Letters to the Editor
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JUDICIAL SYSTEM NEEDS A NEW VERDICT OPTION
So, Andrea Yates is guilty - but also not, because she is crazy.
Other countries allw for a verdict option that resolves this stupid little paradox: "Guilty, But Insane."
The US Judicial system needs that option.
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Unindicted Co-conspirators
Now that we've let pathetic yet evil Andrea off the hook, can we finally turn our attention to her accessories before the fact? Her husband, who demanded she meet impossible standards of wifehood, even forcing her to have children her own doctor strongly recommended against. Her doctor, who should have demanded Social Services remove the children for their own safety. Social Services, for failing to protect the children. The ridiculous yet dangerous "church" that fed Andrea's delusions and her husband's emotional abuse. And last but not least, the society that allows such women to go so long without intervention and enables their co-conspirators.
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Really, this isn't a snippy question
And that today, a government that prioritizes embryonic stem cells over needy children, say, all too often blames -- if not incarcerates -- "bad" mothers rather than offering the support they need.
In all seriousness, what support could the government have given Yates that would have saved those children?
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What Yellow Dog said.
I have always wondered why no one in the media has criticized Mr. Yates. His wife should never have had more babies, after it was clear that she had severe post-partum issues. She was also home-schooling them, and pretty much home alone with them all day, every day. Where was he? Why wasn't he more concerned about her, and the welfare of his children while they were with her? Her doctors recommended against her having more children. Her husband's conduct was nothing short of abusive.
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The insanity was the first verdict
The poor woman was clearly not mentally competent. The heinousness of the crime, considered alone, was enough to verify that. There are too many grandstanding DAs in this country who browbeat juries with the "If you find this person insane, there's a good chance he/she will get out to do it again" line. A prime example is Jeffrey Dahmer. Can any sensible person say a man keeping body parts of his victims in his fridge to eat later was right in the head?
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The husband should be charged too
This woman is clearly as nuts as a person can be. I don’t think (and correct me if I’m wrong) that a sane person wakes up one day and is suddenly this far gone. The husband had to know - but he kept having all these children with her and then isolating the whole group of them where no one else could see what had to be a completely dysfunctional and dangerous situation.
I’ve had this conversation with lots of people and just about everyone agrees that the neglect the father showed was criminal. So why hasn’t he been charged with any sort of crime?
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This Woman Belongs In Prison
My mother violently and sadistically abused me when I was a boy, 30 years ago this summer, including a serious attempt to strangle me to death that very nearly succeeded. My dad knew what was going on, but did nothing. Neither of them had to pay a price, and both of them should have. My mother was not insane, although she would later come up with all kinds of excuses while in group therapy. Now, both of them deny that anything happened at all. Because they never had to face up to what they did via law enforcement, there is no way for us to move on.
Andrea Yates may have had advocates making her excuses for her, but that's what they were - excuses. I don't give a damn what a person's mental state is, it is not possible for a mother to systematically drown all FIVE of her small children without being either a sociopath or a psychopath. But either way, her children are still dead. For that she should spend the rest of her life contemplating what she did. Period.
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Drown her.
Fill the bathtub she used to murder her kids and hold her head under the water. Getting the point now, Andrea..?
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Isn't it fantastic when
a woman can use the severe postpartum psychosis defense to justify murder. This will be a boon to murderesses nationwide, not unlike the "twinkie defense" used in the Harvey Milk trial. The woman had the presence of mind to call 911 and admit what she had done. Sorry, she is guilty.
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NOBODY
can "force" a woman to have a child. That comment abdicates all responsibility and accountability. No one held a gun to her head.
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And you wonder why
while I think Rusty Yates bears some responsibility for this tragedy because of his adherence to "submissive wife" b.s., there is the bigger picture to consider. As fundamentalism is on the rise, so is the rise of "submissive wife syndrome." If it's interpreted from the Bible, it's god's way and it shall be done.
I'll start with Salon: When you have the anti-women trolls on this very blog who have such hate and anger toward women you wonder how tragedies like this happen...
When women have to go on weeklong camping trips in California and wear pink just to call attention to breast cancer...
When you can't even utter the word feminist around people (women) who are fricking feminists themselves...(hello Caitlin Flanagan and relatives of my very own who are ashamed to be called feminists now, all of a sudden).
When women are losing autonomy every day over their bodies in the most "democratic" country in the world...
When the CDC suggests that women in the most democratic country in the world are to be "pre-pregnant"...
When Utah (Mormons gone amok) has the highest rate of women on anti-depressants (a blessing and curse, but mostly a curse, considering the anti-woman stance of the church)...
Post Partum depression/psychosis has only recently become a household word. Mild depression of the non post partum variety is only now being talked about (and de-stigmatized) on a wide scale.
And you wonder why this happens.
I'm glad this case was high profile and I'm very glad Ms. Yates is not going to jail. I hope we learn from this. If John Hinkley is insane then Ms. Yates is 5 times as insane. Justice has been served.
It won't bring those poor children back but it might save the lives of other ones.