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"It's a shame that there's no law that can give Russell Yates his due," writes syndicated columnist Debra Saunders. "Russell Yates ought to be locked up instead of his wife," says writer Cindy Hasz. Creators Syndicate's Froma Harrop sneers that he probably "misses the obedient drudge who bore and raised his five children more than the five children." Harsh words for Russell Yates have come from many others, particularly former O. J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark. What these and others forget is that it's hard to make the right decision when you don't have a lot of options. According to...

by Mark Finkelstein July 27, 2006 - 07:36 The Andrea Yates jury spent 36 days listening to testimony and argument, trying to get inside the mind of a woman who had drowned her five children. But with just one sentence, ABC's Chris Cuomo gave us a stunning look inside the mind of a certified MSMer: sympathy first, last and always for the accused. Commenting on the not-guilty-by-reason-of-insanity verdict, Cuomo had this to say: "Ironically, treatment might be the harshest punishment for Yates, because she has said the healthier she becomes, the more pain and regret she's able to feel." So...

HOUSTON -- Jurors reached a verdict in Andrea Yates' murder retrial Wednesday morning. The jury's decision will be announced at about 11:25 a.m. KPRC and Click2Houston will air the verdict live. After deliberating nearly 11 hours, jurors returned for a third day Wednesday to determine if she was legally insane when she drowned her five children in the bathtub. Before court ended Tuesday, the jury of six men and six women asked to review the state's definition of insanity: that someone, because of a severe mental illness, does not know a crime he is committing is wrong. State District Judge...

HOUSTON - Andrea Yates believed that cartoon characters told her she was a bad mother who fed her children too much candy, a jail psychiatrist testified Thursday. Dr. Melissa R. Ferguson, who talked to Yates the day after her arrest in the bathtub drownings of her five children, said the defendant suffered from a major depressive disorder and was psychotic, picking at her lip until it bled. Ferguson was the first defense witness in the second murder trial for Yates, who has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. She is being retried because her 2002 conviction was overturned last year...

Seven-year-old Noah Yates struggled so hard while his mother was drowning him in the bathtub that his small fists remained stiff and over his head even several hours later, the medical examiner testified Wednesday. Testifying on the third day of Andrea Yates' murder trial, Dr. Luis A. Sanchez said Noah, the oldest of Yates' five children drowned that day in 2001, had extensive rigor mortis because of intense movements indicating a struggle just before death. Noah also had deep bruises consistent with someone holding him down, as did 6-month-old Mary and 5-year-old John, Sanchez testified. Sanchez also said that based...

"HOUSTON Feb 27, 2006 (AP)— Andrea Yates on Monday rejected prosecutors' plea offer of a 35-year prison sentence and is expected to face retrial in March in the drowning of her children. Prosecutor Joe Owmby told state District Judge Belinda Hill that the state would leave the offer on the table until March 10, 10 days before Yates' trial is set to begin for the deaths of three of the five children. Yates has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, as she did at her first trial."

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- A woman accused of drowning her children has rejected a plea offer that would have sent her to prison for 35 years and is expected to face a retrial in March, her attorney said Monday.

Andrea Yates left jail early Thursday for a state mental hospital where she will await her second capital murder trial for the drowning deaths of her young children. Yates' attorney posted her $200,000 bond, releasing her from incarceration for the first time since the five children were drowned in the family bathtub in June 2001. State District Judge Belinda Hill set the bond Wednesday. Yates, 41, didn't speak as she left the jail. She carried a brown paper sack and wore jeans and a blue-and-white striped shirt as she entered a car with her attorney and a private investigator for...

Did anyone else see the last 10 minutes or so of "Criminal Minds", the CBS drama with FBI profilers? I can't beleieve what I just saw. They portrayed a female student reciting the Lord's Prayer while dousing other students with kerosene in a tank and then lighting a flare, about to set them on fire. When confronted by an FBI agent, she sai "God chose me to do this. If I don't something terrible will happen". He shouts at her "God chose you? BE RATIONAL. Don't do this". She does not relent and he shoots her, apparently fatally. I am...

The psychiatrist whose testimony helped convict Andrea Yates in the slayings of three of her children -- and was the basis for an appeals court's decision to overturn the convictions -- says he made a mistake, but still believes the Texas mother was sane when she killed her children. "I don't think there's any question about that [Yates' sanity]," Dietz said in an interview on "Good Morning America" today. "The evidence that she knew right from wrong is what she said. She says in recorded statements, including my interviews, that as she killed her children, she knew that it was...

A Texas mom who drowned her five children in a bathtub will get a new trial after a state appeals court yesterday overturned her conviction because of false testimony from a key prosecution witness — about the TV show "Law & Order." Andrea Yates, whose unspeakable crime sparked a national debate on mental illness and the death penalty, is likely to stay in a state prison's mental-health unit until the new trial, said lawyers close to the case. The stunning reversal hinged on testimony from a noted psychiatrist who told a jury in 2002 that Yates might have gotten...

HOUSTON (AP) - Andrea Yates' murder convictions for drowning her children should be overturned because the state's expert witness gave false testimony about working on an episode of "Law and Order," her attorneys told a state appeals court Tuesday. Yates was sentenced to life in prison in the 2001 deaths of three of her children after jurors rejected her insanity defense. She was not tried in the deaths of the other two. Psychiatrists testified that Yates suffered from schizophrenia and postpartum depression. Her attorneys told a three-judge panel of the state's First Court of Appeals that she deserves a new...

Mommy, have I done something wrong?            Andrea Yates was the mother of five beautiful, innocent children. She drowned them all in a bathtub and we are supposed to feel sorry for her. When her seven year old son saw his baby sister lying lifeless on the floor of the bathroom, he asked if she was all right, to which Andrea answered, “get in the tub”, Noah ran, but not far enough or fast enough. The last words he spoke just before his mother drowned him in the bathtub was: “Mother, have I done something wrong?”          I say we are...

The husband of Andrea Yates, the Clear Lake area woman who admitted to drowning her five children in the family's bathtub three years ago, has filed for divorce. In his divorce petition, Rusty Yates, 39, says he and his wife of 11 years ceased to live together as husband and wife on or about June 20, 2001 - the day Andrea Yates called police and told arriving officers she had drowned her children. ``The marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities between petitioner (Rusty Yates) and respondent (Andrea Yates) that destroys the legitimate ends of the...

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- Andrea Yates, who is serving a life sentence for drowning her children in a bathtub three years ago, has been hospitalized because she is refusing to eat, her attorney said Tuesday night. Her condition was unclear, attorney George Parnham told The Associated Press late Tuesday. He said he tried but was unable to visit with his client Tuesday because she wasn't coherent. "There is apparently a determination within her that wants to put an end to this," Parnham said. "I'm not sure what type of psychiatric medications can offset the reality of what occurred and make...

Yates home finds buyer08:38 PM CDT on Thursday, May 27, 2004Associated Press HOUSTON – The home where Andrea Yates drowned her five children three years ago has been sold after being on the market for nearly six months. The three-bedroom, two-bath house was listed for $109,900 and sold last week, real estate agent Mike Canary told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday. Sale price and buyer identity were not disclosed. Ms. Yates was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life for the June 2001 drownings of three of her children: Noah, 7; John, 5; and Mary, 6 months. She confessed...

HOUSTON — More than two years after Andrea Yates (search) was found guilty of drowning her children in a bathtub, her attorney appealed Friday in a challenge to Texas insanity law. The appeal also detailed what defense attorneys said were 19 errors made during the trial, including the court's decision to admit the clothing the children wore at the time of their death and alleged false testimony by a prosecution expert witness.

Andrea Yates' husband: Trial was wrongInsanity laws should have protected her after drownings, he says11:03 PM CST on Sunday, January 25, 2004Associated 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...

The Harris County District Attorney announced today that his office plans no more prosecutions in the drowning deaths of Andrea Pia Yates' five children last year. "After a careful review of the facts, and the applicable law, it is the position of this office that there is insufficient evidence to pursue charges against any other individuals in connection with the June 2001 drownings of Noah, John, Paul, Luke and Mary Yates," DA Chuck Rosenthal said. "As in all cases, we remain open to the possibility that additional evidence may surface that would change this decision. There is no statute of...

HOUSTON -- Russell Yates bears no criminal responsibility for the drowning deaths of his five children at the hands of his wife, the district attorney said Friday. Shortly after Andrea Yates was convicted in March, District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said his office was looking into whether her husband had any culpability. Russell Yates was at work at the time of the killings a year ago, but prosecutors have questioned why he left his wife alone with the children, given her history of mental illness, including depression and attempts at suicide. "We have no prosecutable case against anyone else at this...

Yates' lawyer seeking appeal 04/03/2002 By JEFF McSHAN / 11 News (Houston) HOUSTON - Andrea Yates was convicted last month of drowning her children. Now she's in an East Texas prison serving a life sentence. But the fight over what her attorney calls an injustice is only in the beginning stage. Also Online Crime's magnitude, finger pointing fueling talk, legal experts say KHOU-11's Jeff McShan reports Yates' attorney George Parnham plans to file an appeal Wednesday seeking a new trial for his client. It's been a little over two weeks since Yates was sentenced to life in prison, but...

Nation: Andrea Yates' lawyer blasts Texas insanity law By PAM EASTON, Associated Press HOUSTON (March 28, 2002 8:16 p.m. EST) - The attorney for convicted child killer Andrea Yates wants to change Texas insanity law to assist other mentally ill defendants and give his client something to live for. "It would be extremely difficult but I think we can use Andrea's case like the Hinckley case was used," attorney George Parnham said Thursday after talking with law students at Texas Southern University about the failure of Yates' insanity defense and his reasons for an appeal. Insanity statutes were stiffened by...

It was a busy week for Rusty Yates. While his wife, Andrea, was being sentenced to life in prison for drowning their five children, Yates defended her in an interview on the “Today” show in New York. That night he was in Los Angeles, doing the same with Larry King of CNN. Wednesday was Oprah’s turn in Chicago. But as he crisscrossed the nation, simmering questions about his own accountability have boiled over. Andrea’s mother and siblings told reporters that Rusty, a controlling husband who often downplayed his wife’s mental illness and shut them out, bears some responsibility for the...

<p>Once you've seen and listened to Rusty Yates on TV's talk shows, it's not hard to see why so many women want to lynch him. This column was going to comment on the social and psychiatric issues raised by the Yates case and guilty verdict. But the case itself--with its arguments over psychosis and major depression--seems intellectually austere compared with trying to explain the psychopathologies of American television. For me the Yates story landed on another planet Monday evening when, while surfing the cable waves, what should roll in but Larry King interviewing Rusty Yates. Isn't he supposed to be in mourning, or something similar?</p>

<p>Once you've seen and listened to Rusty Yates on TV's talk shows, it's not hard to see why so many women want to lynch him. This column was going to comment on the social and psychiatric issues raised by the Yates case and guilty verdict. But the case itself--with its arguments over psychosis and major depression--seems intellectually austere compared with trying to explain the psychopathologies of American television. For me the Yates story landed on another planet Monday evening when, while surfing the cable waves, what should roll in but Larry King interviewing Rusty Yates. Isn't he supposed to be in mourning, or something similar?</p>

The jury has returned its verdict: Andrea Yates isn't insane. She's legally responsible, knowing right from wrong, and she'll spend the next forty years in prison. So why did she kill her five children? The case is intricate and convoluted. But apparently one major factor behind her homicidal behavior was a severely distorted worldview. Perhaps the legal profession should add a new category: "guilty by reason of worldview." One striking fact distinguishes this case from most murders: Mrs. Yates claims she thought she was doing her victims a favor! What worldview programmed her to "help" her children in such a...

Deborah Holmes says she urged her friend Andrea Yates' husband to take his wife to see a doctor. (ABCNEWS.com) ‘I Could Just Kick Him’ Andrea Yates’ Best Friend Says She Begged Russell to Get Help for His Wife March 20 — Throughout her depression and the battles with her demons, Andrea Yates had a best friend. Deborah Holmes, Yates' friend of 16 years, said she wanted to force the troubled Houston woman into treatment without Russell Yates' permission. "I don't know that he really believed that she was mentally ill, but that she was just weak," Holmes told ABCNEWS'...

<p>By all accounts Kenneth Feinberg is a man blessed with large reserves of calm and confidence. Heaven knows the man appointed special master of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund can use all the inner calm and security at his disposal. Mr. Feinberg, who has to decide the amount of the awards to be paid out to the families and victims had an impossible task to begin with--one made the more difficult by the anger and disappointed expectations of the victim families.</p>

WASHINGTON, March 18 (UPI) -- On Wednesday, a Houston jury voted unanimously to convict Andrea Yates of murder and Monday she was formally sentenced to life in prison. After less then four hours, the panel of eight women and four men concluded Yates understood what she was doing when she held her five children -- one by one -- under water in the family bathtub until they were dead. The enormity of her crime caused a cynical nation to shudder. Though infanticide may now be routine, a multiple murder of children by the mother will still stir the nation. Part...

Cynthia Hunt speaks exclusively with Andrea Yates' family Andrea Yates' mother talks to the media for the first time since the trial began. Images from the case By Cynthia HuntABC13 Eyewitness News(3/17/02) — For the first time, we hear from Andrea Yates' family in the wake of her conviction and life sentence for the drowning deaths of her five little children last June. What you're saying "She poses no threat to society and has been able to communicate with the doctors, lawyers, etc. since they put her back on it (medication). I only wish Dr. Mohammed Saeed was on...

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State March 18, 2002, 6:49AM Jurors say they believed Yates knew right from wrong By LISA TEACHEY Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle SEE IT NOW Video: Yates trial post-sentencing defense news conference Yates post-sentencing prosecution news conference Yates sentencing highlights Yates defense attorney Wendell Odom in sentencing phase Yates defense attorney George Parnham in sentencing phase Prosecuting attorney Kaylynn Williford in sentencing phase Prosecuting attorney Joe Owmby in sentencing phase Family, friends plead for Andrea Yates' life Watch excerpts of opening arguments in Andrea Yates trial and hear portions of her 9-1-1 call. Russell Yates' June...

IN DEFENSE OF RUSSELL YATES: A reader sends this: Have you ever considered what it must have been like to live with a crazy woman for six years? A totally crazed person? Dishes thrown, dirty house, clean house, missing appointments, lying, not paying bills, fits of total hysteria, hallucinations, hearing voices, etc., etc., etc.? FOR SIX YEARS?????? The husband is probably disoriented at the very least, and perhaps suffering from depression or worse himself. I grew up in a house with a rip roaring alcholic mom. There was no reality. Never. She'd pull a knife, make wild accusations, scream and...

Relatives say long prison term for a sick woman isn't right Husband blames medical experts for failing to treat wife and protect family 03/16/2002 By ANNE MARIE KILDAY / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News HOUSTON - Andrea Yates' family sat on separate sides of the courtroom during her four-week trial Mrs. Yates' mother and sibblings behind the defense table, husband Russell and his mother across the room. They kept their distance after a jury recommended life in prison on Friday, but they agreed on one thing in separate statements to the public: Mrs. Yates also was a...

HOUSTON –– A jury took just less than an hour Friday to decide that Andrea Yates should get life in prison, and not the death penalty, for drowning her children in the bathtub.

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March 14, 2002, 5:05PM Associated Press Russell Yates enters the Harris County Courthouse today for the sentencing phase of the capital murder trial of his wife Andrea Pia Yates. Andrea Yates was found guilty Tuesday in the June, 2001, drowning deaths of three of their five children and faces either life in prison or the death penalty. Andrea Yates' mother pleads with jury for daughter's life Trial's punishment phase under way By CAROL CHRISTIANCopyright 2002 Houston Chronicle An undisclosed witness is expected to be the last to testify Friday before jurors begin deliberating the fate of convicted capital murderer...

Andrea Yates--Not a Women's Issue Explaining the modern Medea is beyond the powers of feminism and psychiatry. by David Skinner 03/14/2002 12:00:00 AM ON JUNE 20, 2001, Andrea Pia Yates killed her five young children and set off a wildly huge news story. As the whole English-speaking world surely knows by now, Mrs. Yates and her defenders claimed she had murdered her children during a psychotic episode of postpartum depression. On Tuesday a Texas jury rejected her plea of innocent by reason of insanity, convicting her of murder and capping several months of loud public debate. Until then, one could...

March 14, 2002, 1:25AM Yates' defense to plead for life Trial's punishment phase starts today By LISA TEACHEY Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Convicted murderer Andrea Pia Yates' lawyers are expected to return to court today to plead with jurors to spare her life. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the woman who drowned her five children. The trial's punishment phase is expected to last only a few days -- in stark contrast to the grueling 3 1/2 weeks of medical testimony the jury heard before deciding the Clear Lake mother was guilty of capital murder rather than legally insane....

Yates: Drownings were 'bad choice' 03/11/2002 By TERRI LANGFORD / The Dallas Morning News HOUSTON - Five months after Andrea Yates drowned her five children, she told a psychiatrist her reasoning for killing them did not make sense, according to a videotaped interview played Monday for jurors. Yates trial Tune in to Texas Cable News (TXCN, Cable Channel 38) for closing arguments in the Andrea Yates trial. Closing arguments are expected to begin Tuesday morning. The defense rested about 2:30 p.m. Monday after presenting a rebuttal case that included the playing of excerpts from the Nov. 7 interview. Doesn't...