Andrea Yates

[Mayflower1]

The verdict is in and Andrea Yates is found innocent! As someone who had gone through depression, I believed that she did have a mental illness killing her children... a Psychosis. Just because you know something is wrong doesn't mean you can't always control it. Whether you can control yourself is the matter of whether you are insane or not. It isn't whether you understand whether it is right to do it or not. If that is the case, I wasn't mentally ill to cut myself because I knew it was wrong when I did it.

Looking at her family portraits, you can see that those children were happy up the the point Andrea Yates drowned them. I definitely agree she should be in a mental institution the rest of her life, but as for an inmate, no... there was definitely something wrong with her.

 

[marblehead]

I'm glad to hear this, justice is finally served.

 

[Belk]

The verdict is in and Andrea Yates is found innocent! As someone who had gone through depression, I believed that she did have a mental illness killing her children... a Psychosis. Just because you know something is wrong doesn't mean you can't always control it. Whether you can control yourself is the matter of whether you are insane or not. It isn't whether you understand whether it is right to do it or not. If that is the case, I wasn't mentally ill to cut myself because I knew it was wrong when I did it.

Looking at her family portraits, you can see that those children were happy up the the point Andrea Yates drowned them. I definitely agree she should be in a mental institution the rest of her life, but as for an inmate, no... there was definitely something wrong with her.

Agreed! It makes no sense to simply lock up a women with such obvious mental problems and throw away the key.

 

[fillerbunny]

I concur.

Granted, there's quite a bit of discrepancy between the definition of 'insanity' in the legal sense vs. the clinical sense.. but I don't think this woman belongs in a prison cell.

What happened was extraordinarily unfortunate and tragic.. not only for Yates' children and family, but also for Yates herself. This poor woman is going to be paying for this for the rest of her life, whether she spends it imprisoned, institutionalized, or walking among the general public. The children's suffering- horrendous as it was- is over.. but that woman is going to have to wake up every morning for the rest of her natural life, and she's going to have to live with what she did. Personally, I can't imagine a worse fate. She clearly loved those children, and, when she was in her right mind, she was a good mother.

If anything positive has come of this, it is the fact that this case brought the issue of post-partum depression / psychosis to the forefront. It's raised awareness, and it is my hope that said awareness will hopefully save lives.

 

[Mayflower1]

I hope it does raise awareness... it is a serious condition many mothers have to go through.

 

[Belk]

I hope it does raise awareness... it is a serious condition many mothers have to go through.

I think it already has. Hopefully we can keep Tom Cruise away from the issue.

 

[Mayflower1]

I have no idea what Tom Cruise has to do with this! I hope I don't get that if I become a mother though. Reg. Depression was hard enough to deal with.

So many are against Andrea Yates though. I know it is tough with all those children killed, but I refuse to believe someone sane in mind after being such a good mother would just up and drown their children.

Sometimes I think anyone who would kill another being except for defence has a mental illness.

 

[JustJack!]

I don't care how screwed up in the head she was, and I don't doupt she was, you've got to be screwy to chase down your kids and methodically drown them one by one.

This isn't somoone who should be put back into society. This nut belongs in prison, not in some institution where they just drrug her up and five years later she's "all better" and they throw her back out on the street.

Hell, as far as I'm concered, her first 20 year sentence wasn't enough. I sincerely hope another nut murders her before she can get out.

 

[Mayflower1]

This is the type of mind I am thinking about. Everyone has a right to their opinion but is it really her fault for being mentally ill? I just can't believe her husband didn't get charged for leaving her alone with them... and then just divorcing her because of it...

 

[steen]

Such an attitude toward the mentally ill as an above poster demonstrated is downright Medieval. Fortunately, society have moved away from seeing the mentally ill as criminal or punished by God or other such nonsense, and to recognize them as people with an illness that needs to be treated.

 

[marblehead]

I don't care how screwed up in the head she was, and I don't doupt she was, you've got to be screwy to chase down your kids and methodically drown them one by one.

This isn't somoone who should be put back into society. This nut belongs in prison, not in some institution where they just drrug her up and five years later she's "all better" and they throw her back out on the street.

Hell, as far as I'm concered, her first 20 year sentence wasn't enough. I sincerely hope another nut murders her before she can get out.

She needs treatment and prison wouldn't be the best place for that. Besides, Hinckley's still in the looney bin so I don't think Andrea Yates will get out anytime soon if at all.

 

[rowena]

As long as she is never allowed back in to society I don't really care where she spends the rest of her life. I'd much prefer it if her husband was locked up right beside her though.

 

[Belk]

As long as she is never allowed back in to society I don't really care where she spends the rest of her life. I'd much prefer it if her husband was locked up right beside her though.

I have never understood this sentiment. Especially comming from christians. Are you not supposed to forgive? Yes, this woman did something heinous. However she was not in her right mind when it happened. She will spend the rest of her life with a burden that we can not even imagine. Is that not punishment enough?

 

[JustJack!]

It makes no difference what state of mind you're in. You don't drown all five of your kids, and chase them down to do it, without ever snapping and realizing what you're doing.

Someone like that belong in prison, I don't care how good she can act, or how bad her husband was.

 

[Belk]

It makes no difference what state of mind you're in. You don't drown all five of your kids, and chase them down to do it, without ever snapping and realizing what you're doing.

Really? And you know this how?

Someone like that belong in prison, I don't care how good she can act, or how bad her husband was.

If you have some proof of your initial supposition I will agree with you.

 

[marblehead]

It makes no difference what state of mind you're in. You don't drown all five of your kids, and chase them down to do it, without ever snapping and realizing what you're doing.

Someone like that belong in prison, I don't care how good she can act, or how bad her husband was.

Wow, an expert in psychology!

 

[Electric Skeptic]

This is the type of mind I am thinking about. Everyone has a right to their opinion but is it really her fault for being mentally ill?

It is really her fault for killing her kids. Depression is not an excuse (and I speak as someone who has suffered from chronic clinical depression for decades).

This woman needs to never rejoin society.

 

[marblehead]

It is really her fault for killing her kids. Depression is not an excuse (and I speak as someone who has suffered from chronic clinical depression for decades).

This woman needs to never rejoin society.

It wasn't just depression, but psychosis.

I agree that she shouldn't be let out because there's always a chance that she could go off her medication and relapse.

 

[jayem]

If you have the viewpoint that the primary purpose of criminal justice is punishment, then you won't be happy with this verdict.

But there's the other view that the main purpose of criminal justice is protection of society. So confinement to an institution under close supervision is appropriate. (And incarceration in a mental facility is hardly a vacation.) I also strongly believe she should make restitution of some sort, if at all possible. Once she's stabilized on medication, perhaps she could work (again, with close supervision) at a woman's shelter or some other facility. Or do some kind of private sector work with her wages going to an abused women or children's fund.

Her husband clearly bears some responsibility for insisting she get pregnant for the 5th time after having repeated episodes of post-partum illness. And I'd heard that her physician had stopped her Haldol for some reason. If true, this is also worth investigating.

 

[KarateCowboy]

The verdict is in and Andrea Yates is found innocent! As someone who had gone through depression, I believed that she did have a mental illness killing her children... a Psychosis. Just because you know something is wrong doesn't mean you can't always control it. Whether you can control yourself is the matter of whether you are insane or not. It isn't whether you understand whether it is right to do it or not. If that is the case, I wasn't mentally ill to cut myself because I knew it was wrong when I did it.

Looking at her family portraits, you can see that those children were happy up the the point Andrea Yates drowned them. I definitely agree she should be in a mental institution the rest of her life, but as for an inmate, no... there was definitely something wrong with her.

The thing that's wrong with her is she is a horrible woman who brutally murdered her own five children. You know that when an animal attacks and kills a human we put it down, regardless of how it feels about itself? How do you kill your own five children, one by one? She's beyond hope. Putting her in a mental institution is only collaborating with the problem. But hey, let's say I'm wrong and she actually was too idepressed to see that murdering five children is wrong. If that's the case then someone should be pressing charges against her husband for not doing something to take care of this and prevent it.