Andrea Yates Not Guilty
In June 2001, after her husband left for work, Andrea Yates drowned all of her five young children — baby Mary, 2-year-old Luke, 3-year-old Paul, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah — covered their bodies with a sheet and called 911.
She was found guilty of capital murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. This decision was later overturned, upon appeal.
Today, the "jury (who) looked past what happened and looked at why it happened" found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity.
As a mother, the only reason I can think of any mother doing what Andrea Yates did is due to insanity. How else can a mother do anything as unthinkable as this if she wasn't insane?!
[source: USAToday]
December 27th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
A part of me wants to agree with the insanity theory, but at the same time, I don’t think that a person like Ms. Yates should ever, never be able to live as a free person. It’s an extreme insanity to take a life, much less the lives of your own children.