Aileen Wuornos Criminal Cases

Aileen “Lee” Wuornos worked as a prostitute in central Florida and from 1989 through 1990 where she robbed and murdered seven men. All seven men were middle-aged white males. Aileen Wuornos claims these murders were an act of self-defense against being raped but later recanted and said she killed out of hate for human life. Once she was caught by the police and went to trial she was sentenced to the death penalty for six of the seven murders. She was the second female murderer executed in the state of Florida since 1976. This case brought up several issues with mental illness and the use of capital punishment as well as the use of media influence on capital cases. In this paper I will go into detail of Aileen Wuornos' history of early abuse

Along with the sexual abuse from her grandfather and brother she was also sexually abused by several neighborhood boys. As a young teen Aileen started to use sex for money, alcohol or drugs from boys. This led to trouble in school and she would later drop out. At the age of thirteen or fourteen Aileen became pregnant by a friend of her grandfather’s (Capital Punishment in Context) and was sent to a home for unwed mothers to give birth to her son. She had to give him up for adoption due to her family would not allow her to come back home with the child. She also states that her grandfather would also physically abuse her as a young child until the time she was forced out of the home at the age of fifteen when her grandmother died (Whyte 2012 and Criminal Motives). With her out on the streets at an early age she turned to what she knew, prostitution, to make money to survive. This led her to several arrests for prostitution, illegal possession of a firearm, check forgery, assault, robbery and alcohol abuse. Wuornos’ criminal file has it noted that she was easily angered, showed erratic behavior and is listed with “Attitude Poor” (Capital Punishment in Context). While hich hiking in Florida, Aileen Wuornos eventually did marry 69 year old Lewis Gratz Fell who was the yacht club president in Florida in 1976. With her continuous anger out bursts in the club bar and

Several psychologists interviewed her and have stated on record that she did suffer from "borderline personality disoder and an antisocial personality disorder as well(Murderpedia). At one time in middle school her IQ was tested due to her strange behavior and poor acedemics. She was found to have an IQ of 81wich is on the border line. In the journal from Capital Punishment in Context: The Case of Aileen Wuornos – The Facts "An IQ at or below 70 is generally accepted as indicating mental retardation. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Atkins v. Virginia in 2002, the mentally retarded cannot be sentenced to death. School officials urged that Wuornos receive counseling and tried to improve her behavior by administering a mild tranquilizer". Nothing was ever furthered in helping Aileen to improve mentally and acedemicly. Aileen Wuornos was found quilty and sentenced to death. After her sentencing of Richard Mallory she did plead quilty to the other murders and were was also sentenced to death in those as well. She was sentenced to death even thoough Aileen was found to be mentgally unstable. Even though she was mentally unstable it was said that Aileen was aware of her actions and the consequences. The death penalties stood in