White Mothers and the Recognition of Illness

Andrea Yates, a white mother, was initially convicted of capital murder after drowning her five children. Her conviction was reversed because a prosecution expert gave materially false testimony. At her second trial, a jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity.

Sheryl Massip, a white mother, was convicted by a jury after killing her infant son. The trial judge set aside the jury’s verdict and found her not guilty by reason of insanity.

Deanna Laney, a white mother, was found not guilty by reason of insanity after killing two of her children and seriously injuring a third.

These cases establish that maternal mental illness is filtered through different decision-makers, burdens of proof, evidentiary rules, cultural images, and institutional practices.

They also illustrate the recurring power of judicial intervention. Yates received an insanity verdict only after her first conviction was reversed and she was tried again. Massip received an insanity disposition after a judge rejected the jury’s guilty verdict. Fleming’s disposition was ordered by a judge on substantially uncontested psychiatric evidence. Harris was convicted during a jury guilt phase and then found legally insane during a judicial sanity phase.

Jury judgment and judicial judgment are not interchangeable.