Zany mom to get new trial

[D. Scarlatti]

Texas' Supreme Court upheld a lower court's finding that veteran psychiatric expert Park Dietz falsely testified at the original trial. Dr. Dietz, incidentally, was instrumental in defeating Jeff Dahmer's insanity defense, which was argued by Gerry Boyle, who practices law just around the corner from my place.

Readers may recall Andrea Yates, the wacky mom who was found guilty of overbaptizing all five of her children (although she was only convicted of two murder charges). Geraldo may have a few words on the subject tonight on his new hard hitting Fox teevee show.

[viscousmemories]

It seems to me if Dahmer and Yates aren't insane, insane doesn't mean anything.

[D. Scarlatti]

You'd think so, but the shorthand legal version boils down to the fact that they knew both exactly what they were doing and what they were doing was wrong. I'm not familiar with the Yates trial testimony but the testimony that defeated Dahmer's insanity defense was pretty overwhelming, from the manner in which he selected his victims to the steps he took to conceal his criminal acts.

If you're ever in Milwaukee I'll give you the Jeff Dahmer Walking Tour of all the historical landmarks.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by D. Scarlatti

You'd think so, but the shorthand legal version boils down to the fact that they knew both exactly what they were doing and what they were doing was wrong.

When you put it like that it makes a lot more sense. I saw a documentary about Dahmer (or maybe I just read the Crime Library article) and I do believe he knew exactly what he was doing and that it was wrong. I can see that argument for Yates too. I also don't know much about her trial, but I vaguely remember that she called her husband just after killing the kids and commented to the effect that she had done something terribly wrong.