Hello again, I'm curious if you've covered this case in your class (of course, that depends on the subject). I'm also curious how students tend to react -- for one, in my "marriage and family" class the majority of students, particularly the women, seem very unsympathetic, particularly those with children.
I would certainly imagine this would be a useful topic for abnormal psych. On the other hand, I have been concerned that due to the recent nature of the case, some students' emotions run so high that I'm not sure they are being fair or objective. And I sure don't want to exploit someone's tragedy just to get a good discussion going. Anyone else? Regards, Jim Guinee **************************************** Houston Case Tests Insanity Plea Arguments Set to Begin in Trial of Mother Who Drowned Kids USA TODAY - February 18, 2002 HOUSTON -- Opening arguments get underway today in the capital murder trial of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in the family bathtub in June. Yates, 37, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The case has drawn international attention, in part because of its horrific nature and in part because Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal is seeking to execute her. The case has focused attention on mental illness and the death penalty. Women's groups, mental health advocates and opponents of the death penalty have rallied to raise money for Yates' defense. To prevail, Yates' lawyers, George Parnham and Wendell Odom, must convince the jury that Yates was legally insane at the time she killed her children. That's a tough standard with a precise meaning. The defense must prove that Yates' perceptions were so distorted that she didn't know it was wrong to kill her children. Prosecutors are not required to prove that Yates was sane. If Yates is acquitted, she most likely will be confined to a mental institution until a judge determines that she has recovered her sanity. She could recover and be released, or she could be institutionalized for the rest of her life. However, the defense team is barred under Texas law from explaining the potential outcome of an acquittal to jurors. The facts of the case are not in dispute. On June 20, about an hour after Yates' husband, Russell, a NASA engineer, left for work, Yates filled the bathtub and methodically drowned her five children: sons Luke, 2; Paul, 3; John, 5; and Noah, 7; and Mary, her 6-month-old daughter. When police responded to Yates' 911 call, she led them to a bedroom, where she had tucked four of the children into bed, as if asleep. The prosecutors, who do not dispute that Yates suffered from mental illness and have expressed sympathy with the circumstances of her life, do dispute her claim that she was legally insane. They are expected to argue that her 911 call to summon police to the house was the act of a person who knew that what she had done was wrong. They are also expected to emphasize Yates' confession to police, in which she said she had thought about drowning the children for months. Prosecutors interpret those remarks as evidence of premeditation, one of the requirements they must establish to win a capital murder case. Lawyers in the case are barred by court order from speaking about it. But parts of each side's strategy have been revealed in pretrial hearings and court filings. Much of the case may focus on the mental health care Yates received. She was hospitalized four times at three different hospitals and was treated by three psychiatrists and a sequence of therapists, nurses and other hospital staff. They documented her depression and psychosis in the notes of voluminous medical records that have become part of the court record. The defense is expected to attack the quality of Yates' mental health care as woefully inadequate and defined by the limits of insurance coverage. They may stress that the doctors and nurses who treated Yates in the months before she killed her children failed to recognize the seriousness of Yates' slide from post-partum depression into a psychosis that left her catatonic and experiencing hallucinations. They also are expected to suggest that Yates' husband contributed, however inadvertently, to his wife's depression. Russell Yates encouraged his wife to have more children despite a warning from doctors that more children could worsen her depression. He also encouraged her to home-school the two eldest, which further burdened and isolated her. The defense strategy carries some risk. Though the quality of Yates' care or her husband's inattention may evoke sympathy among the jurors, they ultimately may conclude that those issues are beside the point regarding the narrow legal definition of insanity. Russell Yates, who is expected to testify, told CBS' 60 Minutes in December that he had tried to get help for his wife. He said he blames the last hospital, Devereux Texas Treatment Network, for failing to provide an effective treatment. ''The medical community failed us,'' he told 60 Minutes. Andrea Yates was indicted on two charges of capital murder. One charges her with killing more than one person -- Noah and John. The other charges her with killing a child under age 6 -- Mary. She could face later charges in the deaths of the other children. Jury selection took almost a month. That may turn out to be the lengthiest part of the trial. The lawyers have revised their estimates of how many witnesses they plan to call and have told Harris County District Court Judge Belinda Hill that they expect trial to last about two weeks. Earlier, they had said they expected testimony to continue for a month. The jury has eight women and four men. None is from a large family. Four have no children. Two have undergraduate degrees in psychology. Jury experts see advantages for both the prosecution and the defense. Female jurors are seen as more sympathetic to attacks on an inattentive husband. On the other hand, female jurors are also considered to judge a mother's actions more harshly. Midway through jury selection, prosecutor Joe Owmby suggested in court that if Yates had accepted criminal responsibility for her actions -- meaning a guilty plea -- prosecutors would have considered supporting a life sentence. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
