![]() ![]() (A successful insanity defense usually leads to confinement in a psychiatric facility).ĭefense attorney Keith Hampton, who has worked on similar cases, said today Yates “would have a hard time winning.” In 2008, the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that the standard of insanity should be limited to “people who did not know their conduct was legally wrong.” That’s hard to prove. In Texas, the best known victory in such a case was that of Andrea Yates, who drowned her children in a bathtub and in 2006 was sentenced to commitment at a state hospital instead of prison. The act only applied to federal trials, and state legislatures varied in how they dealt with the insanity defense, but overall it has been on the decline in recent decades. Hinckley claimed to have been trying to impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had been obsessed ever since seeing her in the film, “Taxi Driver.” According to ABC polling, more than 80 percent of the public believed that “justice was not done” in the case, leading Congress to pass the 1984 Insanity Defense Reform Act, which declared that someone could only plead insanity if he “was unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his acts.” succeeded with an insanity defense after attempting to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Ironically, a major driver of that sympathy is the film celebrating the very man Routh killed. The trial - and specifically how jurors react to claims about the role PTSD played in Routh’s shooting of Chris Kyle - will test the limits of American sympathy for the struggles of veterans when those struggles lead to criminal behavior. The other is a recent rise in sympathy and support for men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental problems. One is a skepticism of claims of mental illness when it comes to criminal conduct. Such cases are subject to two competing waves of American popular sentiment. The crimes committed by veterans have ranged from drunk driving to mass murder, and the punishments for these crimes have ranged from rehabilitative treatment in specialized courts to the death penalty. But it is by far the most famous example. Routh was not the first veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder to commit murder, and his trial will not be the first time lawyers for a veteran claim that war trauma was responsible for insane behavior that should not be judged by the typical standards of human conduct. Numerous reports on Routh’s activities before he shot Kyle seem to show that his increasingly erratic behavior after his return from Iraq could be tied to his struggle to reintegrate into life at home. Routh’s attorney has said his client will plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Once at the range, Routh turned his gun on Kyle and friend Chad Littlefield. history”) is dramatized in the film “American Sniper.” The film does not portray Kyle’s death, but media reports have drawn an outline that will be filled in at the trial, now beginning in Stephenville, Texas Routh, a fellow veteran whose life spiraled after his return from Iraq, went to a remote shooting range with Kyle, who expected the experience would help Routh cope with his war trauma. This week, jury selection began in the trial of Eddie Ray Routh for the murder of Chris Kyle, whose career as a Navy SEAL in Iraq (and “the most lethal sniper in U.S. At the trial, District Attorney Alan Nash said of Routh, "It's time for his deep well of excuses for violent criminal behavior to come to an end." Littlefield's stepbrother Jerry Richardson added, "You are an American disgrace." The guilty verdict, along with the harshest possible sentence, show that when veterans break laws, the sympathy only goes so far. Routh's attorneys had described his diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia, arguing that Routh erroneously believed Kyle, the widely-known author of the book and subject of the film American Sniper, would shoot him. This trend has manifested in specialized courts that offer treatment instead of jail time, though it has also occasionally led juries to look kindly on defenses that cite combat trauma. Had Routh succeeded with his attempt at an insanity defense, it would have been a symbol of the way American sympathy for veterans has affected their experiences in the criminal justice system. 24, Eddie Ray Routh was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield. ![]()
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