What happens to these women???

Question

I've always wondered what happens to the women who murder there babies and later find out it was because of post partum depression?? I've seen this on the news alot lately and then never hear about it again and just wonder what happens. Do they get less time or do they get the same punishments as ppl who just murder kids?? And i want mature answers please!! And I live in Texas and most of the cases are in Texas so please go by there laws.

Answer 1

Some of the women you are referring to -- Andrea Yates, Deana Schlosser, etc. were found not guilty by reason of insanity in their trials. This is a defense that is allowed under certain circumstances because of the following:

First, MOST crimes consist of 2 critical parts. First is "actus reas" or the guilty act. This is what most of us think of when we think about crime, that a wrongful act occurred. The SECOND part of a crime, however, is what the NGRI verdict is relevant to. That second part is "mens rea" or guilty mind. This does NOT mean that the offender feels guilty about what he/she did. It means that the actor had to have the requisite mental state in order for the crime to have been committed. The definitions of requisite mental state will vary by jurisdiction, but it does NOT equate with the standard idea of "crazy" as you use it in characterizing these people. It has more to do with knowing the difference between right and wrong and/or being able to control one's actions even if knowledgeable about right/wrong. Now, here is the important part to understand why the verdict is "not guilty by reason of insanity." If BOTH actus reus and mens rea are not present, THEN A CRIME DID NOT OCCUR. This does not mean the ACT did not occur, rather that the CRIME (which requires BOTH aspects) did not occur. This is why the verdict is "not guilty."

As for the ultimate outcome, however, these people do not "get off." What happens in actuality is that someone found NGRI is incarcerated in a secure mental health facility until such time as they can show they are no longer a threat to society. In point of fact, many of these people end up serving longer time in the mental facility than they would have had they been found guilty of the crime they are accused of!

Some jurisidictions have recognized the psychological dissatisfaction that the general public has with the NGRI verdict and have changed their verdicts to "guilty, but mentally ill." Interestingly, while public satisfaction with the verdict has risen, the outcome that the defendant goes through is no different than had they been found NGRI, with the exception that they now have a conviction on their record. If you care more about outcome than the label, it doesn't matter what they call it.

BTW, the insanity defense is used extremely rarely and is "successful" even less often. Conservative estimates put its use at about 1-3% of all criminal trials and its success at about 1% of those. The reason we THINK it is used a lot and successful is that whenever it is used and successful it is usually for some horrific crime and it makes all the news. So it is easy for us to recall the incident. This is called the availability heuristic -- we overestimate the occurrence of something based on how "available" an occurrence of it happening is in our memory. If you don't believe me, research it yourself.

Answer 2

It depends if the court determines them to be mentally ill at the time of the crime. if so, then they will be placed in a psych hospital for the duration of their prison stay...instead of in prison. if of course, they are found culpable for the crime, it's off to women's prison!