Lee Robin's Case Summary

An incident where pleading insanity worked in one’s favor is heard in the case of Lee Robin. Lee Robin was a 30-year-old doctor who was charged with murder of his wife and his two year old daughter. Robin admitted to killing his wife with an ax and drowning his infant daughter. After the murders, Robin called the police and reported that there was “a problem” at his home. Soon after, the police arrived. Robin causally sat at the foot of the stairs and directed them to where the bodies were. Lee’s wife, Annette Robin, was found dead with multiple wounds to the head. The ax was found lying next to her body. Their daughter, Denise, was found dead in the bathtub. There was no motive determined for the killings of the two. After three mental health experts determined that Robin was too psychologically ill to understand his actions were wrong, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. A judge ruled that Robin was well enough to transition back into society after only spending about ten years at the Elgin Mental Health Center in Illinois.

Today, Asian-Americans, more specifically Chinese-Americans, find mental illness to be stigmatizing. In a Chinese-American family, children are taught not to show any open signs of weakness or emotions. Preserving public appearance is important to the Chinese-American culture. Discussing moods and psychological states is disgracing and not acceptance mainly because of fear of social stigma and shame. “It is more accepting for psychological distress to be expressed through the body instead of through the mind” (Kramer, 2002). From this information, I assume that my Chinese-American family would not approve of the Judge’s decision to grant Lee’s “innocent by reason of insanity”