Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Posted by LadyLainez

Posted by WhatNow

I couldn't believe the verdict.

I would have liked to drown that animal with my very own hands!!!! Those poor murdered children..

Well to judge her and say things like this make us just as bad. I respect your opinion but who are we to judge her that way. We don't know what mantal issues she had and the type of life she lived with her husband. I'm not excusing her actions in any way, but I can not imagine being in her shoes and how horrible it muct feel to know you killed your own children.

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Posted by Redhead

Posted by LadyLainez

Posted by WhatNow

I couldn't believe the verdict.

I would have liked to drown that animal with my very own hands!!!! Those poor murdered children..

Well to judge her and say things like this make us just as bad. I respect your opinion but who are we to judge her that way. We don't know what mantal issues she had and the type of life she lived with her husband. I'm not excusing her actions in any way, but I can not imagine being in her shoes and how horrible it muct feel to know you killed your own children.

well said...be this is a comment that HAS to have been made by soeone who does not know about her history...

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Posted by lululu

Posted by Redhead

Posted by LadyLainez

Posted by WhatNow

I couldn't believe the verdict.

I would have liked to drown that animal with my very own hands!!!! Those poor murdered children..

Well to judge her and say things like this make us just as bad. I respect your opinion but who are we to judge her that way. We don't know what mantal issues she had and the type of life she lived with her husband. I'm not excusing her actions in any way, but I can not imagine being in her shoes and how horrible it muct feel to know you killed your own children.

well said...be this is a comment that HAS to have been made by soeone who does not know about her history...

I think that in general people need someone to BLAME. Those who do not understand mental illness find it easy to blame her for what happened. I didnt even need to know the history to know that a woman that does this is probably severly mentally ill. whether she had sought help or not, does not matter to me - the fact that she did seek help solidifies the fact that she was extremely sick - but even if she hadnt it wouldnt make me question the severity of her illness.

The whole story is very sad and if i feel the need to blame anyone, as i said earlier, it is the husband. She is just a sick woman, while he is an evil b*stard.

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Message edited 7/27/2006 5:16:38 PM.

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Posted by Redhead

Posted by lululu

I think that in general people need someone to BLAME. Those who do not understand mental illness find it easy to blame her for what happened. I didnt even need to know the history to know that a woman that does this is probably severly mentally ill. whether she had sought help or not, does not matter to me - the fact that she did seek help solidifies the fact that she was extremely sick - but even if she hadnt it wouldnt make me question the severity of her illness.

The whole story is very sad and if i feel the need to blame anyone, as i said earlier, it is the husband. She is just a sick woman, while he is an evil b*stard.

I agree somewhat...

Although i think that someone like Susan Smith....who let her kids drown in a car that she rolled into a lake so she could be with a man...

OR someone like Diane Downs who SHOT all three of her kids to be with a man...

YES they are sick....

BUT they belong in JAIL

So i really think it is a case by case thing for me....

I just think that after seeing and reading her history a person would be able to see how SICK she, Andrea Yates, was...

and i am truly shocked at the resonses....

so i have to believe that they didn't not read the entire thread...

regardless if you understand mental illness or not....reading what her life was like and what she did pre-killing....well i would think people would see she needs help

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Message edited 7/27/2006 5:20:42 PM.

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Posted by Redhead

Posted by lululu

I think that in general people need someone to BLAME. Those who do not understand mental illness find it easy to blame her for what happened. I didnt even need to know the history to know that a woman that does this is probably severly mentally ill. whether she had sought help or not, does not matter to me - the fact that she did seek help solidifies the fact that she was extremely sick - but even if she hadnt it wouldnt make me question the severity of her illness.

The whole story is very sad and if i feel the need to blame anyone, as i said earlier, it is the husband. She is just a sick woman, while he is an evil b*stard.

I agree somewhat...

Although i think that someone like Susan Smith....who let her kids drown in a car that she rolled into a lake so she could be with a man...

OR someone like Diane Downs who SHOT all three of her kids to be with a man...

YES they are sick....

BUT they belong in JAIL

So i really think it is a case by case thing for me....

I just think that after seeing and reading her history a person would be able to see how SICK she, Andrea Yates, was...

and i am truly shocked at the resonses....

so i have to believe that they didn't not read the entire thread...

regardless if you understand mental illness or not....reading what her life was like and what she did pre-killing....well i would think people would see she needs help

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Posted by SweetTooth

I agree with those who say she did get the right sentence - being in an institution...
She reached out for help many times and was ignored. I do not know much about psychology, but it is obvoius that she was failed by many people.
It seems to me that her husband was living in a dream that she would get better and go back to being the woman he married.
My question is - if she was hospitlized before and it was apparent that her children might be in danger - was social services contacted? Did they make any visits to the household to inquire about the welfare of these children?
There are many people at fault here, and as horrendous as it is that she killed her children, jail is not the appropriate place for her.
Its not like she is going to be sitting in her room at the institution eating bon bons and reading tabloids. She will be getting intensive treatment, which is what she needs.
She is not an evil person - this act she committed did not stem from hate it stemmed from the fact that she is very very sick and nothing was done to help her, only make her situation worse. Its a very sad case all around.

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

you can't even compare Andrea Yates to the other two...

Killing is the only commonality....

but other than that....they are like NIGHT AND DAY

not everyone that kills has a mental disorder

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Andrea Yates - sick woman who sought help on numerous occassions, received treatment for her illness, but was failed in many ways already mentioned in this thread.

Susan Smith - SELFISH woman - who completely deserves to BE IN JAIL ROTTING TILL HER DEATH.

Diane Downs - ditto as Susan Smith.


those two cannot be compared to Andrea Yates IMO. totally different.

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

In my mind, you'd have to have some kind of mental illness to kill your children, but Yates is so clearly a person who was mentally ill. When you hear the case, the first word everyone says is "sick" and that's exactly what she is. When you're sick you need treatment, you can't punish away a psychosis any more than you can punsh away the flu.

As sad and horrifying it is that she chased her 7 year old around to drown him, it doesn't mean she's not sick. A murder due to a mental illness does not have to be a passion crime. Think about it, if you TRULY believe that killing the children will save their souls and that that is what you have to do, then you're going to do it whether it takes a minute or an hour.

I don't really know much about her condition, I'm not a MH professional, but I don't think the fact that she realized it was wrogn and called 911 means she wasn't sick or it wasn't out of the control of whatever was left of her reasonable mind. I mean, just observe someone with OCD (I'm not saying you're pscyhotic if you have OCD). They could be the most rational person in the world, but when it comes to certain things, they have an illness that is at the core not rational. I see really intelligent people throw away things that cost $100's, or lost jobs because they can't leave the house. They KNOW the gas is off, but they CAN'T STOP checking it. Something as simple as that. it's hard to understand if you're not inside it, but there is an element that is just not rational. So I can see where she could KNOW it was wrong, but not be able to turn off the voice or the compulsion telling her she had to do it.

From everything Red has been posting about the backstory it really seems like her husband and the system truly failed her. She sought help (and even if she hadn't and ddn't have the presence fo mind to seek help, someone should have for her), and she ddn't get the help she needed and t seems like her DH just put her in a more and more intense situation to bring out her illness and he endangered those children.

She is ill, she belongs in an institution, not in jail. Even in most major religions, it is believed that people who are mentally ill are not responsible for their sins. I don't believe she needs to be punished. She needs HELP. And being in an institution is not a day at the spa. In essence, it's the same as jail because she doesn't have the ffreedom to leave, she doens't ahve her own life and she doesn't have the freedom to do what she wants.

And anyone who says she should be sterilizied..that's just a scary statement. Should we sterilize all mentally ill people to pre-empt this? It's just a scary thought to even bring up sterilizing anyone.

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

i just feel that Andrea had an on going battle with Major Depression Disorder
on top of that PPD with psychotic features

all of this well documented prekilling

her delusions were in fact serious in nature

Susan Smith and Diane Downs....IMO weren't delusional...
they were both were actually TOLD pretty much they were the one but can't be because they had kids

this is an excert from a letter the guy Susan Smith killed her kids for:

"You will, without a doubt, make some lucky man a great wife. But unfortunately, it won’t be me.Susan, I could really fall for you. You have some endearing qualities about you, and I think that you are a terrific person. But like I have told you before, there are some things about you that aren’t suited for me, and yes, I am speaking about your children."
her belief that this man would love her and be with her if it wasn't for her children wasn't exactly delusional at all

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Re: Jury: Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

Posted by MrsERod

Andrea Yates - sick woman who sought help on numerous occassions, received treatment for her illness, but was failed in many ways already mentioned in this thread.

Susan Smith - SELFISH woman - who completely deserves to BE IN JAIL ROTTING TILL HER DEATH.

Diane Downs - ditto as Susan Smith.


those two cannot be compared to Andrea Yates IMO. totally different.