Analysis of Andrea Yates Trial and Mental Illness

Andrea Yates seemed to be the all American girl.  She was the youngest of five children, born to a middle class couple.  Her father worked as a high school auto shop teacher, and her mother was a homemaker (Denno, 2003).  She was an overachiever, graduating as valedictorian of her high school class, was captain of the swim team, and a member of the national honor society (Ramsland, n.d.). She went onto earn her nursing degree, first at the University of Houston’s 2 year pre-nursing program, and then on to the University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston, graduating in 1986. From there she worked at a cancer treatment center for eight years before she married Russell Yates (Montaldo, n.d.). 

She became pregnant with their first of five children almost immediately.   She quit her job at the cancer treatment center to become a stay at home mom. She chose to homeschool her kids, which gave her a great deal of time with them.  She went jogging and swimming regularly, until after the birth of her first child.  She was married for 10 years, in which they lived a pretty normal life; but then, after the birth of her youngest child, she committed the horrifying act of drowning all five children in the bathtub on June 20, 2001. 

A deeper look into her life revealed a short history of mental illness in the two years prior to the tragedy. Mrs. Yates’s was hospitalized four times for various mental illness symptoms which she received different diagnoses such as severe depression, and severe depression with psychosis.  During one of her hospital stays, she was described as “a profoundly psychotic woman” (Tanay & Simon, 2009).   She attempted suicide on several different occasions, once by an overdose of an antidepressant, and twice with a knife.  Once at her home, where her husband fought with her to take the knife away ( Montaldo, n.d.) and another at her parent’s house after her father’s funeral (Walsh, 2001). She had several catatonic episodes, some while in a hospital, and others in the presence of family members.  She also experienced severe paranoia (Ramsland, n.d.).  For example, she believed that there were cameras installed in the walls, watching her every move; and also claimed that cartoons characters were talking to her through the television (Tanay & Simon, 2009) . 

She was prescribed various antidepressants at different times including Effexor, Remeron, (Walsh, 2001) Zoloft , and Zyprexa (Ramsland, n.d.), as well as an anti-psychotic drug, called Haldol (Montaldo, n.d.).  At one point, she was even considered a candidate for electroshock therapy.  While on Haldol her condition improved, and things began to return to normal for a while (Montaldo, n.d.).  Her psychiatrist warned her not to have any more children; unfortunately, at her husband’s urging (Montaldo, n.d.), she stopped taking Haldol, and proceeded to have one more child (Montaldo, n.d.).  The birth of her youngest child, and the death of her father shortly after, triggered another major depressive episode which resulted in the death of her kids(Denno, 2003).

She was originally convicted of murder, but the verdict was overturned in an appeal case, and she was exonerated by reason of insanity.  Although the prosecution was in agreement that Andrea Yates was mentally ill, a forensic psychiatrist for the prosecution asserted that she was sane when she committed her crime because she knew that it was a sin and did it anyway (Denno, 2003). The experts made at least five different precise diagnoses, including postpartum psychosis, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia (Denno, 2003).

I personally believe that the insanity defense was valid.  No mother with a stable mind would commit such a heinous crime. It is even rare among mothers with mental illnesses (Walsh, 2001). In order for a mother to take the life of her own children, she must have been clinically insane.  What Andrea Yates did was unspeakable; but the nature of the crime itself screams psychotic.  This woman was truly delusional.  I believe that overturning the original conviction was the correct decision; however, she should have been found unfit to stand trial in the first place. 

References

Denno, D.W. (2003).  Who is Andrea Yates?: A short story about insanity.  Duke Journal of

Gender Law & Policy. 10 (Summer), 1-85. Retrieved from: http://findarticles.com/p/ articles/mi_go2943/is_10/ai_n9360004/?tag=content;col1

Montaldo, C. (2011.). Andrea Yates - Profile of Andrea Yates. Crime and Punishment Home

Page. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from: http://crime.about.com/od/current/p /andreayates.htm

Ramsland, K. (n.d.). Andrea Yates: Ill or Evil? Trutv Crime Library. Retrieved from:

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/women/andrea_yates/14.html

Tanay, E. & Simon, R.I. (2009). American Legal Injustice: Behind the Scenes with an Expert

Witness. Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.  Retrieved from: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/Doc?id=10435058&ppg=256

 

Walsh, D. (2001).Texas mother drowns children: Andrea Yates and "family values".

International Committee of the Fourth International. J(02). Retrieved from: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jul2001/yate-j02.shtml