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Legal Issues - FAQs
1. These women have killed their children. Why should
society have any sympathy towards them?
2. How do
the courts view postpartum defenses?
3. Do
postpartum women need special legal protection?
4.
Isn't the insanity defense just a loophole? People get off all the time with
it.
5.
Isn't the existing insanity defense enough legal protection for postpartum
women?
6. Andrea Yates and Deanna Laney had nearly identical crimes.
Why did juries find one sane and the other insane?
7. What is
the Iowa code defining insanity?
8. Do
criminal insanity laws differ among the states?
9. Where can
I find more information on the insanity defense?
Q. These women have killed their children. Why should
society have any sympathy towards them?
A.
The real issue is whether
society believes and understands the ways that a serious mental illness like postpartum
psychosis alters a person's thinking.
For example, a story by
Mr. Anonymous shows how psychosis invisibly stole his
mind. At EveryPurpose, we have been using Mr. Anonymous' experience as a
yardstick when trying to understand postpartum cases we see in the news:
how quickly minds can deteriorate, how alternate realities are set up in a
person's mind, how real-world truths like physical or legal laws become
subservient to the alternate reality of the mind, and the mentally ill person
can be completely unaware it is happening. Yet amazingly, a mentally ill
person may retain abilities to do complex planning, attend work, run a
household, etc. We find many of these facts contrary to the public's
beliefs about severe mental illness.
If a person is subjected to all
those powerful forces of mental illness, and they are unaware of the
effects, how can society justify the condemnation, prosecution and imprisonment
of these people?
Q. How do the courts view postpartum defenses?
A.
Outcomes vary for a number of reasons. EveryPurpose has been researching
and tracking postpartum cases for the past several years. Our general
observations are:
- Women fared poorly in older cases. Postpartum was not well known to
the public in the U.S. though the medical community was aware of postpartum
illnesses.
- Some newer cases have had some success using insanity defenses, but many
women face still face severe sentences.
- Courts are returning conflicting verdicts. Very recently, Texas
returned conflicting verdicts in two almost identical cases. Andrea
Yates drowned her five children and was found guilty. Deanne Laney
killed two children with rocks and injured a third, but she got a Not Guilty
by Reason of Insanity verdict. As of July 2005, both women are under
state mental health care.
Below are some recent cases, categorized by
their outcome. For each woman, we have provided a starting point of links
for further reading. Your favorite search engine will provide many.
(Note: news links age quickly. Some of these cases are already
rolling off the news sites.)
1. Not Guilty,
by Reason of Insanity
Deanne Laney
Yvonne Chapman
Rebekah Amaya
Dawn March
2. Tragic Endings
Mine Ener
Melanie Stokes
3. Pleading to a Lesser Charge
Anne Haskew
4. Guilty, Lesser Murder Charges (2nd
Degree, Manslaughter)
Heidi Anfinson
Naomi Gaines
5. Guilty, Capital Murder (or 1st
Degree)
Andrea Yates - conviction
overturned, awaiting a new trial.
Deborah Ginsdorf - a 20 year struggle in
Illinois
Q. Do
postpartum women need special legal protection?
A. Many leading
nations think so. DePaul University law professor Michelle Oberman (from
CNN February 27, 2002):
"Postpartum depression is
recognized as a legal defense in at least 29 countries, including Great Britain,
Canada, Italy and Australia. Those countries have infanticide
laws, which state that when a woman kills a child under the age of 1 and she can
prove that the "balance of her mind is disturbed" by reasons relating to giving
birth, the maximum charge the woman can face is manslaughter.
"The practical result of these statutes is that
these women receive probation instead of jail time and they receive sentences
that require probation plus counseling," Oberman said. In those cases, she
added, the women do not have to prove the much higher standard of insanity.
Q. Isn't the insanity defense just a loophole? People get off all
the time with it.
A. Barry Wall, Clinical Assistant Professor of
Psychiatry at Brown University says:
"The insanity defense itself is much maligned and
misunderstood. The public often believes that insanity pleas are commonly used,
particularly by the rich, to "fake" illness to elude punishment, and that it’s
wildly successful. The opposite is true: It is used in less than 1 percent of
cases, it fails 75 percent of the time, and it’s rarely used by fakers. If
you’re found to be insane, in many states you actually risk spending more time
locked up in a mental hospital than you would if you’d been found guilty and
served jail time."
Q. Isn't the existing insanity defense enough legal
protection for postpartum women?
A. The insanity defense is exceedingly
difficult to apply successfully. Of all felony cases, only about 1%
attempt an insanity defense. Of those, only one in four succeed.
Contrast that with estimates from many states that consistently show 15-20% of
inmates are mentally ill.
Many states require an admission of guilt
before an insanity plea can be entered. It leaves the defendant completely
vulnerable if the courts do not find the defendant insane.
In some
states, a judge must rule to allow the defendant to use the insanity
plea.
The above is just a sampling of the legal pitfalls in an insanity
plea. Contrary to popular belief, the insanity defense is probably the least
attractive option for a defendant, even if mental illness was involved in
the crime.
Q. Andrea Yates and Deanna Laney had nearly identical crimes.
Why did juries find one sane and the other insane?
A. Good
question. Andrea Yates drowned her 5 children but was found sane.
Deanna Laney killed 2 children and severely injured a third with rocks. She
was ruled insane.
Both cases occurred in Texas, both cases clearly
involved very ill women. The legal system seemed to be caught up in
splitting hairs on whether either woman knew what she was doing. More
merciful laws, like those of Great Britian, would spare the hair-splitting and
allow the women, husbands and family involved to more quickly work through the
legal tangles, get psychiatric care, and grief counseling.
More
reading:
Q. What is the Iowa code
defining insanity?
A. From the 2005 Iowa Code:
Insanity
701.4 Insanity .
A person shall
not be convicted of a crime if at the time the crime is committed the person
suffers from such a diseased or deranged condition of the mind as to render the
person incapable of knowing the nature and quality of the act the person is
committing or incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong in relation to
that act. Insanity need not exist for any specific length of time before or
after the commission of the alleged criminal act. If the defense of insanity is
raised, the defendant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the
defendant at the time of the crime suffered from such a deranged condition of
the mind as to render the defendant incapable of knowing the nature and quality
of the act the defendant was committing or was incapable of distinguishing
between right and wrong in relation to the act.
[C79, 81, §701.4]
84
Acts, ch 1320, §1
Q. Do criminal insanity laws differ among the
states?
A. Yes, quite a bit.
States use two tests for
insanity (M'Naughten, American Law Institute), with a number of variations
between states. A wide range of verdicts are used, with some states recognizing
multiple verdicts (Guilty But Insane, Not Guilty by Reason of Mental Disease or
Defect, Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, Acquitted by Reason of
Insanity).
PBS Frontline compiled a comprehensive comparison chart of all 50 states.
Full text mental health
code (federal and state) is available at MegaLaw.
Q. Where can I find
more information on the insanity defense?
A. PBS Frontline's website for
their "A
Crime of Insanity" show has pages with:
Mental Illness
Legal Definition
Justice Issues
Statistics
Case Studies
Celebrities
Organizations
Contact Us!
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