Andrea Yates? What Do You Think?

[CrimsonTide4]

Texas Mom Gets Life Sentence in Drowning Case
Fri Mar 15, 3:17 PM ET
By Jeff Franks

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Texas jury sentenced Andrea Yates to life in prison on Friday for drowning her five children in a crime that shocked the nation and touched off bitter debate about treatment of the mentally ill.


The sentence, reached after a stunningly fast 35 minutes of deliberation, means Yates, 37, must serve at least 40 years behind bars. The only other punishment option under tough Texas laws was death by lethal injection.

Yates, who told police after the June 20, 2001 murders she wanted the state to execute her, nodded to one of her lawyers but otherwise showed little reaction to the verdict when state District Judge Belinda Hill read it to a packed court.

Members of her family, who believed she should be treated for her mental problems and not punished, expressed relief and cried as the verdict was read. Husband Rusty Yates nodded "yes" as his mother sat beside him and cried. Andrea Yates' mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy, bowed her head and silently began to cry.

Yates' life sentence came in notoriously tough Harris County, where prosecutors have sent more defendants to their executions than any other U.S. county and all but two states, Texas and Virginia. Hill is expected to formally sentence Yates shortly, possibly as soon as Friday.

The jury's decision ended a month-long trial in which the former nurse and high school valedictorian confessed to drowning her five children in the bathtub of their Houston home, but said she was trying to save them from the devil.

She pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, citing a history of mental illness that included two suicide attempts and four psychiatric hospital stays, the last one a month before the murders.

Mental health experts testified that Yates was schizophrenic and suffering from postpartum depression that began after the birth of her fourth child and flared up again after the fifth.

Her lawyers argued that had she received proper treatment and not been rushed out of hospitals because of health insurance limitations, the crime would not have been committed. Just two weeks before the drownings, her psychiatrist inexplicably took her off anti-psychotic drugs, they said.

NOT A FUTURE DANGER

In giving Yates a life sentence, the eight women and four men of the jury determined Yates was not a future danger to society. Had they decided she was a future danger, they would have had to decide whether there were any "mitigating factors" preventing them from sentencing her to die.

The same jurors surprised courthouse observers on Tuesday when they took just 3 1/2 hours to reject her insanity defense and find her guilty of capital murder after listening to experts say for three weeks that Yates was clearly insane.

The only standard for legal sanity in Texas is whether the defendant knew the crime was right or wrong when they committed it. Yates said she knew the drownings would be viewed badly, but felt they had to be done to save the children from Satan, who was urging her on.

A statute with a broader definition of insanity was thrown out by the state legislature in 1983 in angry reaction to John Hinckley's acquittal for insanity after his 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan (news - web sites).

Texas law also forbade lawyers from telling the jury that if they found Yates not guilty, she would not go free, but would be sent to a state mental hospital until Judge Hill deemed her cured.

Prosecutors argued that Yates was sick, but sane enough for Texas law. They said the killings were an act of revenge against her domineering husband, NASA (news - web sites) engineer Rusty Yates.

The case touched off a national debate on the legal rights of the mentally ill and the adequacy of their care.

The National Organization for Women (news - web sites) supported Yates and said her case highlighted the need for more education about postpartum depression.

The Yates case also stirred fresh criticism of Texas, which conducts far more executions than any other state, and has a reputation for harsh, Old West-style justice.

[RedAngel]

Originally posted by kizzie22
Life in Prison

I just found out Andrea Yates got life in prison instead of the death penalty...My question to everyone is...Do you think this was a fair decision? I personally think she should have gotten the dealth penalty. She took the life of five innocent children. She KNEW exactly what she was doing and I don't buy that mentally illness crap one bit...

Good question! I don't believe in the death penalty so I think morally it was just....BUT it seems to be inconsistent with some past cases. This may be a little bit off the beaten track but wasn't there a case up for review in Texas a few years back of a mentally disabled man who ended up getting put to death?

[thesweetestone]

Originally posted by RedAngel


Good question! I don't believe in the death penalty so I think morally it was just....BUT it seems to be inconsistent with some past cases. This may be a little bit off the beaten track but wasn't there a case up for review in Texas a few years back of a mentally disabled man who ended up getting put to death?

It does seem to be inconsistent with other cases. I think they shuld have giving her the death penalty too. She killed five people. Five people that really had no defense against her and that trusted her. some times I just really don't understand our justice system. We really don't project our young. Susan Smith did not get the death penalty either. Remember She drowned her little helpless children by driving the car off into a lake. she's still alive. I think that if you kill five people you should recieve the death penalty regardless. It doesn't matter if you are future danger to society. You have already done enough.

[Salience]

I am anti-death penalty, so I am glad she was not murdered in turn. But life incarceration won't help her mental state, either. There is no good solution to this horrible situation.

[c&c1913]

Since the gag order has been lifted, her husband reportedly stated that he would like to get married again and have more children ! Apperently in Texas you have to serve at least 40 years before you're eligible for parole. This would make her 77 when she gets out. What happened to for better, for worse, in sickness and in health? Throughout the trial he said he "loved his wife", she's the kindest, sweetest, yada, yada, yada.... I don't know what this world is coming to.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by c&c1913
Since the gag order has been lifted, her husband reportedly stated that he would like to get married again and have more children ! Apperently in Texas you have to serve at least 40 years before you're eligible for parole. This would make her 77 when she gets out. What happened to for better, for worse, in sickness and in health? Throughout the trial he said he "loved his wife", she's the kindest, sweetest, yada, yada, yada.... I don't know what this world is coming to.

1. HMM
2. WTH?
3. Who in da h*ll would marry him?
4. **singing** He's got mad issues.

[kizzie22]

Originally posted by RedAngel

This may be a little bit off the beaten track but wasn't there a case up for review in Texas a few years back of a mentally disabled man who ended up getting put to death?

Yes...That was a controversial case brought before George W.Bush when he was govenor of texas. He refused to stop that excution[sp].

[kizzie22]

Originally posted by CrimsonTide4


1. HMM
2. WTH?
3. Who in da h*ll would marry him?
4. **singing** He's got mad issues.

I agree...He has some SERIOUS issues...The sad thing about it someone will be dumb enough to marry him. It wouldn't surprise me if he was married/engaged by the end of this year.

[Honeykiss1974]

Rusty Yates to remarry Saturday


By TERRI LANGFORD
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Russell "Rusty" Yates Jr. will remarry this weekend, two days before his ex-wife, Andrea Yates, is retried for the 2001 murders of the couple's children.

On Saturday, Yates will marry Laura Arnold, a woman he met while attending Clear Lake Church of Christ, according to the Rev. Fairy Caroland, Yates' aunt.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/3723186.html