Murderous Monsters: Aileen Wuornos - Case Study Example

Lecturer: Murderous Monsters: Aileen Wuornos Introduction Aileen Carol Wuornos was a serial killer who was sentenced and ultimately executed for killing seven men between 1989 and 1990. According to her, either the people she killed raped her or made attempts to do so when she was working as a prostitute and that all the killings were committed as acts of self-defense. She was found guilty and condemned to death for six murders after which her execution was implemented by Florida through lethal injection in 2002(Parker 40). She had been given the name Aileen Carol Pittman at birth in Michigan in 1956 to a fourteen-year-old mother, Diane Wuornos (Flowers and Flowers 144). Only two months after Aileen’s birth, her mother filed to be divorced from her father even though he had been incarcerated at the time. Aileen’s never got the chance to meet her father who was a schizophrenic convicted for sexual offenses against children. Her father committed suicide while he was still in jail in 1969, Wuornos’ mother ran away from her children in 1960, and left them with her parents went on to adopt them (Hart 151). When Wuornos was eleven, she had already started taking part in sexual activities at her school in return for cigarettes, drugs as well as food, and she had also had sexual relations with the brother. At some point, she claimed that her grandfather, who was an alcoholic, had assaulted her in sexually and subjected her to beatings when she was still young and according to Wuornos claims, her grandfather would make her strip naked before subjecting her to beatings (Terry 70). In 1970 at the age of fourteen, she became pregnant after her grandfather’s acquaintance raped her and she went on to give deliver a male child at a home for unwed mothers in 1971. The baby she gave birth to was placed for adoption immediately but a few months later, Wuornos dropped out of school at almost the same time her grandmother succumbed to liver complications. Her grandfather consequently threw her out of the house when she was fifteen and started earning a leaving as a prostitute and residing in the woods that were near her previous residence. How the media presented Aileen Wuornos monstrosity Various media sources, particularly the mainstream media have gone as far as calling Aileen Wuornos the first female serial killer but this is considered as false by many researchers as serial murders are characterized by particular elements. A number of the characteristics that are synonymous with serial murders are evident in the actions associated with Wuornos but many of the murders did not take place in ways that are similar to those associated with many serial murders that are committed by men. Aileen Wuornos cannot be considered entirely in the class of serial killers, and even though a number her actions were outright monstrous, she in actual sense was not a monster. It is considered that monsters do not exist even though there are people who have monstrous capabilities. According to the media, the society quickly condemns and executes the people who have the same characters as Wuornos and the monstrous actions that they commit but the underlying truths within these actions are always ignored. Even though ideally murder may be eliminated, there is a great responsibility that human beings have in recognizing the various aspects of human nature notwithstanding how twisted they might be. The acts of the people who commit murders cannot be justified, however they can be understood inclusively as a component of humanity rather than a deviation from it. The reporters who covered her real life cases also considered Aileen Wuornos as the Hitchhiking Lesbian Prostitute from Florida and the Damsel of Death. Her story was at the center of highly astonishing and misogynistic media coverage in the process of her court hearings that took place in the early nineties and at the time of her execution in 2003 (Cavanagh, Failler and Hurst 241). Wuornos admitted to the murder of seven men who were her clients through acts of self-defense but her conviction was for manslaughter because the jury had the belief that the murders she committed had been premeditated and done willingly. Public presumption despite the verdict Aileen Wuornos who made confessions of killing seven men along the Florida highways was lethally injected in October 2002, but in a twist that was considered odd, regardless of her six death sentences, it was her own choice to die that day. The execution took place amidst a focus of controversy concerning capital punishment in the United States and a total moratorium was issued on executions in Illinois after a thirteenth wrongfully convicted prisoners were set free. Wuornos changed the course of her trial through making herself a volunteer for execution and if she had not done so, there is likelihood that she would still be alive and still languishing in her cell barely seeing anyone but prison guards and being starved of human touch. The will to die was not a big issue for Wuornos who initially voiced her wishes to continue with the execution when she had received the guilty verdict as she considered putting things right with God. Notwithstanding some degree of wavering and the attempts by her lawyers to discourage her from this, she maintained the same resolve for a long time. This is regardless of the fact that various appeal lawyers who were representing her made their best efforts to talk her out of this decision making her fight for and winning the right to fire her lawyers. Several psychiatrists also recognized that she completely understood the consequences of her refusing the rights to any further appeals, meaning that the way became clear that she preferred death. Her volunteering to die was the dealmaker according to various people and at the time of signing her death warrant, all other warrants were held off. Based on her confession, Wuornos crimes were never in doubt but there are people who believe that there may be more victims that have never been identified. In her states of panic, she methodically killed and robbed people she did not know after she had flagged them down while she hitchhiked and when she got into their cars, she offered them sex. After she was arrested, she was promptly considered as a lesbian who hated men based in suppositions on her sexuality that rose from the relationship she had with Tyria Moore for four years whom she considered her wife. There have been views that Tyria had a resemblance to Wuornos birth father who had the same strawberry hair, a face characterized by freckles and a stocky structure. Regardless of this, Wuornos was considered to be a bisexual and even though she had several relationships with other women, she also had romantic and sexual associations with men. She had chosen to be with the men and even initiated sexual behavior even in the cases where there were no payments involved. Wuornos was in love with a single boyfriend and became disturbed and agitated when she learnt that their relationship was over to the point that she started making plans to commit suicide, as she was not able to imagine life without him. On that day, she drunk excessively and purchased a gun but rather than turn it on herself, she robbed a supermarket while dressed in only a bikini. When she was arrested, she served one and a half years of her three-year punishment after which she moved in with a different man who was among her pen pals in jail (Nalepa and Pfefferman 118). In her own accounts, Wuornos often stated that she enjoyed sex with men and the sex life she had previously had with Tyria had diminished to the point that Tyria was complaining to her best friend about it. The main driving force in Wuornos life was therefore not sex as she was searching for an emotional connection as well as love as she had never really had any form of love before. This is as a consequence of her mother abandoning her, the emotional and physical abuse that came from her grandfather as well as the failure by her grandmother to provide with protection from her grandfather. It is also obvious that she did not get any love from any of the callous young men she engaged in sexual relations with when she was still a teenager. How Aileen Wuornos defended her actions Immediately after her conviction for six murders with death penalties, Wuornos referred to the members of the jury as scumbags and gave a warning to the judge stating that she would kill again. Nonetheless, later in the case, she confessed that it was a lie while stating that she did not kill any of the victims out of self-defense as the main motive was killing and robbing them. In the course of her trial, she made the realization that her actions were wrong and started feeling some remorse for her actions while continuing to state that she should face death for her actions. According to her, the victims deserved justice for what she had done to them and the best form of justice was an execution. She also made it public that are the time when she was committing these crimes, her girlfriend was fully aware of her actions. When the police questioned her girlfriend about the events that had transpired, Wuornos decided it was time to tell the truth. She did not want Tyria to be in trouble with the law so she made a promise to her girlfriend that she kept by giving a confession to her killings (Dresbold and Kwalwasser, p. 160). Wuornos had grown up in a home that can be considered to be both physically and verbally abusive, and there was a friend and witness who claimed that she had witnessed Wuornos’ grandfather tying her down and whipping her with his belt more than once. Most of the serial killers do not maintain that they committed their crimes in self-defense the same way Wuornos did. In the videotaped confession that she gave in 1991 lasting three hours, Wuornos stated that she had the belief that she was going to be raped and beaten or even murdered by all her victims. It has been said that there is no way that Wuornos could have killed six people in self-defense, but it should be remembered that she was abused as a child and serially raped and abused when she grew to become a teenage prostitute. Her testimony in the initial trial was both moving and credible as she gave an account of how she was threatened aloud, tied and then inhumanly raped, anally and vaginally by her first victim. The initial agreement was that they have sex for money but the victim who was extremely drunk and high quickly became vicious and turned on her. The jury did not hear any additional evidence concerning her first victim’s history of violence towards prostitutes even though this might have been helpful in the evaluation of the claims she made of self-defense. Temporary insanity is not an excuse Incompetency may sometimes be utilized as a substitute to insanity while referring to any form of mental illness that is serious enough to have an effect on the defendant’s capacity to understand the crimes he or she has committed, the proceedings at the trial or the punishment for the crimes that he or she has been found guilty of. If a defendant was not sane at the time when the crime was committed, that defendant cannot be declared guilty as a consequence of the state of insanity with the burden of proof falling on the defense to demonstrate that the defendant was in deed insane. In the cases where the defendant is incompetent during the trial and is not in a position to understand the proceedings or foster some form of cooperation with his or her lawyers, then he or she can be ruled incompetent to continue with the trial. Lastly, a defendant who is not sane when his or her date execution nears can be ruled as incompetent for execution as it is not constitutional to execute a person who has no understanding of his or her punishment or the reasons surrounding the punishment. Aileen Wuornos’ example demonstrates a number of the legal difficulties offenders suffering from mental illnesses go through in the process of their trials and consequent appeals. In her case, she was not ruled as being officially insane, however, her mental state contributed to extenuation as her trial progressed and when she made the resolution to forego the appeals (Downing 159). Professionals associated the mental illness that Wuornos suffered with the severe abuse that she went through as she grew up and court documents detailed the mistreatments she had to endure. Mental health professionals have implied that this form of abuse when growing up may lead to a person developing borderline personality disorder, which is indicated by a pervasive pattern of instability regarding interactive connections and self-perceptions, while affecting marked impulsivity. When Wuornos was examined in 1992 prior to her first trial, she was found to be suffering from a total delusional system while at the same time having borderline personality disorder that was characterized by paranoid features. It was then considered that the disorder that Wuornos suffered from had a severe effect on her overall functions as well as her capacity to adapt to various situations and issues, as the disorder is associated with a pervasive pattern of instability in moods, identities and interactive associations that exist in various settings. At the sentencing trial, the jury identified the borderline personality disorder diagnosis as the only aspect that mitigated the case as the defendant had been found to have antisocial disorders too. Conclusion During trial, Wuornos faced charges of first-degree murder, armed robbery using a firearm or a deadly weapon as well as possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, while the prosecutors pushed for the death penalty as the murder had been committed amid a robbery. This initial murder charge was the only murder that she was tried for as the rest of the charges for murder ended with pleas. The main case was founded on the videotaped confessions Wuornos had given during her interrogations after she was arrested. Later the prosecution was able to include evidence that was linked to the defendants other charges for murder under a law that permits evidence associated with collateral crimes to be admitted if it can assist in the demonstration of motive among other aspects. Wuornos initial claim that all the killings were as a result of self-defense was dismissed by the prosecution as her story had variations every time she narrated it. In her initial confessions, she had stated that the first person she killed had picked her up as she was hitchhiking after which they went to a secluded place to engage in sexual activities. When she and the victim began arguing, she developed the feeling that the victim was going to rob and beat her and she grabbed her gun and consequently shot him. At the end of the trial, the jury found her guilty of all the charges that had been leveled against her after a deliberation that lasted less than two hours. Works cited Cavanagh, Sheila L, Angela Failler, and Rachel Alpha Johnston Hurst. Skin, Culture And Psychoanalysis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print. Downing, Lisa. The Subject Of Murder. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2013. Print. Dresbold, Michelle, and James Kwalwasser. Sex, Lies, And Handwriting. New York: Free Press, 2008. Print. Flowers, Ronald B, and H. Loraine Flowers. Murders In The United States. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2004. Print. Hart, Lynda. Fatal Women. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994. Print. Nalepa, Laurie, and Richard Pfefferman. The Murder Mystique. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, 2013. Print. Parker, RJ. Serial Killers Case Files. [Newfoundland, Canada]: R. Parker, 2013. Print. Terry, Karen J. Sexual Offenses And Offenders. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning/Wadsworth, 2006. Print. Read More