Yates Ordered To Surrender To Jail As Retrial Approaches

Yates Ordered To Surrender To Jail As Retrial Approaches

POSTED: 12:41 pm CDT June 16, 2006

HOUSTON -- A judge ordered Andrea Yates Friday to surrender to jail by Monday, a few days before her retrial in the bathtub drownings of her children.

State District Judge Belinda Hill denied her lawyers' request that Yates be housed in a private Houston psychiatric facility rather than the county jail during her retrial, which starts with jury selection next week and is expected to last through the end of July.

Yates, 41, was not in court during the Friday hearing.

Yates has been in a state psychiatric hospital since she was released from prison on $200,000 bond in February. Her 2002 conviction was overturned last year when an appeals court said a prosecution witness' erroneous testimony may have swayed jurors.

Dr. Park Dietz, a psychiatrist who has been a consultant for the "Law & Order" television series, told jurors that one episode depicting a woman who drowned her children in a bathtub -- and was acquitted by reason of insanity -- aired before the Yates children were killed. After Yates was convicted, those involved in the trial learned no such episode existed.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/9383060/detail.html

:grr:

If she were not an upper middle class white woman and a "Christian" she would be warehoused and forgotten about, or executed.

If she was a black welfare mother, or for that matter, if she was a man, I assure you her treatment would be very different.

as a paralegal I'm very painfully aware of the very real disparities in treatment of different races and social classes, despite the platitudes of "equality in justice" and "justice for all" the courts like to bleat.

That doesn't mean that she's guilty in the traditional legal sense, however; she was very clearly severely mentally ill and needs help, not jail and punishment.

They've got her in a high security psych facility, and now they're moving her to a jail.

She posted $200,000 bond to be moved to a state psychiatric hospital, which is a better place for her.

I've read a lot about this case, and it's perfectly clear that Rusty Yates should be jailed at least on Accessory to Murder. The doctor told Rusty "don't have any more children. Your wife cannot mentally handle any more children. If you have any more children I believe terrible things will happen to them." (Probably not a direct quote, but that's the gist of what he was told.) Rusty Yates took her home and got her pregnant again.

Rusty also read in his Bible once that the Lord meant for them to live simply, so he sold his house and moved his family into a used Greyhound Bus.

Really want to cringe? http://www.yateskids.org/funeral_service.php

This woman is and has been severely mentally ill for many, many years, and how dare you say such a thing?! She faced the DEATH PENALTY for God's sake. How in hell is that being treated differently? She should never have been tried to begin with, let alone for first degree capitol murder. As for the "if she (were) a man" crap, men don't don't get pregnant or give birth, and therefore cannot suffer from post-partum depression or psychosis. As for the rest of your hypothetical non-white, non-Christian white woman, that's really all it is. I don't see Texas going easy on anyone regardless of skin color or socioeconomic class if they happen to drown five children.

You better check your definitions of social strata! Not on her best day was Andrea a member of the upper middle class, "Those with net worths between $250,000 and $500,000 typically are categorized as upper middle class

of mental illness. The woman needs help, not jail, as do most of those suffering from mental illnesses who are in jail. One look at her face in that picture of the family that was taken shortly before the drownings, and you can see it all in her eyes, especially the blank look. Those of us dealing with our own mental illnesses know exactly what that look means.

I've never understood why her idiot neanderthal husband wasn't charged as an accessory to the crime. He insisted that they keep having more and more children, even though her post-partum depression episodes after the birth of each child were getting worse and worse, he insisted she stay home with them and didn't get her any help even when she asked for it, he was upset when the last child was a girl, he checked her out of the psychiatric facility she was in a few months before the drownings and refused to listen to the entreaties of doctors and her family that she needed help and that it wasn't a good idea to put her back as the caretaker of the house and children without any help, etc., etc., etc. The fucker should have been charged, as far as I'm concerned, and I sure do feel sorry for his new wife.

The prosecutor's psychiatrist witness should have been charged with perjury as well, for that bullshit about the non-existent Law and Order episode; the defense sure dropped the ball on that one as well.

WTF is it with repukes and their criminalization of social problems and some conditions like mental illnesses, anyway? I'm fucking sick to death of it.

My only hesitation is on the part about her husband. Yes, I think he is an ass for just being the idiot he is, but I think that by bringing charges against him for having children with his wife would be a very touchy subject.

Personally, I think that he was aware of her mental state and there is no doubt that he had a responsibility as her husband and father of the children, but how would you make a case saying that he should have stopped having children? I'm not trying to be a pain here, I am just trying to ask to see what anyone else would think.

In other words, what would be the case against this man if charges were brought up? If his wife does say she wanted more children, do you charge the husband because he shouldn't have gone along with it?

I will admit that I haven't read a lot on this whole situation, but I was just wondering about the legalities of it all.

the part about him insisting on having more children even after he was told she simply couldn't mentally handle it, and his insistence on her staying home with them and not having any kind of outside life.

A strong case could be made just on the fact that he refused to acknowledge her well-documented mental illness and difficulties. That he actually insisted on checking her out of a psychiatric facility shortly before the drownings, despite medical advice to the contrary and the pleas of her family, claiming there was nothing at all wrong with her (my feeling is that he simply didn't want to keep being responsible for the children and the housework, cooking, cleaning, etc.). He was told of his wife's increasing instability and the worsening of her mental illness even before they had their last two children. He was repeatedly advised of her difficulties a few months before the incident.

He arrogantly ignored all of this and blithely dismissed it. He was well aware of the depth of her problems, and did nothing, indeed, even exacerbated them by checking her out of the mental hospital against medical advice and family pleas, and refusing to have her checked back in.

Indeed, when she first called him at work to tell him what she'd done, he knew immediately what had happened even before she told him. The SOB knew, he ignored it and refused to get her help. For that alone, he should be charged and a strong case could be made. The old Christian bullshit about mental illness being a sign of "character weakness" played a large role as well.

I have just heard a lot of people talking about the fact that he made her keep having children. That was the part I had a problem with. As for all the other things, if what you say is true (and I believe you know they are) then yes, I think this guy should have been charged.

The little I do know about this is very sad. I don't understand why other people didn't try to do more. My first thought was this poor woman had some real problems and it was sad to see people attack her when this was first reported. Anyone who would do what she did was far sicker than just being some "right winged religious whack-job".

I wonder if this man will ever be charged. From what I understand, isn't he remarried already?

ago to a woman from his church's singles group (poor thing, hope she knows what she's going to be in for!). I very seriously doubt that he will ever be charged with anything, it's been several years and I think if prosecutors had any plans to charge him, they'd have certainly done it by now.

This poor woman was severely mentally ill; for whatever reason, her husband was a huge impediment to her treatment (I will be kind and acknowledge the possibility that the husband has some serious "problems" as well).

The only point I would like to make is the inadequacy of mental health services (in general). Had Ms. Yates had a supportive husband that aggressively sought treatment for her, this tragedy might have still occurred due to limited insurance coverage (and in the case of many of the mentally ill, a complete absence of coverage).

As stated by others, this case clearly criminalizes mental illness.

slides down to insane agaoin, then gets force-fed, then medicated, then starts to "clear up" and realizes/remembers(?) what she's done and the cycle repeats itsself.

She'll stop eating in jail and the whole thing will recylce itsself.

If the DA wanted a conviction he's leave her in the psych ward for the duration. She's seem a lot less nuts to the jury.

This one was so horrible it blew all my circuits re; death penalty, insanity, etc.

The morning it happened, I noticed a scary, creepy vibe in the air (in Houston). Even mentioned it to a coworker who said she felt it, too. We figured something horrible was happening on a major scale. When the news broke we knew what it was.

Perhaps I sound nutty but it's true.

I simply understand that she has a long documented history of SEVERE mental illness and that as tragic as the horrific deaths of those children was ... delusions and inability to test reality ARE symptoms of her severe mental illness.

Nothing the state can do to Andrea Yates will undo the horror of that day ... Ms. Yates is a victim of her illness.