Andrea Yates
In 2001, Andrea Kennedy Yates drowned her five children one at a time in her bathtub (Moisse, 2012). The first criminal trial lasted a total of only three weeks. Yates was convicted of capital murder, but was not given the death penalty. Instead, Yates was given life in prison with a chance for parole in 2041. However, in 2005, Yates' initial conviction was overturned in a Texas appellate court. A new trial was ordered, based primarily on the fact that a witness for the prosecution lied under oath. During the initial trial of Yates, the prosecution called Park Dietz to attempt to establish premeditation. Dietz "falsely told jurors that Yates had watched an episode of "Law and Order" in which a mother had drowned her children in their bathtub…but no episode had ever aired," ("How Andrea Yates Lives, and Lives With Herself, a Decade Later," n.d.). In 2006, the new trial began. This one focused on Yates' mental illness much more so than the original trial had. Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity; that insanity being qualified as postpartum depression. Instead of being sentenced to life in prison, Yates was placed in a state psychiatric hospital.
• What circumstances and/or behaviors in this case indicate the presence of mental health concerns?
Yates' postpartum depression...
This is the loophole that both side tried to exploit during both the initial trial and the re-trial. No one questions the claim that Yates was mentally ill, either before or during the events that took place. However, in the trial, the decision and weight of prosecution's case lied in the ideal that she had some semblance of knowledge that what she was about to do was wrong. Her mental
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