Andrea Yates Case

Younger defendants fail to meet the standard of competence due to normal developmental immaturity or the failure to have developed cognitive skills equivalent to adults. The pre-frontal cortex which is associated with impulse control, planning, and decision-making, is one of the last areas of the brain to mature. States should re-examine the age at which juveniles can be transferred to the adult court system and require a competence evaluation to be performed before transfer. Clinicians who evaluate juveniles for competence should carefully consider in their assessments whether a given youth possesses the rational and factual understanding of the legal situation he or she may face. Evaluators can best assist the court by providing specific …show more content…
Often times, I think the insanity defense is used consciously to escape penalties of the law. Or perhaps it can be referred to as the “defense of last resort,” when there is no question that the accused committed the act and the defense can think of nothing else to exonerate his/her client. Consider the case of Andrea Yates. In my opinion, Yates knew the difference between right and wrong at the time of the drownings. Yates did not believe she was washing laundry or putting out a fire. Yates carried out an efficient and well planned murder, keeping her plan private, and waiting until her husband had left the house for work. Yates turned herself in immediately after killing her children by calling 911. While it’s possible that Yates drowned her children to escape overwhelming stress, she understood that society would disapprove of her actions. Yates was diagnosed with postpartum mental illness; however, I do not believe such illness caused her to kill her own children. It would certainly be interesting to look at research in this area and see if a link has been