This is an outrageous thought--and I really hesitate to bring it up, but I'm going to do so. Are we absolutely certain as to how Andrea's father died? She was tending him and we know that she did what she thought was best for her own children. Might she have put her father out of his misery?
Given that the jury has to decide if she'd be a danger to anybody else, I think that we need to know if she might decide that somebody else was better off dead and end their lives. We know that the death of her father apparently contributed heavily to her problems--is there any possibility that she hastened his death? Basically, she must have thought that killing her children was an act of mercy, so I'll raise the question. Are we absolutely certain that her father died without assistance?
If she did help her father into the next world--and we know that she forced her own children there--then she could be considered to be a danger to others.
Second comment (slightly edited):
I've gotta ask about future danger-quoting from an article that gives her mother credit for this: "'I'm here pleading for her life,' Kennedy said. She told jurors that her daughter was a loving mother and compassionate nurse who suffered with her patients." Article found at Andrea Yates' mother pleads with jury for daughter's life Trial's punishment phase under way By CAROL CHRISTIAN Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
She's described as a compassionate nurse who suffered with her patients--how much suffering did she do? Was she unsuited to be a nurse? I always thought that they needed to be objective, able to distance themselves from the situation, especially when dealing with terminally ill patients--like her father--so that good medical care could be given. Was that the case? I'm wondering if there is much more to this story than we are being told.
The more I think about this, the more it bothers me. Did she do something to 'help' her father and if so, did Rusty know about it? He is quoted as saying, "She finally did it", apparently referring to killing the kids. Did he know or suspect that she'd killed before? Or, had she said something to Rusty that would lead to his making that statement? I'm getting bad vibes about this whole thing.
I do think that she might have been dangerous to others, may still be. I also think that Rusty is more of a danger to society at this point--and that anger with him was her motivation for the murders--she was killing four birds with one stone. 1. She was getting rid of the children who were pulling her down. Yes, she may have loved them, but they were more than she could handle. 2. She was sending them to a better place, if we accept her reasoning, and setting them free of their father. 3. She was removing what was supposed to be the source of Rusty's pride--his children--from his control. She struck out in anger and fatigue, I believe. 4. She was attempting to commit suicide again--this time by legal system, though she apparently changed her mind, or her husband changed it for her. Insanity is still questionable--even the experts disagreed on that.
This woman was psychotic before, on and after that terrible day - all the psychiatrists testified thus, and it's being reiterated on Fox now. She was willing to break the "earthly" law to save her children's souls, and take the punishment. Not exactly rational thinking. It was a "loving" act in her irrational mind.
May God judge you all as "mercifully" as you have judged Andrea.
I'm sickened by the cruelty displayed on this thread toward an obviously very sick woman. I think everyone should be sentenced to a week of extreme depression and mental illness so that they may have at least some right to judge someone like this.
Andrea is NO SUSAN SMITH.
And I am in basic agreement with the verdict, btw, although I think the laws need to be revised for cases involving mental illness. I think she belongs in a mental institution, not a prison. Nevertheless, justice will be served, and God and her children have already forgiven her. I pray she can forgive herself.