Compare And Contrast Insanity And Pleas Insanity

People assume that everyone who commits a crime and pleas insanity is using it as a way to get out of the crime they committed, especially murder. What most do not know is how hard it is to actually be convicted of Insanity. When someone is convicted of insanity, that also does not mean they are off the hook. Most if not all face a longer sentence then if they did not get convicted of insanity. What exactly does insanity mean? “Insanity is the legal term that refers to a mental disease or defect that impairs the reason and or will to control actions.” (Samaha,2015, pg209) There are two cases that I am going to talk about that both plead insanity but both had different results. The case of Andrea Yates and Eddie Ray Routh, two very big cases that happened years apart from each other in Texas Andrea Yates and her husband Russell lived in the Houston area with their five children, Paul, Mary, Noah, Luke and John. Andrea had been battling with severe postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis throughout the years. She even went into a facility to help her get the treatment she needed. For those who do not know what
She took that hour she had alone to drown all five of her children and place them in a bed afterwards. In 2002 she plead innocent with a plea of insanity. However, the jury through that out and charged her with Capital Murder and sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole after forty years. Her lawyers used McNaughton Rules with the Irresistible Impulse Test to show her insanity. In 2006, Andrea Yates got a retrial. One of the key witnesses lied about her watching a TV show, that shows them killing their kids and not getting charged. So the capital murder conviction was overturned and Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity. She now resides in a mental hospital to get the treatment she