Case studies pt.1

We started the case studies off by looking at the Von Bulow case.  In this case Von Bulow's wife Sunny had fallen into a coma. In fact it was her second coma, almost as if it had been induced. Claus Von Bulow's step kids accused him of injecting their mother with insulin. Claus denied this claim, however the step kids found a black bag in his closet that contained an insulin needle. Even though this was very concrete evidence, in my opinion, to show that he had tried to kill Sunny, Claus's defense attorneys argued that the black bag was not credible evidence because the kids took the bag to the family doctor instead of straight to the police. This would have given them time to plant evidence inside of the bag. Claus also stood to gain from his wife's death because he would inherit her large fortune.  However he was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of attempted murder. However two years after the trial his ruling was overturned and he settled with the kids to never talk about the incident in public again, and Bulow renounced all claims to the money. However the daughter he had with sunny still received her inheritance.
The second case that we looked at was the "dog" case. Two very very large dogs got out of their apartment and mauled a women to death. However the case ended up being about the owner. The owners, the Knoller's, were being charged with second degree murder. There was an argument made that the dogs were weapons because they had shown signs of aggression before. People in the apartment complex came forward with stories all of which portrayed the dogs as a menace. She was eventually sentenced to 15 years in state prison for second degree murder.
Then came the Andrea Yates case. This one was a little disturbing in my opinion. Andrea Yates was a mother of 5 kids. Prior to killing her kids she had been in and out of a psychiatric hospital because of depression and psychosis. Yates claimed that she had been hearing voices, specifically the voice of satan. Supposedly Satan was telling her to kill because she had failed as a mother. Before taking her children's lives she attempted to commit suicide. She also claimed that the only reason she killed her kids was because they had to die while they were still young and innocent in order to get into heaven. When going through court she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. She was found guilty of first degree murder and currently resides in a mental institution, where she will stay the rest of her life.