"Yes, some mothers do kill their children, but more mothers don't and we can't allow our emotions to hold sway over our ability to reason. Courtrooms are for evidence and deliberation, not media where profile is everything and the quiet and reasonable don't rule."
DR. PATRICIA A. FARRELL;
A backgrounder on this high profile Florida case can be found on Wikipedia at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Caylee_Anthony
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"ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ: Casey Anthony, the woman accused and found not guilty of killing her young daughter, has been the object of intense enmity, astronomical press coverage and, for want of a better word, a smear campaign," the commentary by psychologist Dr. Patricia A. Farrell published earlier today under the heading, "“Killers” We Love to Hate: Now It’s Casey Anthony," begins.
"What was one of her "despicable" actions which caused the devil to dance? She was photographed smiling, drinking and enjoying herself supposedly after her daughter had been missing for days, if not weeks. The actual date and time the photo was taken wasn't provided in coverage of her odious activities," the commentary continues.
"Why were the spectators outside the courthouse crying for her blood? You could compare them to those in the coliseum rooting for the lions. People who go to murder trials expect to hear gory details and come away shaking their heads. It's fodder for the gossip mill and avoids the usual cares of the day; the economy, mortgage foreclosures and bankruptcy filings. In other words, it's a distraction. But when the death of a child is seen as an opportunity for raising one's profile, whether in a professional or personal manner, there is great reason for concern.
We live in a country ruled by laws not rowdy crowds that have been whipped up by media frenzy, sound bites and distasteful and mawkish poses of outrage. We do not send people to their deaths because they are young, foolish and fail to show what we believe should be incredible grief.
Let's look at another case in 1980 where a child was missing, never found and the mother was charged with its murder. The mother, Lindy Chamberlain, related her belief that her nine-week-old baby daughter had been taken from the family tent during the night by a dingo, a wild dog in Australia. The mother, at trial, was viewed as unemotional and it was this stoicism which moved the jury to sentence the mother to life imprisonment in 1982. Years later, bits of the child's clothing were found in a dingo lair area and the mother was exonerated. But she was convicted on her lack of emotion and that is the truly astonishing fact here.
Another case, that of Andrea Yates who killed her five children by drowning them in her Texas home was also whipped up in some media. She admitted to the killings and this was seen as cold-blooded premeditation by people who refused to believe she was psychotic and suffered from severe postpartum depression for which she had to take antipsychotic medications.
An expert hired gun for the prosecution testified that she, obviously, had seen a TV show which had the same killing theme and she had emulated it. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and only after the expert admitted his testimony was "materially false" when it was pointed out that no such TV episode had aired on the show in question was she granted another trial. This resulted in confinement in a state psychiatric hospital. But the pundits were crying out for blood all the while the original trial was on.
(Wikipedia informs us that: On January 6, 2005, a Texas Court of Appeals reversed the convictions, because California psychiatrist and prosecution witness Dr. Park Dietz admitted he had given materially false testimony during the trial. Dietz stated that shortly before the killings, an episode of Law & Order had aired featuring a woman who drowned her children and was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity. Author Suzanne O'Malley, who was covering the trial for Oprah magazine and had previously been a writer for Law & Order, immediately reported that no such episode existed; the appellate court held that the jury may have been influenced by his false testimony and that thus a new trial would be necessary. On January 9, 2006, Yates again entered pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity. On February 1, 2006, she was granted release on bail on the condition that she be admitted to a mental health treatment facility.[16] On July 26, 2006, after three days of deliberations, Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity, as defined by the state of Texas. She was thereafter committed to the North Texas State Hospital - Vernon Campus. In January 2007, Yates was moved to a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas.)
Yes, some mothers do kill their children, but more mothers don't and we can't allow our emotions to hold sway over our ability to reason. Courtrooms are for evidence and deliberation, not media where profile is everything and the quiet and reasonable don't rule."
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http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/Killers_We_Love_to_Hate_Now_Its_Casey_Anthony,201136949.aspx
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
