The Insane Cases: The Defense Of Andrea Yates

Also, Grand Jury indicted Casey for aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter, and four counts of providing false information. Since she was found guilty, she now faces the death penalty. Casey appeared before a judge and was also charged with a capital crime then places in protective custody at the Orange County Jail. When Anthony’s bond was denied, she then hired Defense Attorney, Jose Baez. There were four hundred parts of evidence.

Even when Michael’s new defense team, through the innocence project, found a crime that was eerily similar to the method of murder and subsequent events to the one that Michael was convicted of, the new prosecutor in Williamson County fought hard to keep DNA testing from taking place, even stating that they objected to the testing now because the defense hadn’t requested it before (Morton, 2014). There was further evidence of ineffectiveness in that the coroner who’d changed his estimated time of death between the autopsy and trial, had come under scrutiny for his findings in this case, as well as several others, with claims of gross errors “including one case where he came to the conclusion that a man who’d been stabbed in the back had committed suicide” (Morton, 2014). This was only one of the many injustices that were committed against Michael Morton throughout his trial. In August of 2006, the defense was finally granted permission to perform DNA testing on the items that had been taken from his wife’s body (Morton, 2014). Although this testing did not reveal any information about the guilty party, it did at least give Michael the knowledge that Chris was not sexually violated before or after her death (Morton,

The body of Caylee was found right outside of the family’s property where it would have been easy to dispose of the body. In the autopsy report, traces of chloroform were found on Caylee’s remains while traces of chloroform were also found in the trunk of Casey’s car. Casey’s mother reported that the trunk of her car smelled like a dead body had been in there for a while. In the trial, the defense could not give any explanation as to why any of this is true. Without any evidence to prove these accusations weren’t true is reason enough to believe that she is guilty.

Every action she took showed that” (10). Throughout the entire investigation, the evidence was all there but the way it was presented in trial and the way the defense attacked it added a lot of doubt into the jury’s mind and that is what caused them to deliver the not guilty verdict. This case is considered a controversial case. There are a few factors that causes it to be considered controversial.

USA TODAY published an article “Casey Anthony breaks her silence: I sleep pretty good at night.” Anthony did an interview with Associated Press speaking about the case and her daughter’s death for the first time. The Associated Press said that the interview with Anthony was “revealing, bizarre and often contradictory, and ultimately raised more question than answers about the case.” In the interview with Associated Press, Anthony admitted to lying to the police about a number of things such as her employment, leaving her child with a babysitter, and receiving a call from Caylee before she went missing. During the trial, the defense stated that Caylee had drown in the pool and then Casey Anthony’s father tried to cover up the accident.

Lead defense attorney Jose Baez suggested, at the trial, that the little girl drowned and Casey Anthony's father, George, helped cover up the incident. The former judge for the case believes the Casey Anthony killed her toddler daughter, but not own purpose. “Considering the high levels of chloroform that was found in the trunk of the car, that was my logical deduction for what happened,' Perry said. ' That’s just a theory. The only person that actually knows what happened is Casey

Cindy Anthony, Casey Anthony's mother, was called to testify. She testified in her daughter's defense and took responsibility for some of the chloroform searches. The computer searches were key to the prosecution's claims of premeditated murder, an essential element for first degree murder and the possibility of the death penalty. “Baez said in closing arguments, I told you she was a liar the first day.(abc news.2017)” Casey killed that Caylee by drugging her, but she got away with

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

During this test he couldn't control his breathing and you could tell from watching the tape that he was lying to all the questions that the lady was asking. After confessing to officials that he had murdered his wife, he decides to lie and tell them the reason for murdering Shan’ann was due to her smothering their daughters. The next day the three bodies were found at the oil site where Chris worked. That same day there was a bond hearing that Chris appeared at in Weld County which he was denied. On November 6, 2018 Chris Watts pleaded guilty to all nine criminal counts.

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.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you are here because one person in this courtroom decided to take law into her own hands. The defendant, Mrs. Dominique Stephens, murdered the man that she vowed to love. This sole act by the defendant is violation of all morals and her husband’s right to live. Afterwards, she even felt guilty about this violation of justice and called the cops on herself, and she later signed a written statement stating that she is guilty of the murder of Mr. Donovan Stephens. Then the defendant later recanted this statement and said that she only killed Mr. Stephens in self defense.

In the end, his testimony convinced the jury, putting Tammy Marquardt into prison on the charges of second degree murder of her own son. Now, after more than a decade, recent investigations have found that many of Smiths claims were exaggerated and inaccurate. These investigations were

On the morning of June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates murdered all five of her children by drowning them in her household’s bathtub while her husband was away. After the birth of her 4th child, Yates became diagnosed with postpartum depression and this carried on after the birth of her 5th. Yates indicated the killing of her children was due to the fact that she was seeing violent images and hearing voices telling her to get a knife, or even hearing a voice she believed to be the devil that told her he was after her children. Such voices can be explained by the psychodynamic perspective that Yates’ behavior of killing her children was a result of these unconscious voices that were demanding her to take such violent action. Growing obsessively religious over the years, Yates followed extreme Christian views presented by the

In this case the only obstacle the prosecutors had was prove that Caylee Anthony was murdered by her own mother, they had to prove beyond reasonable doubt to the jury that she was behind her daughter’s death. Most of the evidence that was presented was in fact pointed to Casey Anthony as the person who was fully liable for her daughter

In the case of Judy Norman should have been acquitted based on self-defense rather than being convicted of voluntary manslaughter. According to defense psychologist, Judy had been tortured, degraded, and reduced to an animal level of existence. Since her husband had abused her for twenty years physically assaulting her, burning her with cigarettes, forcing her into prostitution, and forcing her to eat dog food off the floor. Judy’s first resort was not to kill her husband, first, she contacted police after a horrible beating, but was so deep in a cycle of fear she did not press charges on her husband. For police officers to be first responders to domestic violence calls they should be trained to know the signs of domestic abuse, and the cycle