Anonymous,

That is the thing, these were her children, not another family's.  She did not bring physical harm to any one other than the children she brought into this world and nurtured up until that fateful day.  It is imperative that we understand mental illness better as a country and a world, so that we can identify and prevent these things from happening in the first place by understanding the warning signs and having a network in place.  Was this preventable in the first place?  Had her husband received training about warning signs at the first sign of problems, maybe, but mental illness can be difficult to detect also.  We have to get past the social stigmas associated with mental illness to this day, in 2006.  The individuals hit with this illness can be handled as ill people and not as premeditated, cold blooded, calculating murderers and rapists which is where they are being placed frequently.  Imagine going to bed one night and waking up the next day in a maximum security prison with your states most violent offenders.  This is how it can be for someone who has had a psychotic episode and committed some horrible offense, yet they have never had so much as a traffic ticket until that day.   For them it as if they are waking up once the psychosis subsides either naturally or with medication.  People who become psychotic are no different than the craziest person at a mental hospital, but, their disorder can appear and disappear and never return again, by no fault of their own.  The person you know and love for years, a parent or spouse, could have this happen, like Alzheimer's.  I cannot imagine losing a child.   The bottom line though, I am not an expert and that is why I just ask that the entire truth comes out.   Her first trial had serious errors that inflamed the jury and left them almost without any choice but the verdict they made.  If she deserves prison then she should be there but if she honestly lost her mind and was truly insane, then no, I don’t want her in prison.  And I think the acid test is the fact she actually took all of her children’s lives.  If she was faking or not insane, I think she would have snapped back into reality after the first or second child, but to follow through on all 5 tells me that she was not in her right mind, in my opinion.  Thanks for writing in.   I welcome everyone's thoughts and comments on this, good or bad, anonymous if you prefer. 

I wonder what her 5 children would want for their Mom.

I hope none of us experience the unbearable depth of pain Andrea Yates will experience and live with for the rest of her life in the absence of the five lives she brought into this world and then took out.  Her whole world disappeared in one afternoon, the process completed by her husbands divorcing her some time later.  Instead of a team of doctors able to help her sort through what happened and the overwhelming grief, she instead deals with hardened felons for the most part and probably has significant fear or anxiety around the clock as a result. 

Again, learn the facts, I have only gotten bits and pieces and I may be wrong, which is why I just ask that all of the truth come out and that justice prevails.   I think my soul threw up the day I heard what she did and again when she was convicted.  We will all rest better knowing the right thing has been done in this case, whatever that may be.

UPDATE: The judge in Andrea Yates case today January 9, 2006, has accepted her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and has set her trial date for March 20th of this year.  Thanks for taking the time to become more familiar with her case.

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SICKENED AND DISGUSTED: Wow.  CNN was intense on at 7:15 pm tonight (February 2nd).  I think the woman (Nancy Grace) on TV hated Andrea Yates.

I found Time Magazines Coverage much more balanced, reporting the facts and not beating their viewers over the head with their opinions.  I've condensed an article appearing in Time with some of the important information pertaining to Andrea Yates mental faculties in the days, months and even years prior to her unimaginable act.  Plus they focus on the Prosecution witness who lied (worse than I previously thought-he said not only was their a TV Show that depicted what she did, he stated he even worked with and helped the TV Show Law & Order when they produced it.)   And the people of Houston, Texas paid $ 500.00 per hour for his services.  At 500.00 per hour you think you could get just the honest facts.   I've added bolding to key terms in the article that follows:

Here is the Time Magazine info regarding Ms. Yates mental state prior to her taking her children's lives.

After the birth of their fourth child, Luke, in 1999, Andrea tried to commit suicide twice. She was hospitalized both times and was diagnosed with postpartum depression and psychosis.

She recovered while using Haldol, but eventually stopped taking the medication. Against the advice of her psychiatrist, Andrea soon became pregnant again with their fifth child, Mary.  Within months, following the death of her ailing father, her psychosis returned. Instead of taking her back to the same doctor who'd treated her before, Rusty told jurors that he and Andrea went to the Devereux-Texas Treatment Network, where Mohammed Saeed became Andrea's psychiatrist. Rusty testified that he never knew that Andrea had visions and voices; he said he never knew she had considered killing the children. Neither did Dr. Saeed, even though the delusions could have been found in medical records from 1999. Andrea would not talk or eat.

After only slight improvement, Andrea was released from Devereux.  A month later, she had another episode. Rusty took her back to Devereux. Again, she was released. Dr. Saeed reluctantly prescribed Haldol, the same drug that worked in a drug cocktail for her in 1999. But after a few weeks, he took her off the drug, citing his concerns about side effects.  Though Andrea's condition seemed to be worsening two days before the drownings, when her husband drove her to Saeed's office, Rusty testified, the doctor refused to try Haldol longer or return her to the hospital. Rusty was frustrated, he told the jury, and he didn't know what else to do.

'Satan destroys and leaves'

As the trial continued, the parade of experts included the celebrated psychiatrist Park Dietz, whom the District Attorney's Office paid $500 an hour to analyze Andrea and explain to the jury why she should be convicted despite the insanity law because, by her own admission, she knew her actions were wrong.

Known for his testimony as a prosecution witness in high-profile crimes, Dietz had worked on the cases of John Hinckley, who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan; Susan Smith, who killed her children by driving her car into a pond; and the Unabomber. He also helped proclaim legally sane Jeffrey Dahmler, who kept the heads of his murder victims in his freezer. He had credentials that the Texas prosecutors thought qualified him to review Andrea Yates, though he had limited knowledge of postpartum psychosis.

Dietz's two days of testimony would be riveting and revealing. His polished demeanor captivated the jury; he used a Powerpoint presentation to illustrate how he reached his conclusions and a video to show his interviews with Andrea in the Harris County Jail.

"Before you did it," Dietz asked Andrea during one videotaped session, "did you think it was wrong?"

"No."

Dietz asked, "Why did you not think it wrong?"

Andrea answered without hesitation. "If I didn't do it, they would be tormented by Satan.

For the entire article from Time Magazine, shift-click this link: Time Magazine Coverage

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I WILL TRY AND KEEP THIS PAGE CURRENT, BUT FOR THE MOST CURRENT NEWS ABOUT ANDREA YATES, HOLD YOUR SHIFT KEY DOWN AND CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK: