2006-07-26 08:30:38 · 24 answers · asked by Katlana 1 in Health ➔ Mental Health
What people do not understand is that NGRI (Not guilty by reason on insanity) is not a get out of jail free card. Just because she was found NGRI, this does not mean she gets off scot-free. Very often, people found NGRI spend more time in a mental hospital than they would in jail and they get closer monitoring when they are released. Just look at John Hinckley.
So, Andrea Yates will likely be locked up in the forensic unit of a state hospital for the rest of her life. I've visited forensic units and they're no more comfy than jails. There are still bars and restrictions. They're only allowed out once a day. Their activities are limited. They have required groups and treatment. Andrea Yates will be getting what she needs.
Any punishment we could create will be nothing compared to what she's doing to herself. Imagine how she felt when she came out of her psychotic state and realized what she'd done. She will have to live with that intense guilt and pain for the rest of her life.
2006-07-26 09:13:47 · answer #1 · answered by psychgrad 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think this is the right verdict under the circumstances. The person who should have been prosecuted for these crimes, should have been her now ex-husband Russell.
After the third baby, the doctor told Russell he should not get her pregnant because of the severe post-partum depression she suffered after having each child. Do you wonder that she finally snapped?
What's true injustice in this case is that he was able to divorce Andrea and remarry. He should have been prosecuted for an accessory before the fact, if nothing more.
2006-07-26 08:42:04 · answer #2 · answered by imagineworldwide 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. She is, and was, insane when she killed her children. She thought that she was saving them from the Devil. Because by killing them (in her mind) they would go straight to heaven because they were innocents. In a very sick and twisted way she loved them and was terrified for their souls. She is and probably always will be, a very mentally tortured individual. When and if she does actually understand what she has done I think that will be punishment enough.
Her husband on the other hand was deemed sane, and at the very least he should have been charged with gross negligence and abuse.
In civilized countries we understand that insane people cannot and should not be held responsible for there actions.
2006-07-26 09:14:35 · answer #3 · answered by spiritwise333 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you're asking whether I believe that she was actually insane at the time she killed her children, I don't have enough information to come to a conclusion.
If you're asking whether or not I believe insane people aren't capable of controlling their actions and are therefore not responsible for them, my answer is yes. A person who is incapable of controlling their actions should not be held accountable for them.
However, I don't believe that insane people should be counseled or rehabilitated. They, like recidivist offenders, are too unpredictable to allow into society.
We euthanize rabid animals. It's for their own good and ours. It puts them out of their misery and makes us safer. I don't see a difference here.
2006-07-26 09:55:55 · answer #4 · answered by slagathor238 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, wholeheartedly. Mental illness is a very serious disease that need to be recognized and understood. If anything this should open the eyes seriousness of mental illness. Rusty (her exhusband) should have been charged with something though.
2006-07-26 11:05:04 · answer #5 · answered by rlindsey0065 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do now. When she was first arrested I had no sympathy for her whatsoever. After doing a lot of research on postpartum depression, and religious psychosis, I have a better understanding of what led her to commit such a heinous act.
2006-07-26 08:35:13 · answer #6 · answered by Incongruous 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there is no understaniding that kind of behavior.
When I first heard what she did I almost vomitted.
It really made me sick.
Then it made me sicker that her husband would leave his kids with a mom he thought ( knew) had depression, suicide, issues etc.
And going to a mental hospital, she gets to be evaluated yearly to see if she is " better" and able to go back into the world.
2006-07-26 08:34:43 · answer #7 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No...she was at her senses enough to run the tub full of water and take those babies one by one and hold them under. Crazy? Seems to me she had enough conscious thought present to do this, a crazy person would have done something to take the kids lives and theirs at the same time. This to me was pre-meditated.
2006-07-28 10:14:24 · answer #8 · answered by SHERRY F 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, she murdered her own children and I don't think that she is going to have peace of mind, because of that. I am a mother and if I did the same thing to my children may GOD strike me dead right then and there, or I would find a way to kill myself. I do not think that god is going to forgive her for those murders.
2006-07-26 08:55:41 · answer #9 · answered by a.vasquez7413@sbcglobal.net 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No I do not agree with it. There was not enough evidence that even if she was schizophrenic, that it was a justifiable reason for her actions. She is a murderer.
2006-07-26 09:57:12 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋