Andrea Yates and The Evolution of Insanity Defense

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Recommended: Mental illness and the insanity defense

The criteria for insanity has changed due to the different criminal cases that people are faced with and there isn’t a fine line between sanity and insanity. From what I have researched, I find that there could be a fine line drawn between sanity and insanity. My criterion for insanity is for a person not to know the difference between right and wrong. My criteria matched well with the M’Naghten Rule which states, “Defendant either did not understand what he or she did, or failed to distinguish right from wrong, because of a ‘disease of mind’” (Reuters, Para. 6) I find that because of today’s society and our need to justify people’s actions, the meaning of the M’Naughten Rule and the fine line between insanity and sanity have lost their value. We focus on the being fair instead of the justice of crimes or any given action. The most important the person must go through extensive evaluation and be diagnosed with a mental disorder that may lead to such violence. Many may say that they didn’t know what they were doing but if there is a motive then that doesn’t mean that the person is insane. I have discovered that people get away with so much in result that they can plead insanity. Many criminal cases nowadays are coming out and admit that those convicted and pleaded guilty of insanity due to a mental disorder, were forging their insanity. We refuse to acknowledge that a sane person could kill people but learn that these people have the ability and desire to do such horror to other people. To diagnose someone with insanity, according to the observation of the Andrea Yates, one must suffer and be diagnosed with a form of a mental disorder.
A correlation between mental disorders and syndromes are also linked to insanity but not all me...

... middle of paper ...

...annot.
In conclusion, Andrea Yates was sane and was not guilty by insanity.

Workcited
Yates' Cofession (2006, August 1). In CNN.com. Retrieved January 20, 2014
Reuters, Thomson ( 2013) Insanity Defense. Criminal Findlaw. http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/insanity-defense.html
Nordqvist, C. (2012, February 17). "What Are The Symptoms Of Depression?." Medical News Today. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241862.
A+E Network Corporation. (2013). “Andrea Yates. Biography.”Bio Story today. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/andrea-yates-235801
Excerpted from Findlaw.com: http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/the-m-naghten-rule.html#sthash.1PFCG9Sf.dpuf
Frontline (1998, May 5). “Transcript of kip kinkel’s confession”Pbs.org. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kinkel/art/confess0.gif

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