are seen in legal courts. The Yates circumstance now has get a symbol of the influence that expert witnesses hold in trials in our country daily, and a test of how psychiatrists’ opinions are used in court.
The criteria judges use in deciding if to admit psychiatric views in the courtroom are less exact than those utilized to allow accounts about medical evidence that is certainly more naturally measurable, including DNA or fingerprints. George Parnham, who was Yates’ lead attorney, said the defense hopes to raise doubts regarding Dietz’s analysis of Yates. The protection, Parnham said, was to focus on why Dietz found Yates to be sane and therefore legitimately responsible for her actions and also why he came to the opposite conclusion in 2004 in a similar circumstance involving Deanna Laney, a Texas mom who murdered two of her sons.
Kaylynn Williford, who was a Harris County prosecutor, said Dietz’s analysis in other cases is not highly relevant to the Yates case. She says she will ask the judge to limit Dietz’s testimony to his analysis of Yates. In the event convicted, Yates was facing life in prison, but is not execution. That issue was settled by her initially trial, when the jury declined execution. Texas law identifies insanity while the inability to learn right from incorrect. At Yates’ trial, Dietz testified that Yates realized that too much water her children was wrong. Jurors agreed with Dietz’s opinion and rejected her insanity security.
A key difference in the Yates case from all other similar situations was that the lady didn’t suggest that she bombarded her daughters at God’s direction. Yates had advised Dietz that she got drowned her children ” Noah, several, John, 5, Paul, several, Luke, two, and Martha, 6 months ” at the path of Satan, according to the trial transcript. She also told Dietz she thought it was wrong. Even though Yates easily confessed as to what she got done, and the crimes had been committed within just an hour, what led about her eradicating her children had been building for almost two years she had said.
Unusual family mechanics, fundamentalist spiritual beliefs, clinical care that was fragmented at best, as well as the quirks and inadequacies from the American medical-insurance system most had a few role in the Yates’ family members tragedy. The case also highlighted the lack of acknowledgement of the possibly deadly implications of postnatal disorders, and the limitations of the justice program in dealing with people who are mentally ill. Andrea Yates began to present signs of mental illness soon after the birth of her initially child, when ever she had a hallucination that involved a stabbing.
Following your birth of her fourth kid, she tried suicide through an overdose of sleeping pills. She was taken to clinic, but was sooner or later discharged prior to her symptoms were solved because her insurance company limited the number of days of inpatient treatment it would pay money for. She was prescribed antidepressants, but did not take them. Within a second committing suicide attempt, she held a knife against her can range f and started to mutilate their self and observed voices that told her to “get a knife.
When she started to be near catatonic, doctors advised electroconvulsive remedy, but the relatives rejected this method. Finally, she received a drug beverage containing an antipsychotic agent. The medication was obviously effective, yet Andrea presumed she had received “truth serum, which triggered her to get rid of control of himself. Despite a psychiatrist’s warning that having another kid would most likely provoke an additional psychotic show, the Yates had a 6th child.
The implication is that Andrea got got the idea for her actions from the tv set program. Nevertheless , no these kinds of episode got ever shown. This was the false account, a mistake Dietz acknowledged, on which the case was eventually overturned and a new trial awarded. Rusty Yates, Andrea’s spouse, divorced his wife and remarried. Andrea’s commitment to a state mental institution is subject to court supervision and is also reviewed occasionally but it’s likely that she will continue in a mental hospital throughout her existence.
Several specialist communities have got used Andrea’s case to try and prevent the same tragedy by occurring. The Mental Well being Association of Greater Harrisburg established the Yates Kids Memorial Fund to educate the general public about concerns affecting can certainly mental wellness after birth and the effect of post pardum depression and disorders. In 2003, the Texas point out legislature approved the Andrea Yates Bill. The bill requires all services of prenatal care to provide new mothers information about assets available to make them with postnatal depression.
