Monday, June 26, 2006

Andrea Yates- Insane, yes, but what's Rusty's excuse?


I've been watching the Andrea Yates retrial on tv today. She's the mother from Texas that drowned her five children in the bathtub. The psychiatrist who testified against her said she copied her crime from a tv show, and it turned out the show never existed. So she gets a new trial to determine whether or not she was legally insane at the time of the crime.
I wish I was on that jury. I believe the woman was legally insane, delusional, and if anyone is guilty, it is her husband for leaving a mentally ill woman alone with five children, when only a few months before he had taken her to the hospital in a catatonic state. She had postpartum pychosis with her pregnancies, but did he stop getting her pregnant? Noooo. Did he keep them living in a 300 sq ft motorhome for a time with five children? Yesss. Did he refuse to let her use disposable diapers? YESSSS. Did he force her to quit her nursing job? Yes. Did he force her to homeschool and prevent her from socializing with their neighbors? Yes. Is he to blame? Definitely. I think he has to take the blame as much as she does. She had an excuse. If I left my children with a psychotic mental patient, I'd be guilty too, if something happened to them.
I for one think she should get sentenced to a mental hospital, and he should be locked up in a motorhome with five kids, no make that ten. No disposable diapers either. He needs a double dose.

4 comments:

Freebird said...

Yeah, why isn't he being held accountable. That's just not fair. Did you know he remarried recently?

I'm gonna have to disagree with Amy on this one. I really don't believe she knew what she was doing, phone call or not. That's the "beauty" of insanity. It makes NO SENSE. My mother used to do the craziest shit. We NEVER knew what she was going to be like from one minute to the next (crazy/not crazy).

I can totally see how she could flip out drown all five kids and then 30 minutes (or whenever) later realize what she did and call the police. I can see how this doesn't make sense to someone's who's sane though. If I've said this one I've said it before, she doesn't belong in jail. This woman belongs in a mental hospital.

I read online that she wept she saw her kid's clothes in court. She's on her meds and sane and it must have really hurt to know she did that to them.

My mother doesn't remember any of the stunts she pulled when she was not medicated. Once my sister told her (mom) that while she was sleeping she walked into her room (after being "normal") and starting hitting her, pulling her hair becase she thought she was possessed by the devil. My mother denied this wholeheartedly later. Sometimes I wonder who we all made it out okay. I've even seen her pull a knife out on my brother. She had him backed into a corner during one of her paranoid fits. Police were called, etc. It was ugly. I was in elementary at the time. It's crazy, and scary and makes absolutely no sense to the sane person. Crazy people are just not rational.

Forest Lady said...

Amy, if she is found not guilty by legal insanity, can they set a maximum time in a mental institution or is that totally up the doctors there?
I think the definition of legal insanity should be changed. If someone is medically insane, they should be legally insane.

Freebird said...

As far as my mom was concerned, as soon as her meds kicked in she was as sane as you and I. Didn't take that long, a couple of months at most if even that.

I'm sure people aren't ready to let Andrea Yates go scotch free that quickly.

Rhonda Gales said...

I don't believe that any mother who would kill her children can be sane, there has to be some dementia there. Her husband may have been "controlling", but this woman's mental issues are deeper than her husband not allowing her to use disposable diapers or socialize with neighbors etc. She drowned all 5 of her children, how can she be sane?

She belongs in a mental institution, and the chances of her ever getting out will be slim to none.