Thursday, January 06, 2005

Where the Greeks, the Fundies, and Dick Wolf Intersect

CNN reports that the Andrea Yates conviction has just been reversed on appeal. Yates is our very own modern Medea, and I personally was pissed that the jury didn't accept her insanity plea. (Hard to stay sane when you're in the grip of post-partum psychosis and an equally psycho religious leader.) At some point I'd love to write a book on various permutations of the Medea archetype in fiction and real life (there are some already out there, but I'd like to take my own stab at it. Er ... no pun intended). But what's interesting about this reversal is the reason:

According to a report from The Associated Press, Yates' lawyers argued last month before a three-judge panel of the First Court of Appeals in Houston that psychiatrist Park Dietz was wrong when he said he consulted on an episode of the TV show "Law and Order" involving a woman found innocent by reason of insanity for drowning her children.

After Yates was convicted, attorneys in the case and jurors learned no such episode existed, the AP reported.

Does anyone else hear a "chung-CHUNG" sound?