Case Analysis of Andrea Yates

Nathan Merrill XXJUN2012 PS208 Case Analysis of Andrea Yates After close retread and c atomic number 18ful analysis of the topic of Andrea Yates and the circumstances which led to the dr bearing death and shoot of her five children, I first would like to state my personalised whim on the finale of the case which was the majority consensus at the time of her running play and sentencing.She was guilty of a horrible murder and although certainly had amiable problems, which is patent by her actions that most completely rational thinking human organism and mother would be incapable of committing, and talentedly used an frenzy confession to lessen the sanctions that should tolerate and inevitably would have been brought upon her. The major dilemma in this entire case was not based upon whether Andrea Yates had or had not committed the crime of murder five times oer on her own flesh and blood or even so if she was psychicly sick.The defining air in this case is the interp retation by which we judge insanity and the scale of measurement by which we way the accuracy if someone convicted of a crime and pleads insanity was actually aw are that the crime they committed was a wrong doing. The interpretations are subject to base line analysis which has changed over time since its line on how we decide if a person is mentally capable of penetrative their actions and thus should be held responsible for those actions to the farthest extent of the law.Basically this case comes reduce to if Yates knew her actions were wrong and if she made the conscious conclusiveness to murder her children, which in my personal opinion is a resounding yes. I would not argue the concomitant that Yates is mentally ill scarce the this cased seemed to revolve around the particular of if she comes up with a good enough reason to commit much(prenominal) a horrible crime then it can appear that she frankly thought by her actions she was protecting her children. The circumsta nces based on officeeousness become confusing but could also be the result of a masterfully constructed defense.Granted, a life in a mental installation would be no walk in the park or even enjoyable but far less intrusive than death itself or a life in the general population of penitentiary living. My conclusion is that yes, Yates is sick, but I feel a strong possibility of her soul the wrongness of her actions to the anticipate of society but in her opinion acted in the greater good based on religiously psychotic feel of heaven and hell which was a foundation of making a decision to take her childrens lives while understanding it was wrong and should have been dealt with by a swifter and stronger hand of justness.My opinion aside this is the conclusion and information brought forrad by unbiased research as to the case and analysis of Yates. tho one of a twelve mental health experts who screen outified concluded that the Yates was legitimately sane when she drowned her five children in the family bathtub. The witness, called by prosecutors, was Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist and the prosecutors only mental health expert, Dietz and his attestation helped convict Yates. The article of faith later was overturned. When Yates is retried, much of the attention again was on Dietz, who is back on the prosecutions witness list.And now, there are questions about Dietzs conclusions in the Yates case because of his testimony in another(prenominal) trial involving a Texas mother who killed devil of her children. Questions have added intrigue to a case in which prosecutors initial decision to judge the death penalty ignited a national debate over how mental illness and postpartum depression are viewed in vicious courts. The Yates case now has become a symbol of the influence that expert witnesses hold in trials in our country each day, and a test of how psychiatrists opinions are used in court.The standards judges use in deciding whether to admit psyc hiatric opinions in court are less very(prenominal) than those used to allow testimony about scientific evidence that is more obviously measurable, such as DNA or fingerprints. George Parnham, who was Yates lead attorney, express the defense hopes to raise doubts about Dietzs analysis of Yates. The defense, Parnham state, was to focus on why Dietz found Yates to be sane and therefore legally responsible for her actions and also why he came to the opposite conclusion in 2004 in a similar case involving Deanna Laney, a Texas mother who killed two of her sons.Kaylynn Williford, who was a Harris County prosecutor, said Dietzs analysis in other cases is not relevant to the Yates case. She says she will regard the judge to limit Dietzs testimony to his analysis of Yates. If convicted, Yates was facing life in prison, but not execution. That issue was settled at her first trial, when the dialog box jilted execution. Texas law defines insanity as the inability to know right from wrong . At Yates trial, Dietz testified that Yates knew that drowning her children was wrong. Jurors agreed with Dietzs opinion and rejected her insanity defense.A key contrariety in the Yates case from other similar cases was that she didnt state that she attacked her sons at Gods worry. Yates had told Dietz that she had drowned her children Noah, 7 John, 5 Paul, 3 Luke, 2 and Mary, 6 months at the direction of Satan, according to the trial transcript. She also told Dietz she thought it was wrong. Although Yates readily confessed to what she had done, and the crimes were committed in less than an hour, what led up to her killing her children had been building for almost two years she had said.Odd family dynamics, fundamentalist religious beliefs, clinical care that was fragmented at best, and the quirks and inadequacies of the American medical-insurance system all had some role in the Yates family tragedy. The case also highlighted the lack of recognition of the potentially deadly co nsequences of postnatal disorders, and the limitations of the justice system in dealing with individuals who are mentally ill. Andrea Yates began to show signs of mental illness shortly after the birth of her first child, when she had a error that involved a stabbing.After the birth of her fourth child, she attempted suicide by taking an overdose of sedatives. She was taken to hospital, but was eventually discharged forwards her symptoms were resolved because her insurance company limited the number of days of convict care it would pay for. She was prescribed antidepressants, but did not take them. In a second suicide attempt, she held a knife against her throat and began to mangle herself and heard voices that told her to get a knife.When she became near catatonic, doctors suggested electroconvulsive therapy, but the family rejected this option. Finally, she received a drug cocktail containing an antipsychotic agent. The medication was apparently effective, but Andrea believed she had been cookn truth serum, which caused her to lose control of herself. Despite a psychiatrists warning that having another child would more than likely provoke another psychotic episode, the Yates had a fifth child.The implication was that Andrea had got the idea for her actions from the television program. However, no such episode had ever aired. This was the false testimony, a mistake Dietz acknowledged, on which the case was eventually overturned and a new trial granted. hoar Yates, Andreas husband, divorced his wife and remarried. Andreas commitment to a state mental institution is subject to court supervision and is reviewed periodically but chances are she will remain in a mental hospital for the rest of her life.Several professional communities have used Andreas case to try to prevent a similar tragedy from occurring. The Mental Health Association of Greater Houston accomplished the Yates Children Memorial Fund to educate the public about issues affecting womens ment al health after birth and the effect of post pardum depression and disorders. In 2003, the Texas state legislature passed the Andrea Yates Bill. The bill requires all providers of prenatal care to give new mothers information about resources available to help them with postnatal depression.