**Andrea Yates Sentence**Live Thread**Ruling @ 2:45 ET**

3-15-02

[oremus]

Dr. Dietz who testified for the prosecution just stated on Fox that he feels she is/was schizophrenic.

Saying both sides agreed that she "THOUGHT she was doing what was in the 'best interest' of the children," even though it was against the law.

[lonestar]

Quite frankly, the husband is the one who should have been taken to task for his part in all of this horror. Sometimes justice just doesn't seem to "get" it. Seems like a lot of complicity to me.

Houston ABC 10 o'clock news reported that within the next 60 days the DA will decide whether or not to bring charges against Rusty.

[3catsanadog]

I bet husband has already talked to the appropriate people about the book deal and then movie rights. I've yet to hear him say word one about his dead children. All he talks about is how kind and loving his wife is and what a wonderful mother she was. I don't like him any more than I do Andrea Yates.

[rastus macgill]

No I didn't twist it I copied and pasted it.Rules of logic -I can,t prove a negative as you asked me to.NAMI is a poor source as they are an advocacy/political group.Groups like this push absolute bs as fact just like feminist, gun control,enviormentalist, and other orgs/lobbies with a coercive social agenda.The fact is that there is as yet no clear pathology for mental illness-demonstrably physical change/damage in tissue OR chemistry recognized by neurology or pathology.When/if this changes let me know.Andrea Yates may not be literally sick at all -just figuratively.I find her to be supremely evil.

[oremus]

In that case, I take it back. Sorry.

[MistyCA]

Thanks for the information. Not being in Houston, I do not get that news source, however, the national coverage has been very good. It will be interesting to see what they decide to do.

[let freedom sing]

Have you read the comparative studies between normal and schizophrenic brains-- showing enlarged ventricles? That's physical brain damage. What about the MRI studies that show comparative brain activity-- how the brains are physiologically different?

If you want to believe that AY is supremely evil, that's your choice-- THEN you can believe the devil's angels spoke to her, and her children and she will burn forever in hell and torment, because they died in sin.

[over3Owithabrain]

God and her children have already forgiven her

You got one hell of a nerve speaking for God, let alone speaking for the victims of Yates' act of murder. You don't know crap about what God thinks, so get off your high horse. You are the worst kind of pious Christian - a self serving prig who "speaks for God". Read your Bible - it makes clear that God doesn't forgive everyone and every evil act. He specifically has a problem with murder, or did you miss those 500 or so verses. True forgiveness is dispensed by God on His terms, not your callous waving of the hand and claiming it. You don't know what is in Yates' mind, or her slaughtered children's mind, and most of all God's mind - so can it.

[danzaroni]

You're absolutely right. I was being sarcastic.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Dr. Dietz who testified for the prosecution just stated on Fox that he feels she is/was schizophrenic.

My brother suffered from schizophrenia.

Having lived under the same roof with someone who had this illness, I feel sad when I read some of the comments people have made about Andrea Yates. They needn't wish her to hell; mental illness is a hell of its own.

I was reminded today of an occasion where I witnessed my brother (who was 15 years older than me, and eventually succeeded with a suicide attempt) having a total breakdown; still, he recognized me. He knew where he was. He was just going to go outside in a bathrobe in January in Wisconsin and take a swim - that's all.

This is not an all-or-nothing situation. They can be lucid about some things, and lost about others.

I think the verdict was the correct one under Texas law, but I am glad they're not going to execute her. She's a sick woman - and you're right - she's no Susan Smith. There was no benefit for her. She's just sick.

And I believe that God has mercy on the sick. I trust that He has enveloped those babies in His love, and I agree with you - if they are where I think they are, they have already forgiven their mother.

[GussiedUp]

That is not what happened at all. I never saw her look anywhere but front and center, until her lawyer spoke to her. He said that she did NOT understand the verdict - she was not sure what it meant, and he had to explain it to her.

Most certainly was what happened. I was watching it. She looked at her lawyer as the verdict was read and gave a much-relieved smile. Of course her lawyer is going to spin it!

If anyone watched Ann Coulter on Bill O'Reilly's show last even - she nailed this whole thing on the head. I hope they replay that.

[GussiedUp]

You're absolutely right. I was being sarcastic.

my apologies to you for misreading your other reply! :)

[Chad Fairbanks]

No harm, no foul - sometimes I get in a hurry, and am not as clear as I should be :0)

[over3Owithabrain]

Most certainly was what happened. I was watching it. She looked at her lawyer as the verdict was read and gave a much-relieved smile. Of course her lawyer is going to spin it!

You are right, but unfortunately, the defense constantly puts out their view of the criminal as the victim, and people swallow it whole. After all, it takes a super-Christian to understand poor Andrea and dispense forgiveness and absolution. The rest of us, who cry out for justice over the spilled blood of 5 innocent children, are just mean and nasty, incapable of mercy. What a country!

[pttttt]

The jury slacked off on the penalty hearing. At least one of them did, since it needed to be a unanimous vote for death.

Two questions they were supposed to answer for the death penalty:

1. Is she still dangerous? if yes,

2. Are there mitigating circumstances?

(if the answer to 1 is no, you don't reach 2).

They came up with "no" for 1, at least one of them did. Wrong answer. She's proven dangerous. Real dangerous. And she may always be. It would have to take a lot of determination to drown a struggling kid. Much more 5 of them. That's not an impulse killing; it even goes beyond a rage killing. She might still be dangerous when she gets out on parole at age 76 (and gets put to work during the Chelsea Clinton administration in a child care center, probably).

And what mitigating circumstances?

What if those kids had been killed by a black man instead? I think we all know what that verdict would have been.

[oremus]

I watched her again 3 times after your post last night and she did not look to her lawyer, until he spoke to her. Get over it - she's not being put to death and the verdict was the right thing for this case - even the prosecution thinks so.

[oremus]

No - YOU have one hell of a nerve speaking for God. You obviously have not read the New Testament, and you obviously are unversed in theology. God is LOVE and MERCY. I hope you are so righteous enough to judge so harshly this mentally ill woman. You WILL eat your words.

"Judge not, lest THEE be judged." Which word there don't you understand, oh holy one who speaks for God's anger?

[oremus]

Likewise ;-). And sometimes I just don't pay attention enough.

[GussiedUp]

I watched her again 3 times after your post last night and she did not look to her lawyer, until he spoke to her. Get over it - she's not being put to death and the verdict was the right thing for this case - even the prosecution thinks so.

Sorry buddy but she most certainly did give a nice, knowing, happy, smile to her attorney. Go put flowers on the kids grave and tell them how lucky they were to have her for a mom.

Ann Coulter had it right on in her interview with Bill O'Reilly. Hopefully some of those hardened prision babes who are also mom's will take care of Andrea Yates.

[oremus]

"Quite sane in her reaction."

Hello ... she's also now on the drugs she should have been on but was not ... on June 20, 2001.