Killer mom is insane, not guilty

[Bloody Angel]

HOUSTON -- In a dramatic turnaround from her first murder trial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity yesterday in the drowning of her children in a bathtub.

The 42-year-old woman will be committed to a mental hospital and held until she is no longer deemed a threat.

If she had been convicted of murder, she would have been sentenced to life in jail.

Yates stared wide-eyed as the verdict was read, then bowed her head and wept quietly.

Four years ago, another jury convicted Yates of murder, rejecting claims she was so psychotic she thought she was saving the souls of her five children by killing them.

An appeals court overturned the convictions because of erroneous testimony from a prosecution witness.

Yates' chief lawyer, George Parnham, called the verdict this time a "watershed event in the treatment of mental illness."

Wendell Odom, another of Yates' lawyers, suggested attitudes have changed since the first trial.

"Five years ago there were a lot of people who could not get past the anger of what happened."

Yates' 2002 conviction triggered debate over whether Texas's legal standard for mental illness was too rigid, whether the courts treated postpartum depression seriously enough and whether a mother who kills could ever find sympathy and understanding in a tough-on-crime state like Texas.

Yates drowned six-month-old Mary, two-year-old Luke, three-year-old Paul, five-year-old John and seven-year-old Noah in their Houston-area home in June 2001.

Her lawyers said she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her and killing the youngsters would save them from hell.

[DeadHead]

This case is interesting to me b/c I live in Houston. The jury of the first trial was Pro-death penalty. When they were selected to try her case they believed idiologiacally that they could possibly consider death as a punishment. The second jury didn't have to meet that prerequisit. I believe the second jury was more sensitive to her plight thus choosing the insanity verdict. I completely agree. The lady was diagnosed with post part. way before this tragedy happened. Initial interviews recorded her saying satan told her to do it and she believed she was saving them from hell. Whatever, she was crazy and probably still is. She's sick, sick people belong in a mental hospital not jail. Her case will be reviewed from year to year to judge her mental state. She could possibly get out in as little as a year. This case can set a president for others like it. I hope its not used as a scape goat for your plain old heartless killing mommies out there.