Andrea Yates Case

Andrea Yates was born on July 2nd, 1964 in Houston, Texas, and she was raised in the Houston area (Denno, 2003). Her father was a retired auto shop teacher who died of Alzheimer’s disease shortly before the murders of Yates’s children, and her mother Jutta Karin was a home maker (Denno, 2003). Andrea was the youngest of five, and was a high achiever; and in high school she was captain of the swim team, a National Honor Society member, and valedictorian of her 1982 graduating class (Denno, 2003). She continued her education at a two year nursing programming at the University of Houston, then she went to the University of Texas School of Nursing in Houston graduating in 1986 (Denno, 2003, p.7). During the years from 1986 to 1994 she was employed

Park Dietz, a prosecution psychiatrist had made a false statement on the stand claiming that Yates could have gotten the idea to kill her children from an episode of Law and Order even though the episode never aired. The appeals court felt that the testimony could have influenced the jury’s perception of the case (Kesling, 2006, p.33). The prosecution decided to retry Yates for the murders again, and once again Yates pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, stating she suffered from postpartum psychosis at the time of the murders (Kesling, 2006, p.33). On July 27, 2006, the jury founded Yates not guilty by reason of insanity, she was remanded to a state mental health facility in Texas where is to remain until she is no longer seen as a threat. According to some defenses Andrea knew her acts were illegal but believed she was morally right given the context of her delusional circumstances (Denno, 2003). The M’Naghten rule is a rule that allows those who are mentally ill to be judged legally insane if he or she is acting under the direct command of God (Denno, 2003). In Texas there was not yet a statue that stated whether wrong should be considered from a legal or a moral standpoint. Therefore the issue of whether Andrea’s mental illness rendered her unable to control her actions although this was highly debatable it was muted under the Texas insanity statue (Denno, 2003, p.17). The only

Postpartum depression and infanticide and filicidal violence are the main components and importance of the early identification, intervention, and treatment for Yates. The term filicide is used for any child aged 1 to 8 who is murdered by his or her parents and infanticide refers to the murder of a child up to 1 year old, Yates committed both because infanticide and filicide because her children ranged from ages 6 months to 7 years (West, 2005, p.176). Due to the fact that Yates’s case included psychiatric hospitalizations, suicide attempts, and concerns from family members about the general safety and wellbeing of her five children: Noah age 7, John age 5, Paul age 3, Luke age 2, and Mary age 6 months (Kesling, 2006, p.33). The Yates case represents a multitude of legal and mental health issues. The essential point of the case is not or either or how if a prison or a mental health hospital but how can we provide the appropriate care for individuals who have mental issues regardless of the location of the facility (Kesling, 2006, p.34). The field of physiology, genetics, and psychopharmacology is advancing which will provide data for the basis of diagnosis and treatment. As a whole we need to figure out how to treat patients, be consistent with the law and protect the public (Kesling,