Andrea Yates Found Not Guilty By Reason Of Insanity

realtraveller · #1 07-26-2006, 02:18 PM

What now?

Hopefully confinement to a state mental hospital until she reaches menopause. This woman should never have any more children.

**hadassahchana**[$] · #2 07-26-2006, 02:36 PM

Sorry, but I'm disappointed in that verdict.

**amykhar** · #3 07-26-2006, 02:48 PM

I don't know how I feel. On the one hand,, she truly was out of her mind when it happened. On the other hand, she kept having babies even after she knew the problems postpartum depression caused for her. I've always felt Rusty was also culpable in the deaths.

**hadassahchana**[$] · #4 07-26-2006, 03:18 PM

My biggest problem with the notion that she didn't know what she was doing is that she murdered the 7 year old first so that he couldn't help his sibs. And while her husband doesn't sound like the nicest person - he sounds like a total jerk - she was the one who killed those babies. Planning ahead, doing it deliberately and then calling 911 to announce that she did it and was prepared to be arrested seems to me like she did understand the difference between right and wrong. Ugh. I wish I could feel sorry for her, but I think she is a monster.

**thinkerlady**[$] · #5 07-26-2006, 03:25 PM

I don't feel sorry for her, but I also think that her now-ex has some responsibility in this. She couldn't conceive those kids alone, and he certainly had to have seen that she had issues. He didn't do anything to restrain himself from sleeping with her, and he left her alone with the kids knowing that she had issues.

I don't condone in the least what she did, but I also don't like the idea that he is off scott free now, divorced from her (I think) and able to sever his ties to his children and what happened.

I don't know. It is a very tragic situation.

realtraveller · #6 07-26-2006, 03:27 PM

A while ago there was a push for a new possible verdict. "Guilty but Insane".

Confine the murderer to a mental hospital for the rest of her life.

**theworm**[$] · #7 07-26-2006, 03:39 PM

Well, I haven't heard the evidence in the court room, but from what I do know I probably would vote not guilty by reason of insanity AND I WOULD recommend a mental hospital for the rest of her life. I do think she is a very sick woman and thats why she did this, but I don't think that excusese her or should shield her from consequences. Why let her out after menapause? She killed innocent children. She shouldn't get out.

**thinkerlady**[$] · #8 07-26-2006, 03:53 PM

Quote:

hadassahchana said

My biggest problem with the notion that she didn't know what she was doing is that she murdered the 7 year old first so that he couldn't help his sibs. And while her husband doesn't sound like the nicest person - he sounds like a total jerk - she was the one who killed those babies. Planning ahead, doing it deliberately and then calling 911 to announce that she did it and was prepared to be arrested seems to me like she did understand the difference between right and wrong. Ugh. I wish I could feel sorry for her, but I think she is a monster.

Cindy--she murdered Paul, the 3 year old first--here is the transcript.

NBC10.com - Local News - Read Transcript Of Yates' Interview With HPD

I wasn't sure myself, so I checked. I thought the oldest had been left in the tub when authorities got there.

**hadassahchana**[$] · #9 07-26-2006, 03:56 PM

Oh, ok. I misunderstood a different article I read about it.

And I like the idea of mental hospital forever, if that would keep her locked up for good. Ugh - I read about how the 7 year old struggled, and I just can't get over that.

**pippadaisy**[$] · #10 07-26-2006, 04:11 PM

I would have liked to have seen the husband charged. Her doctor told them hey shouldnt' have more children and they went ahead and did anyway. BOTH of them should have been sterilized at that point to cover all bases. And she NEVER should have been left alone with those kids. I don't want to think of her out. And I still cry thinking about those poor babies... kids want their mama when they are scared, and here it was their mama killing them.

**thinkerlady**[$] · #11 07-26-2006, 04:35 PM

Evidently the first time she "attempted " this, hubby was home and stopped her. One would think that a sirens would have gone off in his head that something was wrong. I think they went on to have 2 more kids after that happened. It is such a tragedy, and the fact that she was their mother makes it worse. I however, think that the hubby was responsible to a certain point also. He knew of the danger if she was alone.

realtraveller · #12 07-26-2006, 05:52 PM

Quote:

theworm said

Why let her out after menapause?

I would keep her in for life too, but at the very least she should never have the opportunity to have any more children.

MiracleMax · #13 07-26-2006, 09:10 PM

Quote:

thinkerlady said

Evidently the first time she "attempted " this, hubby was home and stopped her. One would think that a sirens would have gone off in his head that something was wrong.

I got the impression she wanted to do it then, but didn't even try because her husband was home and she knew he would try to stop her. I didn't think she had actually tried it then and he got the chance to stop her. Just that she knew he wouldn't let her do it. Or at least that was my impression from the transcript.

**lynnzop**[$] · #14 07-27-2006, 12:41 AM

Fuck.

Excuse me for being so blunt, but I'm just now reading this for the first time.

I simply have no words.

**Helen_B**[$] · #15 07-27-2006, 12:58 AM

This should just never have happened.

nicholmere · #16 07-27-2006, 04:56 PM

I was about seven months pregnant when I brought hubby (Ex-hubby now) and my two-year-old to see my doctor. I specifically asked for help with my suicidal thoughts. The doc told me to wait a couple of weeks to see if things were better. In the parking lot I cried hysterically. Hubby said he had to get to the office, popped the two-year-old into my arms and drove away.

I think that if something tragic had happened to me or my children, that Kevin would have said something like ... wow, I had no idea ...

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #17 07-27-2006, 05:02 PM

**pippadaisy**[$] · #18 07-27-2006, 05:08 PM

That's a darn shame. My OB knew my history and checked EVERY APPOINTMENT to see how I was doing. When I hit a super rough patch with Bug, she had me leave the office with SAMPLES of anti-depressants so I had them before I'd have to go get a script filled, and checked in with me after that, as well as after EVERY kid's birth to make sure I was still okay.

I know I had PPD after Buster, but didn't know that's what it was because everyone kept telling me how hard it was to take care of a refluxer. I can tell you it's doubly hard when you have severe depression on top of it, and now I tell every mom on my board if they start feeling that way to talk to their doctor about it.

**thinkerlady**[$] · #19 07-27-2006, 06:01 PM

I had PPD too, but not to that extent. I didn't have suicidal thoughts, or anything like that, but damn was I depressed for a good while after Teddy was born. It was winter and I remember it snowed a little every day, but each day/snowfall was another door closing and a curtain closing in on me. Finally my hubby realized it, and he helped me through it.

I didn't need medical intervention, it wasn't that bad, but it could easily have been if I didn't have my husband, and a really good friend helping me. I was pretty closed off to the outside world. I guess that is why I have a weakness for moms who go through PPD. I was lucky, mine wasn't too bad. Andrea was not. I know people think she is using the insanity thing to her benefit, and maybe she is, but I know how horribly I felt, so I kinda believe her. Maybe that is why I am so down on her hubby, because mine helped me through it.

**theworm**[$] · #20 07-27-2006, 07:03 PM

I don't think she is using the insanity thing to her benefit. I think that she was very very sick and that rendered her insane. I guess I can see how being that depressed, she might have known that what she did was wrong, but been unable to stop herself. There was a case here where a man lost his job, couldn't find work, and was about to lose his home. He shot his two teenaged kids, then his wife, then himself. It was tragic. In his depressed state I can understand that in his mind he couldn't take care of his family so he took care of them by ending their lives. It's not right, its not logical, it's a horrible choice, but he did it. That's insanity. What Yates did was insane. I hate what she did, I hate that her husband or doctors couldn't intervene on time. I don't think she should go free, but I do have sympathy for her. Not so much for the husband, but for her.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #21 07-27-2006, 08:45 PM

Even the insane often follow their own brand of twisted logic. Get one to tell you a story about how something happened and they'll have an A followed by B followed by C (even if not described coherently), and they'll be able to explain a rationale for what happened (even if the rationale makes no sense to the sane). Like the GH kid with some severe mental diagnoses who told me he decided he could trust me because I wore glasses. It made no sense to me but it made sense to him and at that time, that was all that mattered.