...Criminal Defense Case Analysis Melissa Bowman CJA/305 January 30, 2016 Jerri Green Introduction This paper will go over two cases that explain the nature and types of defense used and the evidence used to demonstrate the defense. The first case explained will discuss Andrea Yates, a mom who killed her five children on grounds of insanity. The next case Jean Harris also claimed to be insane and by accident killed someone by accident as she tried to commit suicide. It will also address how justification and excuse play a role in the cases. Lastly, the outcomes of each case will be given. Explain the nature and types of defenses used in the cases and what evidence was used to demonstrate the defense. There are multiple types of defense, justification and excuse are affirmative defenses. This is when it must be raised or asserted by the defendant independently of any claims made by the prosecutor. The first case to be explained is about Andrea Yates, the type of defense she chooses was innocence by reason of insanity Andrea Yates Biography. (2016). She had cited postpartum psychosis. Yates was treated for postpartum depression and psychosis; they showed that the illness ran in her family. The birth of her fifth child and death of her father was shown as a reason she fell into a severe depression. She had been admitted to Devereux-Texas Treatment Network and was put on psychotropic drug treatments Andrea Yates Biography. (2016). She was accused of drowning all five...
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...Biological Criminal Behavior and Angela Yates Ceretha Butler, Angela De Libero, Tameka James, Sam Price, Michael Palazuelos CJA/314 5/20/2013 Professor Judy Mazzucca Biological Criminal Behavior Through-out history criminal intents have escalade from small crime to federal crimes seen in cases today. Research have proven genes influence the outcome of a behavior in a criminal behavior and the type of attach committed to his or her victim. This crimes are taught in the school of crime into five different steps to help during a crime investigation. One of these cases is Andrea Yates, who committed a horrific crime on her family. This paper will explain the changes in history of crime and the procedures done in a crime. The paper will also include the story of a criminal who committed the crime. Genetic evidence that confirms that biology does play an important part in explaining an offender’s criminality. Some believe that desire to commit crimes may be inherited and that criminal inclinations are genetically based. Research has been done extensively to discover evidence that would support this claim that has been made by intellectuals. Criminal deeds have always been a motivation due to the debate of nature and nurture. Studies have been done in regards to this debate that has resulted in a conclusion that both genes and environment do play apart in the criminality of a person. The research has stated that it is more often collaboration between genes...
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...Introduction Andrea Yates, a Houston, Texas native, phoned police on June 20, 2001 from her home. She called to tell police she drowned all five of her children. During the phone call, she admitted to drowning her five children in a bathtub. She was 34 years old when she committed this crime. She was put on trial for capital murder in 2006. She later received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. Background History On July 2, 1964 Andrea Pia Kennedy was born in Houston, Texas. Her family was Roman Catholic. When she graduated from high school, she was class valedictorian, captain of the swim team, and an officer in the National Honor Society. She went on to the University of Houston and completed a two-year pre-nursing program. Upon graduating from the pre-nursing program, she went to the University Of Texas School Of Nursing. She graduated with a nursing degree in 1986. Upon receiving her degree she then went to work at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as a registered nurse. She worked there from 1986 to 1994. In 1989, Andrea met her soon to be husband, Russell “Rusty” Yates. They met at their apartment complex in Houston. She did not start dating till she was twenty-three. Therefore, prior to meeting Rusty she had only dated one other man. Then, on April 17, 1993 she became Andrea Yates (Montaldo). When she married Rusty, Her religious views changed also. Rusty was a disciple of the preacher Michael Peter Woroniecki...
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...Causal Argument “Andrea Yates: A Fallen Angel?” Introduction The tragic and shocking case grabbed the attention of millions of people—Andrea Yates was found guilty of drowning her five children in June 20, 2001. She was sentenced to life in prison on March 12, 2002. Yates' conviction was later overturned on appeal by a Texas jury on July 26, 2006. The jury ruled Yates to be not guilty by reason of insanity. She was consequently committed by the court to the North Texas State Hospital, a high-security mental health facility in Vernon, Texas (Wikipedia). What drove Andrea to commit such atrocities? Why would a mother kill her own children? How can someone be so cold and calculated? Was she possessed by evil spirits, or was she legitimately sick? I will attempt to sort through these and many other questions and arguments posed by many. The Faithful Morning Around 10:00 a.m. on June 20, 2001, Rusty Yates received a shocking phone call from his wife, Andrea, whom he had left only an hour before…"You need to come home," she said. “It's time. I did it.” He dropped everything he was doing at the time and left his job as a NASA engineer at the Johnson Space Center. When he arrived fifteen minutes later, the police and ambulances were already at their Houston, Texas home. Rusty was told he could not go into the house, so he put his forehead against a brick wall, trying to process the horrifying news, and waited (Ramsland). Restless for information, he went to...
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...Deadly Deceivers: Why criminals shouldn’t be able to plea insanity Just imagine for a second this scenario. Its premier night for the most anticipated movie of the year “The Dark Knight Rises” and you’re finally making it into your seat after standing for about an hour outside the theatre. The lights dim as the movie starts, and bang! A guy busts through the door fully armed and starts firing into the seat. Seventy people are injured, twelve of them die. The man responsible for this crime is currently on trial, and has the chance to be acquitted because he plans on pleading insanity. Prosecutors in this case proclaim: This just allows the defense to think through how they want to proceed…That makes it easier for the defense to plan its best case. Holmes could plead insanity and would wind up in a mental hospital indefinitely – and would never face execution, if the jury finds in his favor (Campbell). This would not be fair to the people who were injured and to the loved ones of the people who lost their lives in the shooting. Just as a kid would do anything not to get in trouble by their mother, so would a criminal who could face life in jail or execution, which is why pleading insanity shouldn’t be up to a criminal, because they would do anything to get out of jail time. The insanity plea, also known as the insanity defense, is a type criminal defense used in order to reduce their liability in court. Barry S. Edwards, a Minnesota criminal defense attorney, asserts...
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...Rachel Anglum, 18, gave birth to a baby girl at the home where she lived with her parents. She allegedly delivered the baby alone and afterwards held her daughter in her arms for over an hour. It was later determined that she “hugged her newborn to death.” (Meyer 50) Neonaticide is the killing of a newborn baby less than a month old. Typically, the mothers are the killers and are very young and unwed. About 90% of neonaticide mothers are aged 25 or the pregnancy. (2-Neonaticide) Based on the Psychological Theory, crimes can result from a wide array of reasons most of which are: inappropriate learning or improper conditioning, a diseased mind, inappropriate, abnormal or dysfunctional mental processes within the personality, inappropriately conditioned behaviors. It is the personality that is the key motivational element in most people since it is the most common basis of drives and motives. (Schmallenger 89) With regard to the above captioned paragraph, it is thought the major reason for neonaticide mothers to commit this type of crime is because they are in denial of pregnancy. This type of denial is psychological and can be derived in a young woman with previous mental illness or no prior mental instability at all. The point is that a young woman in this particular “state of mind” is overwhelmed by fear of and shame of an unplanned pregnancy. It is their emotional immaturity and lack of resources that keeps these young women from understanding and coping with the...
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...Andrea Yates Cassandra Professor Criminology Spring 2012 Andrea Kennedy was born on July 2, 1964 and married the love of her life, Rusty Yates on April 17, 1993. The plans to have as many children as possible seemed like a fairy tale storybook to the newlyweds but little did Rusty know June 20, 2001 would be the last day he would see his five children that he and Andrea had conceived. Andrea Yates was found guilty on behalf of drowning all five of her children in her Texas home bathtub. June 20, 2001 was the most horrifying day for the Yates’ family and for every other individual notified of one of the most gruesome murders a woman has committed. “She just repeated her statement and then added, “It’s time. I did it” (Ramsland). This statement came from the chilling phone call Rusty Yates had received only an hour after leaving his house. Frantic over what she meant, she simply said it had to do with the children, all of the children. Racing to get home, he knew something traumatic must have happened simply because police and ambulances were already there. He witnessed his wife being led away in handcuffs and gained the knowledge that all five of his children had died. His wife, Andrea had drowned their children. Four children were found lying down with their eyes open in the bedroom with a sheet over them, soaking wet of water. The one remaining was found in the bathtub filled with feces and vomit, appearing to be dead as well. Her five children ranged in age from...
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... With the persuasion of Rusty, Andrea stopped taking Haldol in March 2000 and gave birth to her daughter, Mary, on November 30, 2000. She showed great progression, she seemed to be coping well until the death of her father on March 12, 2001. Andrea then stopped taking medication, maimed herself, and read the Bible anxiously. She also stopped feeding Mary and became so incapacitated that she required immediate medical hospitalization. On April 1, 2001 she came under the care of Dr. Mohammed Saeed whom treated and released her. On May 3, 2001, Rusty stated she degenerated back into a "near catatonic" state and filled the bathtub in the middle of the day; she would later confess to police that she had planned to drown the children that day, but had decided against doing it then. Andrea was hospitalized the next day after a scheduled doctor visit; her psychiatrist Dr. Saeed assumed she was probably suicidal and had filled the tub to actually drown herself. Rusty Yates wanted to file criminal charges against Dr. Saeed for...
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...Who Distinguishes Evil from Illness? By age 30 Andrea Yates had been high school class valedictorian, captain of the swim team, an officer in the National Honor Society, graduated from the University of Houston as a registered nurse, wedded and had her first child. It seemed Yates’s ambition of fulfilling her life with all her hopes and dreams could not be diverted. The Yates family was very religious and Bible reading was an enjoyed pass time within the household. Around 1990, Andrea’s internal issues came to the surface with her self-mutilation accompanied by a suicide attempt, which was followed by a short admission into a psychiatric ward. When released her mood had stabilized from a newly prescribed anti-psychotic with her life looking up. This cycle, unfortunately, insisted on continuing on three separate occasions before Andrea was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and post-partum depression. Yates was warned that if she were to become pregnant again it was highly likely the episodes of psychotic behavior would resurface. She began to grasp the magnitude of her mental health and was readily taking her medications despite the begging and pleading from her husband for another child. Nonetheless, Andrea gave in and the pregnancy of her 5th child began in 2000. In the events of her newborn’s birth, discontinuation of her anti-psychotic, and the passing of her father, Andrea’s spiral into depression was more catastrophic than ever. June 20th, 2001, her husband went...
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...Postpartum Psychosis Motherhood the Sad, the Mad, and the Insane Laurie Hackney Women, Crime, and Criminal Justice Dr. Connolly March 21, 2011 Postpartum Psychosis Motherhood the Sad, the Mad, and the Insane On the heartbreaking morning of June 20, 2001, Andrea Pia Yates was arrested and charged for the filicide of her children. One by one, this seemingly devoted mother of five drowned all of her children in the bathtub of their family home. Singularly, she put her three youngest children to death, taking their bodies from the tub fully clothed and wet, then placed them upon their bed, and covered them up. She proceeding doing the same with her youngest child, but while she was drowning Mary, her oldest son Noah walked in and asked what she was doing before he turned and ran away. She gave chase, caught up with him in the hall, then dragged him back to the bathroom and proceeded to terminate him with Mary dead in tub. Andrea then took Mary and placed her in the arms of the three youngest children leaving Noah behind dead and alone in the bath. Factors Relating to the Incident Being raised a Roman Catholic; Yates converted her religious beliefs to that of her husband’s prior to marriage. In this religion, people are expected to have as many children as nature will allow. Even while Andrea was awaiting trial, it was reported that her husband felt so sure of his wife’s acquittal that he was already speaking about having more children. This notion left the attorneys...
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...believe that this is truly not a flaw but a legal alternative excuse that grants a degree of pardoning due to abnormal and uncontrollable behaviors. Yes and no. There are mitigating circumstances in some cases and living in the state of Texas there seems to be lively bandwagon that legislature seems to jump on every time some type of unsightly event occurs. I believe that Perry is more of a crime control governor and fails to see the importance of true rehabilitation especially in cases such as Andrea Yates. She works with people on a daily basis who truly have a problem that is uncontrollable and now feel that this reveals the how huge mental disability is and how it is linked to many crimes. I truly agree. If a person has impulsive or uncontrollable activities that is the same as locking up a drug addict with an addiction. These people need to be rehabilitated, not stuck in prison; help is needed. Yates is now in a mental hospital until a judge decides that she is stable enough to be released. He probably meant that the people of the jury got a bit personal in their decision and looked at the acts of Yates and its end result; her children were dead at the duty of her hands and felt she should be punished by the fullest extent of law like every other criminal. If there is a law in place that is to be considered in deciding a verdict, I would say no, they should do it based on the rulings of...
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...Insanity defense is a mental disorder people use in criminal trials, saying that they were not in their right mind when they committed that crime. These people argue that, they shouldn’t be charge for a crime they committed, because they didn’t know better. In some cases those who committed crimes weren’t in their right state of mind, but other use this excuse to get out of jail time. A documented history of mental illness should be clearly stated be clearly established in insanity defense. Instead of the person just claiming they are crazy and getting away with the crime. The background of insanity defense McNaughton stated that “if a mad man or a natural fool, or a lunatic in the time of his lunacy do, this is no felonious act for they cannot be said to have any understanding will”. Then came the wild beast case (pbs.com insanity defense background) that started in the late 18th century. This test was used to see if the person who committed the crime was insane at the time, their actions should be of a baby or animal. In 1984 insanity defense Act was created, after the case on Hinckley and Ronald Reagan....
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...Explore, in depth, one well-known criminal case. You may select your own case, or select from one of the following: Jeffery McDonald, Andrea Yates, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Aileen Wournos, John Wayne Gacy, Philip Markoff (the Craigslist killer), Scott Peterson, Anthony Sowell, or Dennis Rader (BTK strangler). Your case study should focus on the following 1. Must be eight to ten double-spaced pages in length, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. 2. Must include a title page with the following: a. Title of paper b. Student’s name c. Course name and number d. Instructor’s name e. Date submitted 3. Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement. 4. Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought. 5. Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis. 6. Must use five to eight scholarly sources from the Ashford University Library. 7. Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. 8. Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. a.Summarize the case, including a description of the offense(s), the investigation, and the outcome (such as the trial and sentencing). b.Analyze the psychological history or path that took the criminal to commit his or her crime(s). Describe the psychological, behavioral, environmental, and cognitive factors that you believe led to the offender’s...
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...Clara Harris and the Deadly Drive GOVT 2306, Research Project Textbook Reference: Texas Politics, pp. 294-299 Other Resources: The Lecture Notes, PowerPoint slides, Video Lectures, and Podcasts for Unit 9 will prove helpful for completing this assignment. In 2003, Clara Harris, a Houston-area dentist, stood trial for killing her orthodontist husband by running him over with her automobile. Here is a news account of the event that led to the charges against Ms. Harris: NASSAU BAY, Texas -- A Houston-area woman was arrested early Thursday morning, accused of running over her husband and killing him after learning that he was cheating on her. When asked about her husband's death, Clara Harris told News2Houston that, "It was an accident." But Nassau Bay police said that they don't see it as an accident and said that Harris has been charged with first-degree murder. The incident happened shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Hilton Nasa Clear Lake, Nasa Road 1, in Nassau Bay. Investigators said that Clara Harris confronted her husband, David Lynn Harris, in the hotel's lobby. "She said that she was just distraught over the marital problems that they were evidently having," Nassau Bay Police Lt. Joe Cashiola said. The argument moved to the hotel's parking lot, where Clara Harris got behind the wheel of her Mercedes and ran her husband down, authorities said. "Officers arrived on the scene and found the victim had been struck multiple times with the car," Cashiola said. "Since...
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...Psychology surrounds us in every aspect of lives wether it be in a direct or indirect way. My study of psychology has allowed me to discover my abilities and interests into criminal behaviour and what influences us to behaviour or act in the way we do. Could it be learnt as part of our upbringing? Or is our future already determined for us before were even born? Psychology has altered the way I interpret peoples actions and understand that there is much more to a simple act that what may be being portrayed on the surface. I am very passionate about psychology and criminology and as a result would like to study it at degree level with the view to become a criminal psychologist. My interests in understanding the mind and behaviour has been enhanced by studying psychology at A level. During the studies of my AS and A2 levels I have explored many psychological topics including social, cognitive, physiological, individual differences and development modules. Psychology is such a broad subject which is very appealing to me because I am interested in many Fields of Psychology and I know the course will provide me with the knowledge I seek to learn. Alongside psychology I also wish to study criminology at university as a joint honours degree. I am particularly interested in the social and upbringing concept of psychology and looking at why people turn to crime. I am also especially intrigued into child psychology, young and sex offenders, it excites me to learn about these areas because...
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