On Sunday, February 27, 1859, Philip Barton Key was shot dead in front of the White House. Key was a prominent man in Washington DC as city attorney and also the son of Francis Scott Key, an American icon and the author of the national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner. Twelve people witnessed the shooting, and some believe that then-President James Buchanan may have been a witness as well. The shooter, Daniel Sickles, who was a U.S. Congressman, had previously served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War. The story begins with Sickles' wife apparently having a public affair and continues with Key. Daniel Sickles knew about the affair, but on that fateful day he overheard Philip Barton Key calling at the window of the room where his wife was sleeping. Consequently, Sickles flew into a rage which resulted in his merciless shooting of Key. Subsequently, he was charged with first-degree murder, which at the time in some states carried the death penalty, which amounted to execution. However, this was not the case for Daniel Sickles, whose trial ended with an all-male jury verdict of "not guilty." Nearly a century and a half later, “not guilty” was once again the famous word to conclude a trial. murder trial against a mother who killed all her children. Andrea Yates' story involves one of the most famous criminal trials in our history. In 2001, Yates murdered his five children by drowning them one by one in his bathtub. The eldest of these children was a boy of 7 years old and the youngest; a little girl at only 6 months old. In court, Yates admitted to the murders and also claimed that she committed them because she was saving her children from Satan. In either case, ...... middle of paper ...... probably would have been put behind bars. Before the shooting, he was competent enough to lead an army and also be elected as a congressman. After the shooting, he walked away, fully aware that he had just committed murder. On the other hand, Andrea Yates was truly a mentally ill person, before, during and after killing her children. Ultimately, Daniel Sickles and Andrea Yates got away with no consequences for their crimes. /1.html http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hinckley/hinckleyinsanity.htm http://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2013/06/24/cold-blooded-murder-lafayette -square-sickles-tragedy-1859 http://murderpedia.org/female.Y/y/yates-andrea.htmwww.postpartum.net/get-the-facts/postpartum-psychosis.aspx‎