Andrea Yates retrial

[Brattina88]

I have to disagree, Jess (I think that's a first!). I guess things are different when someone close to you is diagnosed with something that effects sanity. Either way its not like she's getting out anytime soon!

I agree with Joce...

The news said that they did a retrail based on the fact that the lawyer's main arguement was that she got the idea from law and order and planned to do it when no one was home... when they found out that there was no such episode it made things a little easier for them.

I watched it live, and I have to say, IMO, she wasn't all there. Especailly when they announced the Not Guilty verdict. She was kind of looking around like she didn't know what was going on... JMO

 

[jess2416]

I have to disagree, Jess (I think that's a first!).

LOL there's always a first time for everything

I was saying that in general I believe that way....who cares if she's looney thats no excuse *IMO* for killing her kids............

I could possibly "understand" if it were one child, maybe 2 but 5...dont think so..just one right after another.. and more than likely her oldest ones were probably wondering why is mommy doing this, possibly crying and she still could go through with it....Sure she must have been looney, but oh well, lets just send her to a mental institution...so she can at least still be alive, Who cares that she drowned her five children....

 

[jess2416]

double post oops

 

[Zoom]

The way I see it is that you have to be so far off in outer space to even drown one kid, let alone 5. I think she is fully entitled to her insanity plea and I only feel pity that she was denied the help she wanted/needed earlier in her life.

Really and honestly, I kind of hate the husband more than the wife.

I have heard people bring out the fact that she called 911 as proof that she was sane. But when you think about it, what's the first thing drilled into your head as a kid? When something goes wrong, call 911. It becomes instinct...she may not have had an actual idea as to what she did, but she did know that her kids weren't acting right or whatever the tape says, ergo she fell back on lesson #5 of kindergarten and called emergency.

 

[smkie]

The REaders Digest article i read said that she was bipolar type 1 and that the birth harmone drop can cause psychotic episodes. I was envolved with someone that had this once with me which ended up in a physical altercation, and once with someone else and from what i understand that was quite bad too. I can attest that it did just exactly that, produced a psychotic episode. THe disease is strongly affected by increases and decreases in harmones. Insanity is that, not sane. It is almost impossible for any of us to have pity on someone that has caused such an awful crime, yet if she had been diagnosed with something else would it be easier to understand? She is in a mental hospital and i am sure she is in a prison all her own that not one of us would trade places with. With the person i knew, when the level balanced back out the horror of what had happened was realized. No punishment could ever be worse then that, knowing that you could never undo what happened and were not "there" when you did. I agree with the verdict one hundred percent. SHe went were she needed to go.

 

[Red_ACD_for_me]

First off , this woman had already been diagnosed with bad postpartum by her 3rd child. So why did her and her husband keep popping them out! For christ sake get fixed ! By the time her 5th child was born she was acting worse. And I'm sorry, she knew what she was doing enough to call the cops after and tell them that she just drowned her five children. Did some of you forget that? I feel no pity for this woman and she should rot in he!! for the rest of her life. People are to quick to claim insanity in murder cases. Her oldest boy was chased around for awhile before he was held down under the water after he had witnessed what his mother was trying to do. She new what she was doing at the time of the drownings but now they are saying that she suffers from short term memmory loss How conveinient, yeah, I would like to forget that I killed my own flesh and blood too

 

[Ashlea]

People who treat other with mental illness as pariahs are so wrong. My own mother took an overdoes of pills when I was around 7. It is not something these people do conciously, they are complelled by chemicals in their brains to do things that others to not deem as rational.

She is ill, what she did was wrong, she is in a mental institute for the rest of her life. If you think that is a picnic, visit your local psych ward and see if you would like to spend the rest of your life there.

I pray she never fully reliases what she did.

 

[Zoom]

First off , this woman had already been diagnosed with bad postpartum by her 3rd child. So why did her and her husband keep popping them out! For christ sake get fixed ! By the time her 5th child was born she was acting worse. And I'm sorry, she knew what she was doing enough to call the cops after and tell them that she just drowned her five children. Did some of you forget that? I feel no pity for this woman and she should rot in he!! for the rest of her life. People are to quick to claim insanity in murder cases. Her oldest boy was chased around for awhile before he was held down under the water after he had witnessed what his mother was trying to do. She new what she was doing at the time of the drownings but now they are saying that she suffers from short term memmory loss How conveinient, yeah, I would like to forget that I killed my own flesh and blood too

If I remember correctly, the husband would not allow her to 'get fixed' and was opposed to any sort of medication, which included birth control apparently.

I addressed the "calling the cops" in a post up above. I believe that we are so ingrained from a very young age to call the police that it just followed. Didn't she believe that her children were being possessed or something and that by drowning them she believed she was saving them?

 

[whatszmatter]

I looked for as credible source as I could find, so here's some transcripts from the Oprah website that gives patient notes from the Dr. treating andrea Yates.

from here: http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/200202/omag_200202_yates_d.jhtml

For a time Andrea continued monthly visits to Starbranch, whose notes of their December 1999 session quote Andrea as saying she is "doing great—baking cookies and getting ready for Xmas." Rusty accompanied Andrea to her January 12, 2000, appointment. Starbranch wrote that Andrea "admits she's off all meds since 11/99. Husband says he didn't like her doing this but [she] seems to be doing okay. [Patient] wants to be off meds unless symptomatic. Husband agrees." There are no records of further visits to Starbranch.

Sounds like her, her dr, and the husband were all in on the decision. Its not like her husband forced her to not get treatment. There's too much hearsay in this whole thing.

She stopped eating, drinking, and speaking. Her desperate husband brought her to nearby Devereux Hospital in League City, Texas, telling the admitting physician his wife "could not survive another night at home."

Again, doesn't sound like he was denying his wife treatment.

There's more in that article and to me it sounds like dr's nurses, friends family, the husband, and Andrea all thought she had some troubles, but never would kill somebody.

 

[Serena]

Personally I am disgusted by the decision reached.

She is insane? Well no sh** Sherlock, to do something like this you would have to be insane...it doesn't change the fact that she is a murderer and should be in jail...

The 'blood' of those children are on her hands and I hope she is haunted by that knowledge and memory every day for the rest of her life.

 

[juliefurry]

It wasn't PPD it was post partum psycosis I believe the term is. I saw a tv program about what happened and most of it is not her fault. She got help numerous times and was put on medication and all was fine but her and her husband just kept having more kids and it kept getting worse. She also didn't see it as ending their lives she saw it as she was protecting and saving them from satan. It's sad what happened but it could have been prevented by her and also her family and it wasn't. I feel really bad for the poor kids it should never have happened to them.

 

[Renee750il]

I learned long ago that lack of compassion and sitting in judgement will come back to bite you in the ass every single time . . . Please think long and hard before arbitrarily condemning someone who went through something that can only be speculated upon and imagined.

There is a reason nearly every spiritual/philosophical culture has some variant of the Native American proverb about walking a mile in another's moccasins . . .

 

[jess2416]

Renee , I agree with that point with certain situations and certain circumstances, but this one, I just cant....

There is no way that I could EVER have compassion for that woman....when she is alive and all 5 of her children are dead...

I dont have one ounce of sympathy for her and I dont have any sympathy for people when their crimes involve children or the elderly...I dont care if they are sane or not..

Maybe some can look past it that but I cant...

 

[EliNHunter]

I've followed this very closely... as I do most indespicable crime stories (but that's another story). Can anyone seriously raise their hand here and say she WASN'T delusional when she commited this act? She suffered from psychosis (including PPD) after her THIRD child. Her good lovin' husband RUSTY insisted she keep having more even when she told him she didn't want to. She tried to commit suicide on more than one occasion. They were deeply religious (at least RUSTY instilled that onto them) and she was expected to homeschool and be the stay at home mom with more than she can handle. She started having hallucinations (or maybe it was real?) that Satan was attacking the family and the children were going to grow up to be drug addicted, homosexual, and prostitutes, etc. In her mind she needed to defeat satan and let her children "go" to the Lord while they were still innocent. And she would be punished and put to death thus defeating satan. It goes on and on. This is NOT a "whatever her name is that drowned her 2 kids in the car" so she could have her LOVER who didn't want her kids...

 

[juliefurry]

I've followed this very closely... as I do most indespicable crime stories (but that's another story). Can anyone seriously raise their hand here and say she WASN'T delusional when she commited this act? She suffered from psychosis (including PPD) after her THIRD child. Her good lovin' husband RUSTY insisted she keep having more even when she told him she didn't want to. She tried to commit suicide on more than one occasion. They were deeply religious (at least RUSTY instilled that onto them) and she was expected to homeschool and be the stay at home mom with more than she can handle. She started having hallucinations (or maybe it was real?) that Satan was attacking the family and the children were going to grow up to be drug addicted, homosexual, and prostitutes, etc. In her mind she needed to defeat satan and let her children "go" to the Lord while they were still innocent. And she would be punished and put to death thus defeating satan. It goes on and on. This is NOT a "whatever her name is that drowned her 2 kids in the car" so she could have her LOVER who didn't want her kids...

That's exactly right. That's what I saw on the tv program about her. I was trying to remember in more detail the program but couldn't.

 

[Wigglebutts]

Susan Smith I believe you are thinking of....

 

[tessa_s212]

This is the same kind of woman I've had to live with all my life.

My mom threw steak knives at my sister and I twice when we were younger because "she saw evil in us" and we "were trying to hurt her". She knew in all her insane mind that it was not us in our own bodies, so if she were to actually hit us(she always missed), she wouldn't have been killing her own children, but only demons.

But is that the only side of my mother? No. She's not always like that. She only goes into those mood swings every now and then. And despite all we kids went through, I still love her. I hate her mental illness, but I still love her. And I can still get along with her(sometiems) when she is in her right mind. And she still is a person, like you or me, behind that mental illness.

There is no doubt in my mind that Andrea Yates isn't mentally ill. There is no doubt in my mind that she could still be a good person behind that horrible mental illness.

And heck.. have you ever been to a mental hospital? (Okay, so I haven't..only heard stories from my mom.) But that right there is Hel|.

 

[tessa_s212]

Renee , I agree with that point with certain situations and certain circumstances, but this one, I just cant....

There is no way that I could EVER have compassion for that woman....when she is alive and all 5 of her children are dead...

I dont have one ounce of sympathy for her and I dont have any sympathy for people when their crimes involve children or the elderly...I dont care if they are sane or not..

Maybe some can look past it that but I cant...

Jess, I like you! So that is why I want you to understand.

My mom is as psycho as they come. But she loves us kids probably more than her own life. She might be the same psycho woman that put us kids through hell growing up, but she is also the same person that stands up for me when a teacher hits me. She is the same person that cries and morns because our poor Pepper is dying of cancer. She is the same person that drives me to dog shows time and time again even after I treat her like sh|t just because I'm tired and grouchy. She is the same person that loves me despite myself and how horribly I can treat her.

They ARE people behind that mental illness. They just need help. And they just need someone to help give them that help. If anything, we should be angry at the people that stand by and not help these people. Not do anything. In this Andrea Yate person's case, the husband should have done something. He should have cared enough about his children and his wife to get his wife help.