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Mental illness in crimes essay
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This paper discusses the case of Andrea Yates, she confessed to the drowning of her five children and was charged with capital murder in 2001. The initial conviction was overturned and Yates was found not guilty due to insanity and was ordered to a mental hospital in 2006. Yates had sought help for her mental illness and was seeing a psychiatrist, who advise her not to have another child. Andrea Yates only received a minimal amount of therapeutic treatment. If the treatment was possibly longer could have help with the deterioration of her mental condition. CASE STUDY OF A CRIMINAL OFFENDER During the criminal proceeding of the Andrea trial, there were several mental health professionals that were call by the defense to testify in the first trial, including several of her treating psychiatrists. In the Yates trial, both defense and prosecution experts agreed on three issues, Yates suffered from a mental disease, she knew that her conduct was against the law and that a subjective moral wrongfulness issue had to be considered (Resnick P,2007). …show more content…
On June 18, 1999, Mrs. Yates took an overdose of medication to take her life. The jury believes that Mrs. Yates needed help and basis on their observation and testimony from experts witness that she was worse off than when she committed the crimes. Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Resnick testified that Yates believed deeply that killing her children was the right thing to do. Yates, according to defense expert Resnick, believed that Satan had taken over her body and soul and was eyeing her children 's souls next. Mrs. Yates mental illness was the basis of her found not guilty at the second trial. Resnick diagnosed Yates with schizoaffective disorder, severe depression with schizophrenic symptoms, (CNN, December
In the book Crazy in America by Mary Beth Pfeiffer, she illustrated examples of what people with mental illness endure every day in their encounters with the criminal justice system. Shayne Eggen, Peter Nadir, Alan Houseman and Joseph Maldonado are amongst those thousands or more people who are view as suspected when in reality they are psychotic who should be receiving medical assistance instead, of been thrown into prison. Their stories also show how our society has failed to provide some of its most vulnerable citizens and has allowed them to be treated as a criminals. All of these people shared a common similarity which is their experience they went through due to their illness.
Throughout the trial, defense attorneys attempted to argue Salvi was suffering from psychological disorders that would make him incompetent for trial. Ultimately, however Salvi was found competent to stand trial. After reading Salvi’s full psychiatric interview, the official court transcript of the four-day competency hearing, and the day-to-day summary; I have come to agree that the defendant, John Salvi was competent to stand trial.
Relevant facts and background of the case indicate that, Buck Carrie an 18-year old female and a resident of Virginia State was feebleminded. Similarly, her mother was feebleminded too. Even though not married, Carrie had a feebleminded daughter (Brocato, 2008). Virginia State passed laws in 1924 allowing superintendants of special institutions with conditions that are hereditary and cause imbecility insanity to sterilize these persons. For the sterilization process to continue, the requirement was for superintendents to present to the board of directors a petition, inform the inmate and the inmate’s guardian, and call a hearing to give evidence against and for carrying out the process (Black, 2003). In the case, Dr. Bell carried the proceeding against Ms. Carrie Buck. This was after the death of her first physician during the case pendency. Similarly, Bell pushed fo...
When I first heard about the Casey Anthony Trial, I thought it was a sick joke. Nobody knows my name but, I got my ‘ole lady Casey Anthony knocked up in December of 2004, and on August 9, 2005, at the age of 19, Casey gave birth to my sweet baby girl, Caylee Marie Anthony (Website 2). Caylee was born in Orlando Florida; she was a true child of the sunshine state (Fanning 161). I did not want to believe Casey could kill our child. In reality, I knew that Casey was a Pathological Liar (Fanning 227). She also liked to smoke pot, and would do whatever else is around (Fanning 228). I blame myself for that.
Although many events happened before and after the crime that could have altered her future, the background of Andrea is the most vital information to have to understand where she came from, like the births of five children or constantly moving around in a motor home. By understanding her medical past, the drastic actions that she took on June 20th, 2001 are as clear as they will ever be in a twisted crime like this one at hand. Andrea Yates childhood, adulthood, and medical history are all essential in understanding the murders of her five
The punishment in the State of Texas for committing two capital crimes is life in jail or the death penalty. Andrea’s lawyer tried to show her innocence by protesting that she was insane at the time of the killings. This plea of insanity could have kept her from life in jail or the death penalty. Sure, she would have served a couple years in jail, but she would have been given the opportunity to come out on parole. Now, if this lady was insane like some believe, then how could she know she committed a crime and not know she was doing wrong when actually drowning the children? Mrs. Yates knew exactly that she hurt the innocent children and was awfully aware of what was going on. Mrs. Yates even called the police and her husband to inform them of what she had done. If the death penalty was on her mind while she was drowning the children, then she might have shown some moral awareness before drowning them instead of after they had died. I believe Andrea to be a sane woman, even though she was depressed or had postpartum depression.
The reasons or categories for committing filicide include: altruistic filicide, acutely psychotic filicide, unwanted child filicide, accidental filicide, and spousal revenge filicide. The cases that will be discussed in this paper will fall under the altruistic filicide, acute psychotic filicide, and unwanted child. One case that was highly publicized and brought filicide to the forefront of America’s minds was Andrea Yates. Andrea murdered all five of her children by drowning them in the bathtub in her home. Prior to this incident, Andrea had been in and out of hospitals and mental health institutions for depression and psychosis (West).
Melissa J. Ganz’s essay, “Carrying On Like a Madman: Insanity and Responsibility,” reads Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde through a new historical lens, looking at the novel alongside medico-legal debates about insanity in Victorian culture, as well as Stevenson’s own career in the law. She argues that while other scholars have examined criminality in the novel, they have ignored the legal questions Jekyll’s “madness” brings up. The M’Naghten case of 1843 deemed a person legally irresponsible for their actions if, because of a mental disease, they were unable to perceive the nature of their acts or know that they were wrong. The idea of insanity sparked debates between jurists and doctors. Early psychiatrists,
Much of my skepticism over the insanity defense is how this act of crime has been shifted from a medical condition to coming under legal governance. The word "insane" is now a legal term. A nuerological illness described by doctors and psychiatrists to a jury may explain a person's reason and behavior. It however seldom excuses it. The most widely known rule in...
Prior to taking this course, I generally believed that people were rightly in prison due to their actions. Now, I have become aware of the discrepancies and flaws within the Criminal Justice system. One of the biggest discrepancies aside from the imprisonment rate between black and white men, is mental illness. Something I wished we covered more in class. The conversation about mental illness is one that we are just recently beginning to have. For quite a while, mental illness was not something people talked about publicly. This conversation has a shorter history in American prisons. Throughout the semester I have read articles regarding the Criminal Justice system and mental illness in the United States. Below I will attempt to describe how the Criminal Justice system fails when they are encountered by people with mental illnesses.
Lamb, H. R. (2004). Mentally ill persons in the criminal justice system: Some perspectives. Psychiatric Quarterly, 108-126.
Slobogin, Christopher. "The Integrationist Alternative to the Insanity Defense: Reflections on the Exculpatory Scope of Mental Illness in the Wake of the Andrea Yates Trial." American Journal of Criminal Law (2003): Vol. 30 Issue 3, p315-341.
...omeone do this to their child?”. There have been many similar cases where the mother was found not guilty, so why was Yates found guilty? The answer may come from the website Andrea Yates: Ill or Evil? “In America, there are no clear standards in court for dealing with mentally ill mothers—not even in the same city.” This is a sad, but true statement. People tend to use their own morals and experiences as how they perceive things. Of course what Andrea Yates did was wrong, but she was also seriously ill.
The insanity defense pertains that the issue of the concept of insanity which defines the extent to which a person accused of crimes may be alleviated of criminal responsibility by reason of mental disease. “The term insanity routinely attracts widespread public attention that is far out of proportion to the defense’s impact on criminal justice” (Butler,133). The decision of this defense is solely determined by the trial judge and the jury. They determine if a criminal suffers from a mental illness. The final determination of a mental disease is solely on the jury who uses evidence and information drawn from an expert witness. The result of such a determination places the individual accused, either in a mental facility, incarcerated or released from all charges. Due to the aforementioned factors, there are many problems raised by the insanity defense. Some problems would be the actual possibility of determining mental illness, justify the placement of the judged “mentally ill” offenders and the total usefulness of such a defense. In all it is believed that the insanity defense should be an invalid defense and that it is useless and should potentially be completely abolished.
When viewed from a strictly medical, psychological aspect, Andrea Yates medical history indicates that after the birth of her first child, she began to suffer from various forms of depression and suicide attempts. If one only examines the paper trail and doesn’t think beyond what the medical history does or does not indicate, then perhaps, Andrea would be innocent by reason of mental insanity as the 2006 acquittal suggest. However, when viewed form a legal aspect there are several inconstancies that challenge if this former nurse was insane or if she in fact premeditated the murder of her children as well as her acquittal.