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Not Guilty?
I could hardly believe my ears when my son called me today and said, “You heard about Andrea Yates, right? She was found not guilty by reason of insanity.” NOT GUILTY?! Yep, that was the verdict.
HOUSTON — Andrea Yates, a Houston mother who systematically drowned her five children in the family bathtub, was found not guilty of murder Wednesday by reason of insanity.
Defense attorneys never disputed that Yates killed her five children — 6-month-old Mary, 2-year-old Luke, 3-year-old Paul, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah — by drowning them in a bathtub of their suburban Houston home in June 2001. They based their case, however, on a claim that she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her and was trying to save them from hell.
Here are the children. And their “loving mother”.
How could this have happened? I mean, she was already found guilty…and because of some stupid legal glitch, she got a new trial. What did this jury see that the first one didn’t? Crazy? Of course she was crazy. Pretty much any murder is no doubt crazy. Does that make it right, and mean that we should excuse the behavior? I don’t think so.
You can’t even say that it was a quick thing, she snapped and shot them, before she knew what she was doing. No, she systematically drowned her children, one at a time. This took time. Time for her to “snap out” of her crazy rage and STOP. Hell, she had to chase the older ones down. Those kids saw what happened to the littlier ones, and knew what was coming for them, and they were trying to get away. Can you even begin to imagine the horror that those children went through?
And to me, the most horrifying thing about this whole damn mess is, Andrea Yates has a chance of eventually going free. Something that was NOT shared with the jurors.
The 42-year-old will be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released.
If convicted of murder, she would have faced life in prison.
Can you even believe that? She could eventually be set free. OMG.
Maybe she was crazy. Probably was, probably still is. But those kids deserved to live, and Andrea Yates deserves to be punished for taking that away from those beautiful kids.
~~*~~Who else is talking?~~*~~
Merri Musings
Raven
Kathy
Beth (via Merri)
Kim
American Phoenix
The Conservative Voice
This just makes me sick. You have to be crazy to drown five kids, that was a given. All that we needed to determine was should we kill her or put her away for life. There should be no other options. Personally I’m for putting her away for life so that she can live with herself.
The jury spoke – we have to go with it. It is just so sad.
I appreciate your opinion on this. This is truly a sad day for those children. God Bless The Little Children!!!
Her ex-husband was actually relieved with this verdict. He says that she was truly mentally ill do it, and we must treat her with compassion.
Hmmm. I agree with the treating her with compassion. But I don’t agree with her being eligible for parole. There is no way she should ever enjoy her freedom again, after she took away that freedom from her kids. May they rest in peace with the Lord.
Seeing their pictures, is just painful. What beautiful little children. May she burn in hell.
A little compassion for this mother would be a good thing. To suffer from a chemical imbalance that made her commit this horrendous act and then have to relive it over and over in her mind for the rest of her life is somethng I wouldn’t wish on anyone. We don’t choose our medical problems and she didn’t choose hers. We can not put ourselves in her shoes and say what we would or would not have done under these circumstances. I think women can be very unkind to each other, and these comments are evidence of that. I’m sure Andrea Yates loved her children very much and would never have dreamed of killing her beautiful children if she did not have this sickness. The jury was correct- she should not be placed in prison with thugs, but in a mental hospital where she can get help.
Legal technicalities do a lot for the criminal, Tammy.
Seeing the pictures of the children & their tombstone just makes me very very sad…
I never thought I would say this but I actually feel that she was suffering from a severe case of baby blues and that dear ole hubby is more copable . I stayed w a man who beat me for years and have no idea why I think this is kind of similar to the not knowing why and I recall one of the beatings to b partically long and I one point I was in a trance like state unaware of anything I had to done which was nothing thank the good lord!! May he bless those kids for eternity!!!
She will pay for these hideous crimes – apparently not in this life, though.