This is bullshit!!!!!!!! I can't believe this!!!!Who Agrees???

Question

How the hell can these people do this

HOUSTON (AP) - In a dramatic turnaround from her first murder trial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday in the drowning of her children in the bathtub.

The 42-year-old woman will be committed to a state mental hospital and held until she is no longer deemed a threat. If she had been convicted of murder, she would have been sentenced to life in prison.

Yates stared wide-eyed as the verdict was read, then bowed her head and wept quietly. Her relatives also shed tears, and the children's father, Rusty Yates, muttered, "Wow!" as he, too, cried.

Four years ago, another jury convicted Yates of murder, rejecting claims that she was so psychotic she thought she was saving her the souls of her five children by killing them. An appeals court overturned the convictions because of erroneous testimony from a prosecution witness.

Yates' chief attorney, George Parnham, called the verdict this time a "watershed event in the treatment of mental illness."

Wendell Odom, another of Yates' attorneys, suggested that attitudes have changed since the first trial: "Five years ago there were a lot of people who could not get past the anger of what happened."

Yates' 2002 conviction triggered debate over whether Texas' legal standard for mental illness was too rigid, whether the courts treated postpartum depression seriously enough, and whether a mother who kills could ever find sympathy and understanding in a tough-on-crime state like Texas.

Yates drowned 6-month-old Mary, 2-year-old Luke, 3-year-old Paul, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah in their Houston-area home in June 2001. Her attorneys said she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed that Satan was inside her and that killing the youngsters would save them from hell.

"The jury looked past what happened and looked at why it happened," Rusty Yates, who divorced his wife last year, said outside the courthouse. "Yes, she was psychotic. That's the whole truth."

Prosecutors had maintained that Yates failed to meet the state's definition of insanity: that she was so severely mentally ill that she did not know her actions were wrong.

"I'm very disappointed," prosecutor Kaylynn Williford said. "For five years, we've tried to seek justice for these children."

Yates will be sent to Vernon State Mental Hospital, a prison-like maximum-security facility encircled by a 17-foot fence and guard towers. Experts say it can take decades before psychiatrists decide that a patient is healthy enough to be released, and even then a judge can reject those findings.

The jury, split evenly between men and women, deliberated for about 13 hours over three days. The jurors had not been told that Yates would be committed to a mental institution if found not guilty.

Yates did not testify. Her lawyers presented much of the same evidence as in the first trial, including half a dozen psychiatrists who testified that Yates was insane.

During a videotaped 2001 jail interview, Yates told a psychiatrist that her children had not been progressing normally because she was a bad mother, and that she killed them because "in their innocence, they would go to heaven."

The jury was told about Yates' two hospitalizations after two suicide attempts in 1999, and about her stays in a mental hospital a few months before the drownings.

But prosecution witness Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that Yates killed the youngsters because she felt overwhelmed and inadequate as a mother, not to save their souls. He said that it was not until a day after the killings that she talked about Satan and saving her children from hell.

Welner also said Yates showed that she knew her actions were wrong by waiting until her husband left for work to kill them, covering the bodies with a sheet and calling 911 soon after the crime.

Yates' 2002 conviction was overturned after Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist, told the jury that before the drownings, NBC ran a "Law & Order" episode about a woman who was acquitted by reason of insanity after drowning her children. It was later learned that no such episode existed.

Answer 1

The system is in need of serious change

Answer 2

She has severe postpartum depression- now called postpartum psychosis. It hardly ever happens, but can last for years after a woman has had a baby. It's caused by change in hormone levels that lead to a chemical imbalance in the brain. The "voices" she heard were from those imbalances. I think there is more going on then that. Sounds like maybe schitsophrenia, or bi-polar disorder to me. It's good she is getting the mental help she needs, but I think she should still be held accountable for her actions. She needs some serious help, and sometimes, jail isn't the place to get it.

Answer 3

Yes, very sadly, I can believe this. The legal system in this country really needs a lot of help. There are people convicted of crimes they did not commit, and others, who are murderers; although they may well be insane or mentally unbalanced, are let off with a slap on the wrist in a manner of speaking. It is enough to make me want to tear my hair out in frustration. This whole crime and the trial sounds like a made for TV movie, and I'm sure it will be; or has been. I do not have cable for that reason, there is only so much junk I want in my brain cells. I figure, as I age, I am losing brain cells due to the aging process and I need to keep the ones I do have in good shape and as junk-free as possible. I don't understand how she, supposedly, had severe depression with every pregnancy; but continued to have more and more children. How much blame does her ex-husband need to shoulder for all of this, shouldn't he have gotten help for his wife, instead of getting her pregnant five.....times....Dear Lord in Heaven, sometimes I feel like I'm living in a bad dream. We are very blessed to live in the USA, for the most part; but we need change in the legal system.

Answer 4

I believe the jury in the Andrea Yates' trial was completely wrong. That woman belongs in prison forever.
While I'm ranting about this ,I will also add that her husband, Rusty, belongs there with her.
Where is your compassion for those children, jury members, especially the oldest who knew what was happening,and could do nothing about it?
I have no sympathy for Andrea Yates!!!!!

Answer 5

Sorry - I disagree with you. Anyone that can kill all 5 of her children has got to be crazy. However, I think she should be locked up in a mental institution for the rest of her life.

Answer 6

She is serving time in a mental hospital where she belongs!

*Read up on mental illness!
Mental illness is a chemical imbalance in the brain.
It can't be fixed - only helped. It's an illness just like cancer.

Answer 7

why is it that other women can have the same problem but seem to get help right away. But not her. I think she should have been found guilty. As for she is. So again someone gets away with murder.

Answer 8

i agree with you, however Andrea Yates must face a judgment not too many people are looking forward to. she may have gotten away with murder here on earth, but she will pay for it for eternally .

Answer 9

I agree that it's BS, but some loophole was crawled through. Life is not always fair, and those who do wrong do not always get what they deserve.

Answer 10

For what it's worth, I think that she should suffer the same fate as the children that she drowned.