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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...

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...

Frequent talk show guest Rusty Yates was also in the (Today Show) studio, eagerly awaiting an interview just days after his wife was Andrea was convicted of murder in the drowning deaths of their five children.Sources say Rusty Yates, a fan of the singer was hoping to get an autograph. But Ozzy had a different idea.'Ill burn his eyes out with a poker,' roared Osborne. 'He's profiting directly from the demise of his own children and that, to me, is all wrong. I couldn't stand in the same room with the guy. I'd throw up!'

The nightmares started late last summer. There's this man, emotionless and unmoving, with dead eyes. He speaks in a monotone and never flinches no matter what he sees or hears. Show him pain, suffering, anger, devastation, death -- nothing moves him. He's in total, absolute, perfect control. Lucky for me, it's only a dream. I get to wake up to my family, dogs, cat, coffee and newspapers and heave a sigh of relief. He's a bad dream for me, but for Andrea Yates, he was the real thing. Has there ever been a scarier guy than Russell Yates? Watching him...

<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>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...

Posted on Tue, Mar. 19, 2002 Russell Yates misses jury duty to make talk show circuit HOUSTON - After weeks of attending his wife's capital murder trial, Russell Yates was absent on the one day he was legally obligated to be at the Harris County Courthouse for another purpose.Yates was a no-show for jury duty on Monday. He went to New York City instead to appear on NBC's "Today" show in the morning, then flew cross-country for an interview on "Larry King Live" in the evening.In so doing, Yates missed his wife's formal sentencing Monday morning and his 12:15...

<p>Hey, I'm ready to start a Russell Yates Vasectomy Fund. On Friday, a jury decided that Yates' wife Andrea, 37, will serve a life sentence in prison for drowning the couple's five children, Noah, John, Paul, Luke and baby Mary. She won't be eligible for parole until 2041.</p>

<p>Russell Yates was an "unemotional" husband who didn't do enough to address his wife's mental illness in the days before she drowned their five children, the mass-murderer mom's mother and brother said Monday.</p> <p>As Andrea Yates was formally sentenced to life in prison for murdering three of the children, her family said Russell Yates deserves some of the blame for their deaths.</p>

The husband of Andrea Pia Yates lashed out at the medical community and the legal system Friday after his wife was sent to prison for life for drowning their children. Able to speak publicly for the first time shortly after the verdict was announced, Russell Yates also criticized the court-imposed gag order that has kept him silent until the trial ended. Finally getting a chance to answer his critics, Russell Yates acknowledged he made mistakes in getting treatment for his wife who suffered from bouts of depression in the past two years. But he said there was no way to...