Andrea Yates taped confession of the murdering of her five children were played for the jurors. In this she explained that she felt she was actually saving her children from being punished for having what she believed was an unfit mother. The 911 call Mrs. Yates made after the crime was also played for the jury. The jurors were also shown the actual crime scene photos of where the murders took place, as well as the how the mother of these five children laid them by each other after she drowned them one by one.
Two women from Texas, Andrea Yates, 37 and Darlie Routier, 27 both shocked the world when they brutally murdered their children. Both women were described as wonderful mothers who loved their children, but were also described as having post-partum issues during the last years of their children’s lives. Andrea Yates admitted to her harsh crimes and was willing to take any punishment that was given, as she believed she was saving her children’s souls. On the other hand, Darlie Routier did not admitted her crimes towards her children. Darlie Routier pleaded not guilty, but prosecutors believed differently after many conflicts appeared in her story.
After reading chapters one and two of the Psychology in Everyday Life book and learning about the four big ideas in psychology, and also while trying to figure out the contributing factors of Andrea Yates’ murder of her children. I have to focus in on and think about big idea two, the biopsychosocial approach, that integrates three levels which are biological, psychological and social/cultural; all together these factors influence and give insight into behavior and mental processes. (CITE BOOK) After reviewing these, the psychological factors that I believe to have contributed to Andrea Yates’ murder of her children are, firstly biological, Andrea had a genetic predispositions, which means Andrea had an increased likelihood of developing
Andrea was arrested and charged with 5 counts of capital murder, to which she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. However, after her first trial, she was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison based on a testimony that would eventually be found to be false, leading to another trial, which would then result in her acquittal, by reason of insanity. Based on the fact that Andrea was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison during her first trial, it is obvious how difficult it was for a jury to decide whether Andrea should have been found not guilty by reason of insanity. In fact, during her second trial, “jurors deliberated for 13 hours before finding that Yates did not know her crime was wrong because of her long history of mental illness” (Death Penalty Information Center, 2006). This is due to Texas state’s – where Andrea was tried – laws requiring that a severe mental illness be what prevents someone who is committing a crime from knowing that it is
Although the defences expert testimony agreed that Yates was psychotic, the law in Texas is that to be able to be considered insane you must have not known your actions were wrong which was hard to prove for Andrea since she was very capable of separating right from wrong and since she was very aware of what she had done. When asked about the murders Andrea asked very calm, she had no remorse and genuinely believed what she was going was the right thing to do. Andrea was very heavily influenced by her religion and truly thought that she was saving her children from growing up and becoming sinners to avoid hell. Since Andrea admitted to waiting for her husband to leave for work to kill her children to Dr. Michael Welner, the Prosecutors were easily able to prove this was a thought-out murder which very possibly qualifies this murder as a very possible first degree murder. Testimony from Dr. Dietz also very heavily impact the jury’s decision.
After her trial, Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity and is currently institutionalized. Her case is famous for showcasing the effects that post-partum psychosis can have on a woman. While I believe that Yates’s children were simply victims of their mother’s mental illness, Yates claimed that she killed her children because they claimed that she was a bad mother and she believed that they were not developing properly as Christians (Christian and Teachy 2002). This delusion, however, was likely just a part of Yates’s psychosis. Yates suffered from depression and bulimia nervosa as a teen, although her depression seems to have gone into remission for several years (O’Malley 2005 p. 20).
Insanity is an illness an individual cannot overcome and will make decisions without thinking. Lacking the further knowledge of a criminal's mental state does not endorse the fate of acquiring the death
Andrea Yates crime moved the United States in an astonishing way. This crime impacted both the officers and the families all around the United States due to the horrendous Crime Andrea committed. Andre killed her 5 children including her precious baby girl. What most the the American public ask themselves was, what lead her to kill her children and how can we stop it for ever happening to a family again. Even though Andrea Yates was affected by a combination of Social,Biological, and Psychological factors the factor that triggered her insanity was Biological and Psychological.
It lists that in order to declare a defendant not guilty by insanity, it must be proven that the person is significantly mentally ill and was not able to differentiate right from wrong in the instance of their crime (Levin). There was no dispute between prosecution or defense that Andrea was mentally ill, it was simply if her illness inhibited her judgement enough to meet the legal standards. Her family and defense attorney all believed that there was no questioning the severity of her condition, she simply could not function as a regular human being, and her judgement was clouded. Andrea’s mother-in-law, Dora Yates, who frequently watched over Andrea and witnessed her daily condition, stated, “I don't think she knew how to cope . . . how to function.
The Andrea Yates Case: The Insanity Defense On June 20, 2001, in Houston, Texas, Andrea Pia Yates was charged with the murder of her five children, which she drowned in the bathtub one at a time, and was found not guilty by reason of insanity under the Texas Law Insanity Defense. The legislative history of the Texas Law Insanity Defense begins with the British test for right and wrong, known as the M’Naghten, being adopted in the majority of American states. The M’Naghten test for right and wrong required a mental disease that kept the defendant from controlling their actions and that cognitive impairment is the cause for the defective reasoning of what is right and what is wrong. Beginning in 1973, Texas adopted the American Law Institute’s
Why did Andrea Yates murder her five innocent children? What was going on in her mind while she was doing so? These questions can very simply be answered by solely looking at her life from the psychodynamic view. Andrea Yates was very emotionally and mentally unstable. For this to be seen, one must look at not only the event which took place but also dive into Andrea’s life.
This world is full of many things we will never understand. Andreas Yates was diagnosed with mental illness two years before she drown her children in the tub. Yes, that is an absolutely awful thing to do to your children. But no, she is not the complete monster. In my opinion the mental health system failed Ms. Yates.
However, the jury did show mercy and she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In Yates’s case, the prosecutors insisted, and the jury believed, that Yates knew the killings were “wrong.” The evidence presented was that she waited until her husband left the house before drowning the children, and she called law enforcement after she had killed them. But this shows the limited nature of the Texas insanity defense, a limitation the Supreme Court has since sanctioned (Murderpedia.org, 2006).
Instead she chooses to act insanely, seeing the children in the worst possible way when they aren’t actually bad. This shows her insanity because she accepts this fact and still makes certain decisions, and if she wasn’t as paranoid the children wouldn’t fear her. As she is watching the children, she is hoping that her suspicions come true and this shows her insanity since she had been doing this for several days to no avail. These actions prove the insanity is caused, in part, by her unjustified
Insanity is not a valid defense for one main reason. You are either crazy or you are not. In the end, Mack Herring was acquitted for murder. He felt as if he was pressured into doing it and he also thought he was helping her by committing the crime.
