Her verdict was overturned, not guilty by insanity. Shes going to a mental hospital.

HOUSTON - Jurors found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in her children's bathtub drowning deaths.

This is the second trial for the suburban mother who drowned her five young children in a bathtub.

The jury had spent 11 hours Monday and Tuesday trying to determine if Yates was legally insane. Wednesday morning, they reviewed the state's definition of insanity and then asked to see a family photo and candid pictures of the five smiling youngsters. After about an hour of deliberations, they said they had reached a verdict.

In Yates' first murder trial, in 2002, the jury deliberated about four hours before finding her guilty. That conviction was overturned on appeal.

Confession




The Yates children ranged in age from six months to seven years, and all of them had been named after figures from the Bible: Noah, John, Luke, Paul, and Mary. Four were boys and the infant a girl.

Once they were known to be dead, the children were left in place for three hours to await the medical examiner's van. Rusty, 36, was kept outside his own home, says Suzy Spenser in Breaking Point, for five long hours. He told the police that his wife was ill and had been suffering from depression. She'd been on medication.

At Houston Police headquarters, an officer turned on a tape recorder to take the formal statement of the woman who had already admitted to killing all of her children. Her name was Andrea Pia Yates and she was 36 years old. She stared straight ahead as she answered questions and said, with little energy, that she understood her rights.

"Who killed your children?" the officer asked.

"I killed my children." Her eyes were blank.

"Why did you kill your children?"

"Because I'm a bad mother."

For about seventeen minutes, they pressed her for details of exactly how she had proceeded that morning.

She had gotten out of bed around 8:10 and had waited for her husband, Rusty, to leave for work at nine. The children were all awake and eating cereal. Andrea had some, too. Once Rusty was gone, Andrea went into the bathroom to turn on the water and fill the tub. The water came within three inches from the top.

Then one by one, she drowned three of her sons, Luke, age 2; Paul, age 3; and John, age 5. She put them in facedown and held them as they struggled. As each one died, she then placed him face up on a bed, still wet, and then covered all three with a sheet. Each had struggled just a few minutes. Next was six-month-old Mary, the youngest, who had been in the bathroom all this time, sitting on the floor in her bassinet and crying. When Andrea was finished with Mary, she left her floating in the water and called to her oldest son, Noah.

He came right away. "What happened to Mary?" he asked. Then apparently realizing what his mother was doing, he ran from the bathroom but Andrea chased him down and dragged him back to the tub. She forced him in face down and drowned him right next to Mary. She admitted in her confession that he had put up the biggest struggle of all. At times he managed to slip from her grasp and get some air, but she always managed to push him back down. His last words were, "I'm sorry." She left him there floating in a tub full of feces, urine and vomit, where police found him. She lifted Mary out and placed her on the bed with her other brothers. Andrea gently covered her before calling the police and her husband. It was time.

Had the children done something to make her want to kill them? The officer asked.

No.

You weren't mad?

No.

She admitted that she was taking medication for depression and she named her doctor, whom she had seen two days earlier. She believed she was not a good mother because the children were "not developing correctly." She'd been having thoughts about hurting them over the past two years. She needed to be punished for not being a good mother.

The questioning officer was confused. How was the murder of her children a way to achieve that? "Did you want the criminal justice system to punish you?" he asked.

"Yes."

She had almost done the same thing two months earlier, she admitted. She had filled the tub. Rusty was home at the time, so she just didn't do it.

The officer asked for the birth dates of each of her children and then stopped the tape.

The media soon learned that Andrea had suffered from depression for at least two years and had been hospitalized for attempted suicide.

By the end of that first awful day, Andrea Yates was charged with capital murder for "intentionally and knowingly" causing the deaths of three of her children, using water as a weapon. She was not charged in the deaths of the two youngest boys. There was no indication on this report, says Spencer, that she suffered from mental illness.


Andrea Yates in prison

Yet Rusty was telling the media that she had suffered bouts of serious depression since the birth of their fourth child two years earlier.

In fact, her most recent psychiatrist, Dr. Mohammed Saeed, had called Rusty on the day of the drownings. He appeared to be stunned and apparently wanted to make it clear that he had believed that Rusty's mother was always at the home.

On the local radio, talk show hosts were buzzing, asking people to call in and express their outrage at a mother who would do such a thing. They tried her in the court of public opinion and found her worthy of death.

However, Rusty had made a decision. He felt torn, he said, but it was not his wife who had killed the children, but her illness. He went out to the throng of reporters and, holding a portrait of the once-happy family, told them everything he could recall from that dreadful day. He believed that the Andrea he knew was not the one who had turned against their kids. As he searched desperately for reasons that hadn't been obvious before, he made it clear that he intended to support her.

"She wasn't in the right frame of mind," he said.

source: crimelibrary.com

They started the first trial as post partum depression. That didn't work so they used the insane card to get her off.

That is so horrible. I can't eve imagine it

That's so disgusting. She clearly is fucking disturbed though. The nut-house is the best place for her.

i think she actually is a certifiable loon though. not to say that i think she deserved to get off. but she's pretty fucking whacked, if you read about her history of mental illness.

and her ex-husband is fucking creepy xtian fanatic-styles.

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I think she is some extent of crazy too. I just don't like the fact that one defense didn't work so they got to switch. I'm not sure if they did that exactly but it seems like it.

I watched a documentary on her a while ago. She certainly had postpartum depression after, I can't remember which, but one of her children, yet they kept on having kids because the husband didn't believe in birth control. And she really had no voice and didn't speak up I guess. I don't think she wanted to get pregnant again.

Her husband stands behind her. I don't think I could forgive my sig. other if they killed my kids like that.

She definately does need to be in a mental institution. But when her moods or disorder is stable enough, do they let her out? She was found not guilty because of insanity. So will that automatically go away once the cameras are off? Probably not, just wondering.

right because a sane person would kill their chilrens?

I think her ex-husband is just as guilty as anyone. He wouldn't allow her to use birth control. She obviously was overwhelmed by 5 kids.

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I'm very disturbed by the kid's last words, "I'm sorry.'' He must have thought he did something wrong to deserve what his mom was doing to him. That is absolutely horrible. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I was her. But I'd never be her.

That's fucking horrible. But having five children under the age of seven would drive me insane too.

I believe I read an article that said that in the mental institution, she will ocassionally be interviewed, I guess after X amount of time, to determine her state of mind -- it didn't say if she would be released to a prison afterwards if she's "ok". I wonder how soon she'll be "sane" after being in a loony bin. To bad her punishment won't include being submerged in water for a little while, just because. Sick statement, but she's a sick fuck.

That fat bitch should have been fried.

She now claims she is much better.. She wants to go home now so she can have some more kids....

Only in America....

This story saddens me greatly. Let us grant her AND her negligent husband the sweet release of death.

Not surprising. She'll probably have a mental institution birth -- do they allow conjugal visits?

Is this true....if it is I would seriously kill her myself...she should never be aloud to have a child in her care.

I dont care if she wans't thinking straight at that time. This woman should rot in prision!!!

There was a witness who gave incorrect information during the first trial--I think he said something about a previous episode of Law and Order depicting the same kind of incident. It was not true, so her conviction was overturned.

Her lawyer should have tried insanity from the beginning, but they did not. It is not an easy ruling to achieve--just think about all the crazy folk who have failed at getting insanity rulings in their favor.

I think she will be in a psych. ward for a long time--quite possibly the rest of her life. Even if she was released, I do not think she would be free to just walk off and do her thing. She'd probably have really heavy supervision.

anyone who does that is clearly insane or disturbed in some way. it wasnt a crime of revenge or anything that has any kind of logical explanation. it was right hospitalize her. and institutions are not some kind of vacation spot, its not like she was let off