Random ramblings

Take the quiz: "What does your birth month reveal about you?"

December
Loyal and generous. Sexy. Patriotic. Active in games and interactions. Impatient and hasty. Ambitious. Influential in organizations. Fun to be with. Loves to socialize. Loves praises. Loves attention. Loves to be loved. Honest and trustworthy. Not pretending. Short tempered. Changing personality. Not egoistic. Take high pride in oneself. Hates restrictions. Loves to joke. Good sense of humor. Logical.

And the award goes to.....

Me! Thank you, thank you! I love you all! Heh.

I was officially informed this afternoon that the paper I submitted last semester for a class on Social & Cultural Change has been accepted for the A-MSA Conference this February in Tuscaloosa. A-MSA is actually the Alabama-Mississippi Sociological Association, and I guess every year they have an educational and "student friendly" conference where they give students a chance to submit papers to be presented at the conference. Actually, I'll just be giving about a 13 minute speech on the paper itself, which is all related to maternal filicide (Andrea Yates and Melissa Drexler) were two of my examples. The paper studied the differences between teenage mothers who murder their children, and older mothers who kill their somewhat older children.

I put alot of effort into this paper, and it's a really big deal that it's been accepted (to me anyway) so now I'm all excited. Besides, how often is it that two of my favorite topics (sociology and criminology) can be linked and I actually learn something?

This is awesome! I love school!

The insanity that is the justice system

There is some testimony from Andrea Yates' trial (that led to her murder conviction) that is under question that was made by a psychiatrist named Park Dietz, giving reference to an episode of 'Law & Order' that doesn't exist.

I'm sorry....what?

For those of you who weren't aware, criminal justice and anything to do with children and the justice system is where I want to base my career. So I'm sitting here, scratching my head because I wrote a paper last semester that may very well be submitted to a sociology conference in February for presentation, and it was on the study of maternal filicide (basic definition: the murdering of a child committed by the child's mother). The thesis of my paper was the difference between teenage mothers who kill their own and adult mothers who kill their somewhat older children.

I think every single piece of information I had concerned either Andrea Yates or Susan Smith, when it concerned adult mothers. Most of the time, their defense team sought an insanity plea as the reason they committed the crime. In the case of Andrea Yates, there was a case law review from Harvard that I read that had some bit of information on the fact that Andrea Yates was on anti-psychotic medication after the birth of her 2nd or 3rd child, and doctors had warned her husband against them having more children because it would only compound her problems.

What am I getting at? First of all, she did it. She admitted to doing it. They have that on the 911 tapes, I know. Secondly, I don't feel that she's the only one responsible. If doctors are encouraging her and her husband not to have more children, was anybody listening? Did anybody worry about leaving 5 children home alone with Andrea Yates, who was taking anti-psychotic medication and had already attempted suicide at least once on record?

This news that they're thinking of overturning her conviction because of false testimony given by this psychiatrist is unfathomable to me. I understand that the information is saying that if Dietz testimony was false, Yates should be "not guilty" by reason of insanity, but she admitted to it.....criminally insane or not, doesn't that make her guilty? She admitted it herself.

I don't know, maybe I'm out of my mind. I'm just outraged because five beautiful, innocent children are dead, and I feel like the warning signs were there and this tragedy could've been prevented.