LP Moderator said:
I'm obviously ignorant of how the law works in these cases. If Andrea Yates - who had a long, drawn out history of mental illness is not insane, how is it possible for this woman, who has NO history of mental illness to be insane?
I just read another article on it, I'll try and find the source. The same psychiatrist (Park Dietz) testified for the prosecution in the Yates trial and for the defense in the Laney trial.
He (Dietz) stated (and I personally find this ludicrous) that Yates was more sane because she received her messages from Satan and Laney received hers--supposedly--from God. Yates should have realized that her messages were wrong because they were from the devil, Laney could only think hers were right because it was God who spoke to her.
Also, Dietz felt it took longer for Yates to kill her children and therefore again she was more sane--she had to put them in the filth of the water where each previous child had drowned (no details here for your stomach's sake) whereas Laney was quicker because she used rocks.
I personally found his whole justifications a crock of horse manure. Both women are clearly mentally ill, if anything, Yates was less responsible IMO because she had other adults making decisions for her--her husband, who was very much aware of her mental health status--and her mother in law, who also saw her on a daily or very regular basis--
Dietz even referred to in the Yates trial an episode of Law and Order (where a woman purposely drowns her children and claims insanity) that never actually happened--I really thought that should have been grounds for a mistrial--I think that influenced the Yates jury as well as his own testimony that she was sane.
Again according to the M'Naghten Rule if you know what you are doing is wrong, when you do it, you are sane enough to be legally sane, even if you are pretty looney tooney in all other regards. So if you kill someone and run and hide, or hide their body, or call 911 (as both Yates and Laney did) you are sane. If you just sit there and do nothing, you are truly insane.
The jury seemed to disregard the evidence that Laney knew what she was doing was wrong--but jurors relied heavily on similar evidence
to convict Yates according to their comments afterwards.
Dietz's whole line of reasoning convinces me that you can have a lot of letters after your name and still not know very much.