BREAKING NEWS: Andrea Yates Not Guilty in Retrial

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Stephanie
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#221 Postby Stephanie » Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:00 pm

sunny wrote:
Brent wrote:I completely agree A2K... I've stayed out of this thread all day too. :wink:


It's a shame. We can have a good discussion going, and then people come in with so much anger and venom that it makes it impossible to continue.


If there's ever a problem that you see occuring in a thread, PLEASE pm a Mod or Admin that's online right away. We'll deal with it. :wink:
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#222 Postby Stephanie » Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:05 pm

rainstorm wrote:
Janice wrote:Well, I am sure the doctors in her new facility are professional enough to catch on with any quick recovery she may make. They are dealing with insanity cases all the time and can distinguish between the people who are really mentally ill and those who pled to stay out of prison. They will know a lot more about her condition than we do. We have not seen her or had private conversations with her. We do not know how deep her sickness is. So, I doubt she will be making any quick recoveries.


actually, these porfessionals are fooled all the time. psychiatry is not a science


Excuse me Tom Cruise, but as someone that has had chronic depression for almost 20 years, I do know the value of psychiatry and how much it has helped me.

Didn't you mention a couple of posts back that you weren't going to make any more posts on the subject?
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#223 Postby yoda » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:16 pm

Stephanie wrote:
rainstorm wrote:
Janice wrote:Well, I am sure the doctors in her new facility are professional enough to catch on with any quick recovery she may make. They are dealing with insanity cases all the time and can distinguish between the people who are really mentally ill and those who pled to stay out of prison. They will know a lot more about her condition than we do. We have not seen her or had private conversations with her. We do not know how deep her sickness is. So, I doubt she will be making any quick recoveries.


actually, these porfessionals are fooled all the time. psychiatry is not a science


Excuse me Tom Cruise, but as someone that has had chronic depression for almost 20 years, I do know the value of psychiatry and how much it has helped me.

Didn't you mention a couple of posts back that you weren't going to make any more posts on the subject?


I'm sorry... but :lol: to Stephanie on her last sentence.

I too have stayed out of this thread because I was afraid of all the hell I would get if I voiced my opinion. I too know the value of pyschiatry... although not to the extent of Stephanie here. It does help a lot.
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#224 Postby Janice » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:49 pm

Rusty Yates: 'Case was built on lies'

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- Rusty Yates lashed out Thursday at prosecutors who spent five years pursuing murder charges against his ex-wife, saying they misrepresented certain details of the day Andrea Yates drowned their five children.

Rusty Yates told The Associated Press that Andrea Yates never told him, "I finally did it" in her telephone call to him after the drownings, as a Houston police officer testified during her second trial.

"It's been printed in papers as fact, and it's absolutely not true," he said. "Much of the state's case was built on lies."

A jury on Wednesday found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in the June 2001 bathtub drownings of her children. (Watch Andrea Yates react to the verdict -- 4:15)

She was retried after her 2002 murder conviction was overturned because of erroneous testimony about a nonexistent "Law & Order" television episode.

On Thursday, the 42-year-old was committed to the maximum-security North Texas State Hospital in Vernon.

Yates to be evaluated
Hospital officials will review her mental state and decide whether she is a danger to society. State District Judge Belinda Hill will review that report and hold a hearing within 30 days to determine if Yates should remain there or be moved to another state hospital.

During the interview, Rusty Yates said that on the day his children died, Andrea had called him and asked him to come home. When he and his mother arrived and learned from police what had happened, he reminded his mother that Andrea had filled the bathtub for no apparent reason about a month or so earlier.

"I said, `I guess she'd been thinking about this for some time and finally did it," Yates said. He said an officer must have overhead the conversation and took it out of context.

Prosecutors also seemed to change their theory about his now ex-wife's motive, Yates said.

"In the first trial, they said Andrea did this to try to get out, whatever that means, which sounded like she wasn't happy at home ... and this time they said she wanted to run off with me into the sunset," he said. "Well, which is it?

"The fact is, they spent five years and still don't have a reason why she did it because they are unwilling to look at the fact she was psychotic. That's the only reasonable explanation for her behavior."

Prosecutor: No false testimony
Prosecutor Joe Owmby said Thursday the state offered no false testimony.

"I do not think about Rusty Yates; I do not want to think about Rusty Yates, and he needs to stop thinking about us," Owmby said.

Yates, an engineer at NASA's Johnson Space Center, said he plans to visit his ex-wife regularly, but his role in her life will diminish as he moves on with his own. He remarried in March and has now has two stepsons.

"I don't forget my children, and I don't forget Andrea, but I don't dwell on it either. I try to remember my children fondly," he said. "I'm building new life ... and have a new family and am more focused on them."

For his ex-wife to ever be released from state care will require a complicated evaluation process. Experts say it can take decades before psychiatrists decide a patient is healthy enough to leave, and even then a judge can reject those findings.

Yates said he was nervous on Wednesday as he waited for the verdict. The family, which has always supported Andrea, was devastated when she was convicted at the first trial 2002, he said.

Yates had testified for the defense in that first trial, and he said Thursday he didn't know why he wasn't asked to testify again.

"In some respects," he said, "I know Andrea better than anybody."

Defense: Wanted to save kids from hell
The defense attorneys never disputed that Andrea drowned the children, but they said she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her. She believed she was trying to save the children from hell by drowning 6-month-old Mary, 2-year-old Luke, 3-year-old Paul, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah, they told the jury.

"It's this simple: This lady never did anything, anything wrong in her whole life," defense attorney Wendell Odom said. "She's mentally ill. She wakes up one morning. She drowns her five kids. Come on -- we all know she's insane, and it's a shame that it took us this long to finally get the right verdict."

Prosecutors had maintained that although Andrea Yates was mentally ill, she didn't meet the state's definition of insanity: being so severely mentally ill that she did not know her actions were wrong.

The foreman of the jury said Thursday that the group had "some emotional difficulty" reaching its unanimous verdict and would have had an easier time if they could have found her "guilty but insane."

Shortly before they delivered their verdict, the jurors asked to see a picture of the five young children, then sat in silence for 10 minutes -- 2 minutes for each child -- remembering the victims, foreman Todd Frank, a 33-year-old marketing manager with his own young son, told "Good Morning America" on Thursday.

"We understand that she knew it was legally wrong," he said. "But in her delusional mind, in her severely mentally ill mind, we believe that she thought what she did was right."
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#225 Postby Stephanie » Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:49 pm

People should feel that they can voice their opinion without feeling like they are going to get attacked. A simple "I disagree" and a reason why should suffice. Some like to take it to the n'th degree and get up on their podium as if preaching to the choir, but in a very empty church.
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#226 Postby stormie_skies » Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:12 pm

All I can say .... hearing this new verdict made my day yesterday. This woman had a very long history of psychosis ... its just silly to say that she was "making it all up." Mental illness is real, it does alter a person's thinking, you can't just "snap out of it" .... many Americans seem reluctant to acknowledge that, but I'm thankful that these jurors understood.
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#227 Postby sunny » Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:17 pm

Am I remembering correctly that Andrea's father went to Russell prior to the killings and told Russell "my daughter is sick, you need to help her"?

I place as much blame on Russell Yates - he knew the woman was unstable and he did nothing to help her. He walked off and left her everyday......
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#228 Postby alicia-w » Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:22 pm

If anything good can come out of this, I hope that mental illness may get the attention it deserves. for so many years it was thought to be a stigma and it was just swept under the rug. it is a disease and often times can be treated. i hope she gets the help she needs.
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#229 Postby TexasStooge » Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:32 pm

This just in:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yates committed to North Texas hospital

HOUSTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) — Rusty Yates lashed out Thursday at prosecutors who spent five years pursuing murder charges against his ex-wife, saying they misrepresented certain details of the day Andrea Yates drowned their five children.

Rusty Yates told The Associated Press that Andrea Yates never told him, "I finally did it" in her telephone call to him after the drownings, as a Houston police officer testified during her second trial.

"It's been printed in papers as fact, and it's absolutely not true," he said. "Much of the state's case was built on lies."

On Thursday, the 42-year-old was committed to the maximum-security North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, located about 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

Full Story Here
_____________________________________________________________

alicia-w wrote:If anything good can come out of this, I hope that mental illness may get the attention it deserves. for so many years it was thought to be a stigma and it was just swept under the rug. it is a disease and often times can be treated. i hope she gets the help she needs.


Same here.
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#230 Postby gtalum » Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:48 pm

rainstorm wrote:actually, these porfessionals are fooled all the time. psychiatry is not a science


Evidence, please?
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#231 Postby george_r_1961 » Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:45 pm

gtalum wrote:
rainstorm wrote:actually, these porfessionals are fooled all the time. psychiatry is not a science


Evidence, please?


gtalum for once im gonna agree with you. Psychiatry is a branch of medicine..making it a science. As for them getting "fooled all the time" well Id like to see something to back that up as well. Fooling a trained professional is not as easy as you think..considering patients in a forensic unit are under almost constant observation.
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#232 Postby CajunMama » Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:53 pm

gtalum wrote:
rainstorm wrote:actually, these porfessionals are fooled all the time. psychiatry is not a science


Evidence, please?


Trust me gtalum...you won't get the evidence.
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#233 Postby kevin » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:00 pm

The moon is made of cheese, psychiatry is a sham, and people live in a hollow earth.

A list of absurd statements brought to you by Kevin.
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#234 Postby Janice » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:01 pm

Can you back up those statements? :lol:
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#235 Postby Stephanie » Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:49 pm

kevin wrote:The moon is made of cheese, psychiatry is a sham, and people live in a hollow earth.

A list of absurd statements brought to you by Kevin.


:lol:


If anything good can come out of this, I hope that mental illness may get the attention it deserves. for so many years it was thought to be a stigma and it was just swept under the rug. it is a disease and often times can be treated. i hope she gets the help she needs.


I agree alicia.
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#236 Postby GalvestonDuck » Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:50 pm

Stephanie wrote:
If anything good can come out of this, I hope that mental illness may get the attention it deserves. for so many years it was thought to be a stigma and it was just swept under the rug. it is a disease and often times can be treated. i hope she gets the help she needs.


I agree alicia.


Ditto -- I'd hate to think so many of my coworkers at UTMB are being fooled...and getting paid for it!!
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#237 Postby rainstorm » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:07 pm

they do get fooled all the time and in texas on average people assigned to mental institutions are released after 32 days. i also am confident you will find her condition will undergo a miraculous turnaround.
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#238 Postby george_r_1961 » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:09 pm

rainstorm wrote:they do get fooled all the time and in texas on average people assigned to mental institutions are released after 32 days. i also am confident you will find her condition will undergo a miraculous turnaround.



The average person isnt in for drowning 5 kids either. Sure she will be released eventually..but it wont be 32 days.
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#239 Postby Janice » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:14 pm

It will take her years to come to terms with what she did. They will not release her until she does that. Also, she has to come to terms with her husband remarrying another woman. The poor womans mind is full and she will definately need long, good professional help. Regardless of what her husband told her about remarrying, it had to be a huge shock to her. This is a good place for her. She will get the help she needs and I am sure there are plenty of professionals to work with her.
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#240 Postby george_r_1961 » Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:21 pm

Janice wrote:It will take her years to come to terms with what she did. They will not release her until she does that. Also, she has to come to terms with her husband remarrying another woman. The poor womans mind is full and she will definately need long, good professional help. Regardless of what her husband told her about remarrying, it had to be a huge shock to her. This is a good place for her. She will get the help she needs and I am sure there are plenty of professionals to work with her.



Perhaps her time in the hospital can be used by mental health proffesionals to probs her mind to find out WHY she did what she did. Perhaps whatever information yielded by her can be used to prevent another woman from committing such an act. We can only hope.
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