Criminal Defense Case

928 Words4 Pages
Criminal Defense Case CJA/354 Criminal Defense Case In today’s Criminal Justice process the well-known motto is “innocent until proven guilty”. In this short essay will demonstrate the nature of the defense and the type that was used in two cases. Finally, reveal the end results of these particular cases. The first case will analyze the case of Andrea Yates. Andrea Yates, the Houston mom who in 2001 drowned her five young children one-by-one in the bathtub (Moisse, 2013). Andrea Yates was a mother of Mary, 6 months, Luke, 2, Paul, 3, John, 5, and Noah, 7. Andrea Yates defense claim had been that God told her to drown all her children. During her first trial she was found guilty on 3 counts of murder however, it was overturned due to erroneous testimony during an appeal. Following that Andrea Yates submitted a plea of guilty for reason of insanity. The criminal case a criminal defendant can claim insanity by simply saying that he or she should not be held criminally liable for the damages committed from his particular crime because he was insane at the time of occurrence. Acording to CBS News (2009) "Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist, testified for the defense that she did not know killing the children was wrong because she was trying to save them from hell.” Now because of the evidence used and the defense of insanity, the cases outcome did not meet very many people’s expectations, to include my own. Many felt that her being sentenced to a mental institute was an injustice at its finest. Acording to CBS News (2009) "No one should believe that she is getting off easy. She's going to be committed to mental health facility, probably for the rest of her life. And every time her medicine allows her to regain a little bit of sanity, she realizes what she did to her beloved children and then descends again into some sort of madness," The second case we
Open Document