Andrea Yates found guilty of capital murder
Posted on 03/12/2002 4:35:47 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
Andrea Yates found guilty of capital murder
03/12/2002
KHOU-TV Andrea Yates listens to closing arguments at her murder trial. |
HOUSTON - Andrea Yates, the 37-year-old housewife who admitted she drowned her five children in the bathtub, was convicted of murder Tuesday by a jury that rejected her claim of insanity in just 3 1/2 hours.
Yates was found guilty of two counts of capital murder covering the deaths of three of her children. She could be sentenced to death or to life in prison following the penalty phase that begins Thursday.
Standing between her attorneys, Yates showed little reaction as the judge read the verdict. Her husband, Russell, muttered "oh God" and buried his head in his hands, and some of Yates' relatives left the courtroom in tears.
"I'm not critiquing or criticizing the verdict," defense lawyer George Parnham said. "But it seems to me we are still back in the days of the Salem witch trials."
He described his client as "very upset." Prosecutors left the courthouse without comment.
The crime attracted widespread attention as a stunned public asked what could cause a mother to systematically kill her children. It also raised new questions about the effects of postpartum depression, which Russell Yates and experts hired by the defense said Yates had struggled with for years.
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Deliberations began after prosecutors told the jury of eight women and four men that Yates, a former nurse, had thought about harming her children for years and ignored a doctor's orders in 1999 to refrain from having any more.
They said that even though Yates is mentally ill, she knew drowning her children was wrong.
"That's the key," prosecutor Kaylynn Williford said. "Andrea Yates knew right from wrong, and she made a choice on June 20 to kill her children deliberately and with deception."
The defense argued that she suffered from postpartum depression so severe that she had lost her ability for rational thought.
"We can't permit objective logic to be imposed on the actions of Andrea Yates," Parnham said. "She was so psychotic on June 20 that she absolutely believed what she was doing was the right thing to do."
Parnham also told the jury in the closely watched case: "This is an opportunity for this jury to make a determination about the status of women's mental health. Make no mistake, the world is watching."
After deliberating about 2 1/4 hours, jurors passed a note to District Judge Belinda Hill asking for the definition of insanity. Thirty minutes later, jurors asked for a cassette player. Among the evidence were the audiotapes of her 911 call and her confession in which she described how 7-year-old Noah tried to run from her, but "I got him."
Yates called her children into the bathroom one by one and drowned them in the tub, then called 911 to tell authorities what she had done. Police found Noah in the tub; the other children were under a wet sheet on a bed.
According to testimony, Yates was overwhelmed by the responsibilities of raising five children and believed she was a bad mother. She had suffered severe depression and had attempted suicide.
She was tried for the deaths of Noah, 5-year-old John and 6-month-old Mary, though only two capital murder charges were filed.
One count listed the killings of Noah and John as two victims killed during the commission of the same crime to qualify for capital punishment. The second count listed the death of Mary.
By not listing all the children in a single count, prosecutors avoided the possibility that an acquittal could void all the charges. Prosecutors also have the option of filing charges later in the deaths of the other two youngsters, Paul, 3, and Luke, 2.
Much of the trial was spent on the definition of insanity, and expert witnesses disagreed on that point.
An expert for the defense told the jury that while Yates knew drowning her children was illegal, in her delusional mind she thought it was the only way to save her children from eternal damnation.
Prosecutors said Yates did not start referring to Satan until the day after her arrest. Williford argued Yates was so deliberate she covered the bodies as she went because the children still alive were old enough to escape from the house and get help. She also noted bruises the children suffered as they struggled with their mother.
Yates sobbed quietly as Williford described the condition police found her children.
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Hmmm. People who do evil deeds get punished. No, back then, people who didn't do evil deeds got punished. Minor technical difference. More often than not, these days people who do evil deeds do not get punished -- so I'd say we're heading in the right direction here.
Sad, but necessary. Andrea Yates didn't just take the lives of her five children that day -- she took her own as well, albeit in a more roundabout way than the hijackers of the planes that slammed into the WTC and Pentagon on 9/11.
At least they were ready to meet their maker on the day they took the lives of the innocent. Andrea's date with the Devil will be court-appointed.
Sooner the better.
Anyone who gets out much is aware that it isn't too good.
How do you think her own children might've felt? Think they might've felt a little f*cking "upset"?
I have 2 children who have grown up and there were times when it took the patience of Job and a lot of love to keep from throttling them.
Hang the bitch!
She is a killer and killers only deserve one kind of justice and that is the death penalty.
I noticed that too. It looked as if she were making jokes.
Now she's upset. Too bad she couldn't show any emotion when she drowned her babies. This woman needs to be put to death in the same way as she took her children's life!
This asshole lawyer should be executed with her....
Thus the prosecution's case is self-contradictory. In that a crime committed by a sane person needs to have a motive. There is no credible motive. Therefore she was insane.
I do not trust the arguments of anyone who has not ever experienced any sort of mental illness. Sanity can be a fragile thing. Loss of mental stability can nean loss of obedience to laws and society's norms.
But you will say - we must all be held responsible for our actions. And I agree. I think she should be imprisoned in a hospital for the criminally insane for a very long time.
And I know that the anger against her is based on what she did to the 5 innocent children. And I feel grief also.
But reflect. Is there ever a place for a verdict of not guilty on account of insanity? If so, how could any case fit this description better than the Yates case?
Motive doesn't come into play. Her state of mind is what was in question, since she pled innocent by reason of insanity. No question she did it...so why she did it wasn't the question. Only her state of mind.
I had PPD, and took meds til I got better. I know how it feels. But hubby and medical community let her and especially those kids down. Stop having babies, and stay on the meds. Don't leave children alone with a mother who says she's been 'hearing voices telling her to pick up a knife and hurt someone.' If you ask me, Russell Yates ought to be on trial, too, as an accessory.
i totally agree and when i heard on tv that one of the kids had a hand full of her hair, it made me physically sick to my stomach. i cannot believe anyone could feel sympathy for her. i only feel for those children! What is this world coming too????
No
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