Andrea Yates' husband: Trial was wrong - insanity laws should have protected her after drownings

Associated Press ^ | January 25, 2004 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Andrea Yates' husband: Trial was wrong

Insanity laws should have protected her after drownings, he says

11:03 PM CST on Sunday, January 25, 2004

Associated Press

HOUSTON – Nearly two years after Andrea Yates' conviction for drowning her five children in the family's bathtub, her husband continues to assert that his mentally ill wife never should have been prosecuted.

"Why do we even have insanity laws if they are not based on medical insanity?" Russell Yates asked.

To be deemed innocent by reason of insanity, the law requires defendants to prove they suffer from a severe mental disease or defect and did not know their actions were wrong. Jurors rejected Andrea Yates' insanity plea and found her guilty of capital murder in March 2002. She was sentenced to life in prison for the drowning of three of her five children.

Police found the four youngest children's lifeless, wet bodies under a sheet on her bed June 20, 2001. The oldest child, Noah, 7, was found floating face down with his arms outstretched in the family's bathtub. Ms. Yates had dialed 911 after drowning the children and later confessed.

"My feelings toward the judge, the prosecutors, our legal system really haven't changed," Mr. Yates told The Associated Press. "Most people in Texas believe if someone is brought up on charges they are guilty. In Harris County, it is guilty until proven innocent."

Mr. Yates said his wife should have received mental health treatment.

"If we feel the government is proceeding wrongly against us, then we have a civil right to publicly object," Russell Yates wrote this month on www.yateskids.org. "Every member of our family believed that the state was proceeding wrongly against Andrea, and Judge [Belinda] Hill prohibited us from speaking."

Mr. Yates said Judge Hill allowed the prosecution to operate behind "closed doors" and denied Andrea Yates' family members reserved seating in the courtroom.

Judge Hill told the AP she could not comment because the case is still pending.

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who also is criticized on the Web site, said he didn't want to "dignify anything [Mr. Yates] has to say."

Defense attorneys have until next month to file an appeal of Ms. Yates' capital murder conviction.

Ms. Yates remains jailed at the Skyview Unit in Rusk, where she works in an outdoor flower garden. About 50 of the more than 500 inmates at the psychiatric facility are women.

Mr. Yates continues working at the Johnson Space Center and is trying to sell the one-story brown brick home where his children were killed.

He typically goes to see his wife every other weekend, trading off with other family members.

"It's tough," he said. "It's tough because I look back on the family we had and the happiness we had.

"It is very hard to see the woman I married and the woman who bore my children suffering."

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/012604dntexyates.4e4cb.html

[MeekOneGOP]

It's everyone's fault but Andrea's, right Russell ?? ...

"My feelings toward the judge, the prosecutors, our legal system really haven't changed," Mr. Yates told The Associated Press. "Most people in Texas believe if someone is brought up on charges they are guilty. In Harris County, it is guilty until proven innocent."

[MeekOneGOP]

Whoops ! I meant to post pics with my comment ...

Russell Yates

Andrea Yates

[Bikers4Bush]

True justice would be if she were already pushing up daisies.

[HELLRAISER II]

Mr. Yates if we did what was right then your wife would be pushing up daisies right now and you would be in prison for impregnating your wife every chance you got when you knew she was an unfit mother. An insanity plea is crap, period! She got off easy in my opinion.

[SouthernFreebird]

Mr. Yates said his wife should have received mental health treatment.

Yeah, long before she had, then killed her kids...

[hellinahandcart]

Rusty isn't divorced yet? I am shocked.

[netmilsmom]

And the funny thing is when this first happened, I felt sorry for him as well.

[MAWG]

I live in Clear Lake and I'll tell you what most of the people here think: They should've hung that f***ing bitch!

[VRWCmember]

"Most people in Texas believe if someone is brought up on charges they are guilty. In Harris County, it is guilty until proven innocent."

He's a little confused here. Once you acknowledge that you committed the act, but claim that you were mentally deficient and therefore should not be held accountable for the act, the burden of proof shifts somewhat to the defense to substantiate the claim of deficiency. She WAS guilty.

[Alberta's Child]

"Why do we even have insanity laws if they are not based on medical insanity?" Russell Yates asked.

That's a very good question, Mr. Yates. Until a couple of decades ago, insanity laws were intended to ensure that a person who was convicted of murder under some kind of "diminshed capacity" would be sentenced to life in prison instead of being executed. Those laws were never intended to allow someone operating under a "dimished capacity" to walk away with a slap on the wrist -- that kind of sh!t is a product of our modern system of processing criminals (I refuse to use the term criminal justice anymore).

[Truth29]

Russell Yates should be doing serious hard time as an acccessory to murder. Andrea Yates should have been executed rather than working in a flower garden and being supported by our tax dollars.

[HELLRAISER II]

When someone's child is killed, it is sad and naturally you feel that person's pain. But when the Killer is someone you know, much less your spouse. You can feel for them still, but that feeling ends when you start making up excuses for their actions. I love my wife but if she killed my children then she would deserve to die and with my backing irregardless of my love for her.

[HELLRAISER II]

I agree, they need to light her up like a Christmas tree.

[DCPatriot]

The B*TCH wan't crazy enough to dial 911 AFTER she killed ALL of her children was she?

A human stain is what Mrs. Yates is. Nothing more.

[netmilsmom]

I agree fully!!!

[TheSpottedOwl]

Mr. Yates said his wife should have received mental health treatment.

"If we feel the government is proceeding wrongly against us, then we have a civil right to publicly object," Russell Yates wrote this month on www.yateskids.org. "Every member of our family believed that the state was proceeding wrongly against Andrea, and Judge [Belinda] Hill prohibited us from speaking."

Russell where the hell were you and your family while your wife was falling apart? I've followed this story, and let me tell you, I blame Russell Yates for allowing this to happen. Andrea Yates crumbled from the stress of nursing her dying father, postpartum depression, and homeschooling the kids. There was a quote from a female family member saying something about a good day was when Andrea pulled a comb through her hair and managed to change her clothes. I can't remember the exact quote. These people watched her slide into a mental nightmare, and they should have taken charge. No way should she have been allowed to take on homeschooling in her condition. Someone should have been with her 24/7.

Russell and Andrea Yates did seek help for her mental problems. Unfortunately in many states, you can't have a relative commited for observation, because it violates their rights. Electroshock therapy was discussed and turned down by Russell Yates. I did a term paper on Electroshock therapy, and let me tell you, it's a last ditch remedy. The procedure causes brain lesions and leaves the patient more or less like a vegetable. I started thinking that if Andrea Yates had had the procedure done, those kids would be alive.

Russell Yates, imo, is pretty warped himself. He gave an interview after Andrea's sentencing, saying that he wanted to get remarried and have more children. Disgusting!

[steplock]

MURDER = INSANITY

You must be NON-sane to commit murder in the first place.

Insanity Defense is a liberal idea.

[hopespringseternal]

Feed'm both to woodchippers. Slowly, feet first.

[NYCVirago]

Can Russell Yates go hide under a rock somewhere? This guy was so concerned about his wife's mental health, that he kept on getting her pregnant, even though doctors told them not to do so. And who's he dating now?

[scannell]

He's breaking my heart.

[scannell]

If she needed treatment long before, wasn't his responsibility to see it got done and not allowed to remain a risk to society. Sounds like some liability also attaches to him for the kids death. Maybe charges should be considered here too.

[MeekOneGOP]

It's been a while since I was keeping up with this story, but it seems like she
called her hubby and then called 911 and told them what she'd done ...

[mountaineer]

She may have been mentally ill at the time she killed her children, but still didn't meet the legal standard for a mental disease or defect that would have avoided a guilty verdict and, thus, prison. I can't believe Rusty still doesn't get it.

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks. I think you are right regarding Russell. He's a piece of work alright ...

[deport]

Interesting...... What's with the Yates trial making news again all of a sudden........

Jan. 26, 2004, 6:43AM

Court reporter from Andrea Yates trial fired

Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Jennifer Slessinger, the court reporter who recorded Andrea Yates' four-week capital murder trial, has been fired from her job with Harris County's 230th State District Court.

But no one will talk about why.

"She has been asked to leave," state District Judge Belinda Hill said recently.

Hill said she could answer no other questions about the personnel matter. Courts administrator Jack Thompson said he could not discuss it, either. Slessinger did not return calls.

With no one commenting, it remains unknown whether Slessinger's termination had anything to do with the attempted sale of the Yates transcript on eBay.

The 3,470-page transcript showed up on the online auction site in August.

It was being offered by an established eBay seller identified as "b-lorentz" of Spring, at a starting bid of $3,470.

George Parnham, Yates' attorney, already had paid Slessinger $49,500 for the transcript his client needed to appeal her conviction in the June 2001 bathtub drownings of her five children. Yates is serving a life sentence.

Slessinger told the Houston Chronicle last month she had nothing to do with the eBay offering and didn't believe it was real because Parnham had the only copy.

"I can't imagine George selling it," Slessinger said.

Oddly, the eBay offering of the transcript, saved on a disc, was posted before Parnham had received the disc he had requested from Slessinger.

Shortly after a Chronicle story in December about the Yates transcript offering, b-lorentz withdrew all of his, or her, auction items and disappeared from eBay.

-- S.K. Bardwell

[Teacher317]

"Why do we even have insanity laws if they are not based on medical insanity?" Russell Yates asked.

Why do all morons believe that a supposedly rhetorical question makes a valid point, and has no proper answer?

Hey Russell... the legal definition is NOT the same as the medical one because The Judiciary justifiably dislikes prosecuting someone who is not aware of the "wrongness" of their actions (mens rea). When a proper PhD declares someone insane, it is for very different reasons. They are not and should not be the same definition. Just because someone like yourself hasn't the intellectual capacity to deal with multiple definitions for the same word, that does not change this reasoning.

And just because someone meets either definition, that does NOT mean that a trial is not necessary or proper!!

[MeekOneGOP]

Fired, but they won't say why ? Man, that seems strange.

And the transcripts showing up on e-Bay and then POOF, the selling and the auction is gone ...

[Thinkin' Gal]

I suspect that this psycho dame - after living with Rusty and being manipulated and controlled and used as a breeding factory - truly believed that the kids were the "seed of satan"... Satan as in Russell Yates. From that perspective, she probably thought she was doing the world a favor. Maybe she thought those boys would grow up to be just like Rusty, ~ SHUDDER ~

Of course, she's the demon who actually killed them, and she should have fried. Nonetheless, that doesn't mean ol' Rusty is sane. His false compassion makes him look like on of those intentionally delusional leftists. Like them, he sets in motion and hastens the destruction of civilization all around him, and when it predictably collapses, he wrings his hands wishing that 'something could have been done'. Sick.

The arrogance of this screwball is right up there with Billy Jeff Clintoon.

[Ancesthntr]

Ms. Yates remains jailed at the Skyview Unit in Rusk, where she works in an outdoor flower garden.

Obligatory sick joke: Someone should check whether the flowers are over-watered.

OK, sorry - this really and truly is not a laughing matter.

The truth is that she is NOT legally insane. She knew that what she was doing was wrong, and that indicates that she was legally sane - and, therefore, subject to punishment. At the very least, she should be serving the rest of her life in prison, with no chance of parole. Her husband should be prosecuted for endangering the welfare of a minor (5 counts), since he knew that his wife was an emotional basket case and couldn't handle more stress, yet he knocked her up again, and again, and again.

It seems to me that he is trying to remove all legal responsibility from Andrea as a way of reducing his own exposure.

[sharktrager]

When she had killed her children she called her husband and told him "I finally did it."
, and he knew what she meant.

If anyone other than Andrea is responsible for her actions, it is her husband.

Frankly, I lost my sympathy for this man as soon as the story about how they had been living their lives came to light. He knew she was seriously mentally ill and a danger to others, and he took no action at all.

They should have had adjoining cells on death row.

[TheSpottedOwl]

I'm glad you mentioned her delusions. From what I've read, she believed that SHE was evil, and because of her, the kids would go to hell. In her twisted mind, she thought that if they were dead, they wouldn't be "corrupted" by her. The religious sect they belonged to was led by a preacher who, imo, sounds like a cult leader. I understand that the Yates lived in a school bus on this guy's orders. Sorry, I can't remember the name of the preacher, or the church they belonged to. I know from personal experience how damaging extreme religious beliefs can be to certain people. Couple this with unrelenting stress, lots of babies, and SNAP!

Russell Yates should do himself a big favor and quit giving interviews. He is his own worst public relations disaster. When he gave his first interview, I chalked up his incoherent babbling to being in severe shock, which is understandable. His later interviews are just horrible.

Yeah, Bill Clinton. I wonder if Russell Yates is a narcissist, because Bill sure is.

[PAR35]

Slessinger told the Houston Chronicle last month she had nothing to do with the eBay offering and didn't believe it was real because Parnham had the only copy.

That doesn't make sense. In almost all cases, the prosecution would also get a copy so that they could respond to the appellant's brief.

[JudgemAll]

This is typical evil plea. The law of physics should rule the people, when we know that the laws of people's behavior with people is independent and separate from the natural laws.

Mr Yates, you are an evil man, just like your friends promoting abortion, you promote infanticide and the infanticide commited by your wife... and commited by you, in fact, since he probably manipulated her into this since she was insane....

Also a judge asks the questions to prosecution and what not (and not the other way around, a Yates' "justice" system allowing the yates to question a judge instead of answering them), that is why, whether insanity plea or not, it is not an autocratic decision made by doctors behind closed doors, decisions which could hide the guilt of Mr. Yate in this...

What else, yes, Mr. Yates obviously wants justice out of this because he has something deeply evil to hide, yet he goes on TV promoting his evil views in insolent manners.

Obviously the man, by going on TV like this, seems to feed his life of death from life. Amazing.

[Thinkin' Gal]

I was thinking about the "I am a bad mother" quotes/delusions/rantings. I can't recall the sources for this stuff. Did it come from interviews with reliable people, or did we "learn" these things from "traumatized bereaved husband", randy Rusty?

I do recall that at the time, he seemed to be offering a lot of "insight" into Andrea's state of mind, but it looked like he was just making up whatever he wanted, because she would not be able to refute him. After all, who would believe a crazy cold-blooded killer? Those are the types of observations that made me think that she killed those kids to "cleanse the gene pool" of Rusty Yates.

It never occurs to some people, to escape a psycho control freak, before it gets anywhere near this point. Unfortunately, I think some abused spouses are more comfortable in perpetual victim mode, rather than making any effort to stand up for themselves and their children. This "mother" decided to kill her kids instead! Well, it got her away from lusting Rusty.

Those poor little children. :-(

[Oztrich Boy]

?"Why do we even have insanity laws if they are not based on medical insanity?" Russell Yates asked.

Because Mr Yates, we have trick-cyclists who would be prepared to certify anyone as "crazy". Noöne would be considered responsible for their actions.

[TexRef]

A quick recap for everyone...

Not insane

Insane

[anymouse]

A few weeks ago I and some friends saw Rus Yates hanging out at a local popular pub. Had to do a double-take to be sure it was him, but clearly it was. Can't imagine how this guy gets up in every morning. The guilt and morning has to be gnawing away at him.

[MeekOneGOP]

Really ? Wow.

I hear ya. If he had a conscience, it probably would gnaw at him. Wonder if he does ?

After all, he's the one that kept insisting on more kids and the homeschooling while he watched her deteriorate ...

[Honey54]

I hope the day comes you or someone you love never suffers from mental Illness, Andrea Yates Trial was unfair !!! taking the lives of her 5 children was horrific, but she is mentally sick,, Maybe you should check out that definition before passing judgment

[SunnyUsa]

When I hear her name it makes me sick...

When I first heard the news about how she chased down and drowned each child I almost threw up - she really should just want to die after what she did.

[ClintonBeGone]

When I first heard the news about how she chased down and drowned each child I almost threw up - she really should just want to die after what she did.

How insincere.

[goldstategop]

I'm sure her boob of a husband is right. Her kids don't even come into the picture and like the good liberal he is, well its society's fault his ex-wife is behind bars serving time for a couple of murders.

[Bikers4Bush]

I hope the day comes when we execute people that have killed 5 children in cold blood without even considering a nutjob defense.

She's sick allright, the kind of sick that should be removed from this world. The rest of humanity shouldn't have to gon on knowing she's still alive. It's an afront to society.

[BlueLancer]

"In almost all cases, the prosecution would also get a copy so that they could respond to the appellant's brief."

Heck, I've got transcribed cases on my hard drive that date back to 1987, the first year I started using a computer for "word processing" my transcriptions.

[ohioman]

They ought to lock her nutball husband up! The devil woman kills his kids and he continues to defend her.