“I’m so proud of the jury.”
July 26th, 2006 5:31 pm by Kelly GarbatoFinally – some good news. And it’s even outta Texas. Go figure.
Yates Found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity
A jury in Houston today found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in the 2001 drowning of her children. It was the second time Ms. Yates had been tried for the deaths of her children, in a long-running case that has highlighted the issues of postpartum depression and the insanity defense in the Texas legal system.
Ms. Yates, whose lawyers said she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis when she drowned her five children, ages 6 months to 7 years, will likely spend the rest of her life in a state mental institution, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine if she should be released.
Prosecutors had maintained that Ms. Yates, who is 42, failed to meet the state’s definition of insanity, because they said she was able to distinguish right from wrong.
When the verdicts were read today, Ms. Yates appeared stunned, and then her eyes misted over, while one of her lawyers, George Parnham, wiped away tears. Later, he called the verdict a “watershed event in the treatment of mental illness.”
Today, her former husband, Rusty Yates, who has sat through most of the retrial, said he was glad the jury accepted the insanity plea instead of sending Ms. Yates to prison. He talked about how the prosecution showed pictures of the couple’s five children before their deaths to the jury, hoping to convince them prison was the best resolution for Ms. Yate’s actions.
“Did they think our children want Andrea to be in prison?” he asked reporters outside the courtroom. “Did they think that we, her family on either side, want Andrea to be in prison? Is it of any public benefit for Andrea to be in prison? Is she a danger to anyone? It’s amazing to me. I’m so proud of the jury for seeing past that.”
Damn straight.
Originally posted @ www.kellygarbato.com/blog/2006-07-26b/
Filed under: Law & Disorder, Crime — Kelly @ July 26, 2006 5:31 pm
