On November 19, 1898, Ariel Tritondatter was arrested on the felony charges of first- degree murder and breaking & entering. An arraignment was later held on November 22, 1898, which Ariel Tritondatter was informed about the charges she was faced with. Additionally, Ariel Tritondatter soon entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity Ariel Tritondatter’s criminal trial was set in the Circuit Court with both a jury and a judge called “Syed Ahmed Khan”. The defendant, Ariel Tritondatter, almost didn’t converse throughout the trial, but soon she took a stand to defend herself.
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
This phase caused three different psychiatrists to come in and testify on Brom’s mental state. The testimonies would be held up against the M'Naghten Rule. The 140 year old standard which holds that a criminal defendant can’t be held responsible for a crime if he did not know the nature of his act or that it was morally wrong. There was a huge argument in this case over whether or not David Brom was mentally insane. Seven out of the eight health professionals who evaluated David found him to be mentally competent.
The James Holmes and the Aurora theatre shooting case. There are many pieces of evidence in this case that could be looked at as someone who committed a premeditated shooting and someone who was in fact insane. Ultimately the insanity plea did not work in James Holmes favor but it did extend what would have already been a long death penalty case. Some key pieces of evidence were highly controversial in the fact that there was arguing over whether or not it should be allowed in court.
At the 2002 trial, Yates pleaded not guilty, by using the insanity defense. The insanity defense argues that an individual should not be found guilty of a crime if they have a persistent psychiatric disease at the time the crime was committed. It was proved that Yates could tell right from wrong, so she did not meet the definition of the insanity in Texas (Walsh). The jury deliberated for almost four hours, and finally found Yates guilty. The jury rejected her insanity defense, and Yates was sentenced to life in prison.
Andrea Yates conviction was a unjust trial at first and later on the conviction changed to a just one. She was convicted for the murders of her children (Chan). She suffered from depression and had tried to commit suicide (Chan). Yates was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison (Chan). This convictions was later over turned and she wasn’t found guilty anymore because, of insanity (Chan).
Prosecutor Park Dietz had claimed in his testimony that Andrea had gotten her idea to drown the children from an episode of Law and Order, in which a woman drowned her own children but got away with it through the insanity defense. The producers of the television show later came forward and stated that no such episode existed, Dietz simply melded together parts of separate programs. The Texas Court of Appeals decided that was reason enough for a retrial, considering the jury’s difficult primary decision could have been biased by false information. So, on June 26, 2006, five years after her sentencing to life in prison, Andrea’s retrial began. The prime reason why it is so difficult to declare someone not guilty by reason of insanity in Texas is the M’Naghten Rule.
"Severe mental illness like psychosis can lead to a tragedy like this - that people can see things that aren't real and hear things that aren't real and believe things that aren't real, and act in that distorted reality." -Andrea Yates Andrea Yates, who was eventually found innocent, was convicted for the murder of her 5 children. Since then, this has been a very controversial court case where people’s opinions are all over the boards. The debate between her being guilty or innocent has created a calamity within the eyes of the court and everyone who was present during the trials.
Holmes processed by declaring guilty for reason of insanity and the judge accepts. Defendant’s Charges The following month on August 26, 2015. A judge in Colorado sentences Holmes to twelve
The Insanity Verdict on Trial written by Scott O. Lilienfeld. This article explains how the insanity defense originally came about, through Daniel McNaighton in 1843. McNaighton was acquitted after planning to kill the British Prime Minister and accidentally ending up killing his secretary. McNaighton’s reasoning behind the attack was that he thought the government was out to get him, thus a form of mental insanity. “Reacting to public anger to the verdict, a panel of judges fashioned a guideline for insanity, now called the McNaughton rule: to be declared insane, defendants must either not have known what they were doing at the time or not have realized their actions were wrong” (Lilienfeld).
Her defense team used the NGRI defense, and provided numerous arguments intended to convince the jury that Yate’s was not in a sound state of mind when she committed the murders. In 2002, the jury found her guilty of capital murder, but because of her mental illness, she was sentenced to life in prison rather than receiving the death penalty. However, in 2006 her conviction was overturned on appeal because of a false testimony from a prosecution witness. Yates was retried and found not guilty by reason of insanity and was then committed to a state mental hospital.
Justice Tindall, whom was present at the M’Naughten trial when the insanity plea became a legal defense, breaks these rules into 3 statements. “Every person is presumed sane unless the contrary can be proven otherwise” (Allnut, et al. 293), which in this case it cannot. “A person suffering a ‘partial delusion’ should be dealt with as if the circumstances of the delusion was real” (Allnut, et al. 293). If Minnie was suffering from some sort of delusions, she would have used that as an excuse once Mr. Hale found her or would’ve had some crazy story on what happened. She got straight to the point.
Andrea Yates at the time she committed her crime was a thirty-seven year old married mother of five children from Houston, Texas. Her five children, Noah 7, John 5, Paul 3, Luke 2, and Mary 6 months was murdered by their mother by her drowning them. She held each one of her children under the water in the bathroom bathtub. She drowned them one by one and once they were dead she placed them under a sheet on her bed. All except for Noah who was found still face down in the bathtub when the police arrived.
Intro: “It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane” (PHILIP K. DICK, Valis). In present day America laws have been placed that prevent people who are “insane” to be guilty of the crimes they commit. In short, insanity is the state of being seriously mentally ill relating to madness. This is presented in the book Medea written by Euripides through her point of view. In Medea, a surge of insanity purges her after she is betrayed by her husband Jason causing many cruel and harsh actions to follow from her.
