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Use Of The Insanity Plea By Andrea Yates

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During my true crime podcast era, I came across Andrea Yates. Yates was a mother who killed her five young children by drowning them in a bathtub. While listening to this case, it was revealed that the insanity plea, or also known as the insanity defense, was used. It got me thinking about how the plea works and how people would allow this outcome over a jail sentence. The insanity plea is a tough topic to tackle in the world of criminal law. Many wonder about its effectiveness and authority. The plea is well known in and outside the courtroom, yet it is rarely used. If a plea is put into action, it draws major attention to cases. An acceptable punishment should align with the offense. Innocent until proven guilty is a constitutional right …show more content…

It is used because the alternative is a justification defense. An excuse defense is used to explain that someone should not be held responsible for their actions because of an impairment of some sort such as schizophrenia. A justification defense is when the act is still committed but is considered legal. These defenses shed light on the difficult decisions of determining someone's responsibility. On one side, someone committed a crime because they had no control over themselves, which is an excuse. The other, they did it for morally acceptable reasons, which is a justification. If an excuse case receives a punishment, mixed reactions are going to be seen throughout the public. An example of this is the case of Lindsay Clancy. She was a mother who killed her three children when her husband was out of the house. As a result of her crime, she tried to commit suicide, but was unsuccessful (Baker, 2023). Family and friends wanted Clancy to not be charged for this crime and to receive treatment for her depression and insanity instead of receiving jail time. However, those who didn’t know Clancy, believed that she should stay in jail and serve out a sentence. The plea was put in as a way to protect mentally ill people from the law, but at what point does it stop being protected and become a scapegoat? Using it as a crutch is not why it got set into action in the first …show more content…

If there is a physical way to show that someone is insane, then it could change the outcome of those who use the insanity plea. Debates between philosophers, psychologists, and the general public have yet to agree on a definitive cause. Jin S. Lee (2021) is one of the many contributing authors in the Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law Volume 28 Issue 2 book. The specific chapter that he wrote is called “Borderline Personality Disorder in the Courtroom” which talks specifically about borderline personality disorder and its diagnostic criteria. He says, “The characteristic pattern of behaviors, cognition, and emotions may be influenced by factors often categorized into nature…and nurture” (Lee, 2021, pp. 206-217). Genetics, environment, and personal experiences play a role in shaping a person's mind. Depending on the person, it could be simpler to narrow down triggers. This can help prevent aggressive behavior and or provided room for intervention to help those struggling with insanity before it turns violent. Cases such as Steven Steinberg, who stabbed his wife 26 times that ended up killing her; John Wayne Gacy, who tortured, raped, and murdered at least 30 young boys; or John Hinkley Jr. who tried to kill Ronald Reagen. If a prevention was set into place, these cases and others would have never happened. These three killers have tried to use the insanity plea and were unsuccessful in doing

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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).

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In the movie, Anatomy of A Murder, Lieutenant Manion kills the owner of an Inn who allegedly beat and raped his wife. Manion claimed that he did not remember doing it and that he “must have been mad” when he committed the crime. Upon seeing an Army psychiatrist, Lieutenant Manion, and his attorney, Paul Biegler, entered a plea of not guilty by reason of irresistible impulse. However, this plea was not easy for Biegler to prove and was not a defense that was commonly used or even heard of. Manion was assessed by the Army psychiatrist who concluded that the Lieutenant was temporarily insane at the time of the murder.

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In June of 2001, the entire nation was deeply disturbed by the horrific acts committed by a suburban Texas housewife, and mother of five. Andrea Yates had drowned all five of her young children in the bathtub of their home. Yates called the authorities and her husband Rusty Yates to the home, where she confessed to killing her children. According to Faith McLellan of the Lancet Medical Journal, Andrea Yates’s bizarre reasoning behind this horrific act was because she believed to have been marked by Satan, and that in order to save her children from hell she needed to take their lives (McLellan, 2006). Yates pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on the basis of mental defect due to postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis.

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The court dismisses the plea quickly because “the justice system ignores psychosocial complexities and histories in favor of black and white definitions of right and wrong” (Myers). The justice system in this time very rarely accepted pleas of insanity or mental illness. Capote wrote that “after an hour’s conversation with the defendants, the doctor rule[d] out that neither man

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In this case, how do we reconcile the benefits of plea bargaining with the importance of justice? Our criminal justice system is a system where “95% of criminal defendants plead guilty to the charges against them” whether they are guilty or not (pg 11).

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It is important for there to not be the death sentence because like previously mentioned, all you’re doing is getting revenge, not helping anyone. In a sense, we aren’t any better than the person being killed. We are basically killing someone because they killed someone. So because of the murder trial of Bobby Franks, the plea for insanity has been used more and has worked

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Plea of Insanity The plea of insanity is a defense in which the defendant cannot be held criminally responsible for a crime due to them not being in a stable mindset. In the ongoing trial of Alex Murdaugh, the question of whether or not he should claim insanity is still up for debate. But many things must still be considered before saying that he should not. Before the murder trial most people knew Alex Murdaugh as a thief and drug addict, but that is only half of the story.

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The Durham rule says that someone is able to legally plead insane if they committed a crime because of a mental disease of defect. In order for this rule to be in use, the defendant must distinctly show that by evidence that he or she had a mental disease or defect at the time of the crime. The Insanity Defense Reform Act explains that if someone did not fully understand or appreciate the wrongfulness of the crime committed, then they can plead insane. The last form is the substantial capacity test which expresses, “insanity should be defined as a lack of substantial capacity to control one’s behavior”

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Insanity Defense The insanity defense has the notion that some individuals are mentally disturbed that they are unable to understand their actions and it would be a violation to hold them responsible. Smith states that the insanity defense is a plea used by the defense to show lack of mental potential of a person when committing a crime. (Smith, 2012)

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There are many reasons why people get convicted of crimes, and even more varieties in the sentencings of those crimes. Another category to consider are those who have committed a crime and recieve an alternative punishment to that crime, outside the norm. Juries listen to circumstances and must determine a fair and appropriate sentencing for individuals with unique situations; specifically when a person commits an unlawful act and is exempt criminally. Reasons of mental insanity, when a person is not mentally capable of knowing what they are doing, and self-defence, when a person uses a reasonable amount of force to eliminate a threat, are the two main justifications used before juries. Mental insanity can be defined in many different ways,

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2014, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/so-sue-me/201411/the-difference-between-competency-and-sanity.). The judge also looks at the person’s mental state at the time of the crime. The main difference between competency to stand trial and insanity at the time of the event is that the competency can look at mental and physical health, while the insanity at the time of the event only looks at one’s mental state. The steps required in an insanity plea in the courts are: The M’Naghten rule, which “determines if the defendant understood what they did and could not distinguish right from wrong” (“Insanity Defense - FindLaw.” http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/insanity-defense.html.), The Irresistible Impulse Test, which “tests a defendant’s impulse control” (“Insanity Defense - FindLaw.” http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/insanity-defense.html.), the Durham Rule, which “looks at the defendant’s mental defect as the cause of a criminal act” (“Insanity Defense - FindLaw.”

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Surprisingly, insanity defense is only recognized in 9 countries (cite). With that being said, some people take advantage of insanity defense to escape from punishment. That could be said for the case of Samuel Lockett, a man notoriously known for faking insanity.

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(2014), Arizona do not have the a not guilty by reason of insanity plea, but instead utilizes a guilty except insane plea. After the Hinckley case, Arizona laws have buckled down about using the insanity plea. Therefore, Jared's defense attorney tried looking at different options including “proving by clear and convincing evidence, which is an extremely high burden ... that the defendant did not understand the wrongfulness of his conduct"(Johnson, 2011, para. 5). There is no concluding evidence as to why the defense team did not use the “guilty except insane” please in this case, but there are speculations about how the odds would not be in Jared Loughner’s favor especially considering the almost similar incident of John Hinckley. Less than one percent of people actually use the not guilty by reason of insanity plea, so in this case there weren’t any benefits of using the guilty by insane

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Dismiss the Defense How many criminals are we allowing to slip through the Law on the grounds of insanity and are they actually crazy or just crazy smart. The insanity plea allows criminals with a psychotic disorder to be reprieved of a trial because they weren’t working of their own accord during the time of their offense (Bikel, Ofra). Although psychosis can influence mentally and physically (IMH) the plea of insanity is an unjustified form of defense in the American Judicial System. The insanity plea is a unjustified form of defense because of many different reasons. To start with “when someone is developing a serious mental illness with psychosis, such as schizophrenia, they usually do not know it” says Gerald Goodman, PhD in psychology (Kam).

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Mental illness is all we seem to hear about lately in relation to crime. According to a Bureau of Justice statistical analysis roughly 61% of inmates have a recent history or are currently showing symptoms of mental illness. With those kind of numbers, it is reasonable to think that not guilty by reason of insanity (NGI or NGRI) is a common defense tactic. However, NGI, according to a 1991 study by the National Institute of Health, is used in approximately 1% of criminal cases.

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