*Note: This article is a response to commenting on Gideon's blog Andrea Yates' Conviction Overturned. As I did not want to hijack his thread, I chose to respond here*
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| Reply By: iamheather |
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| Andrea Yates has had and surely continues to need mental help. I wish they would indict her husband. As someone who has a mental illness that requires daily medication, I think Rusty Yates was just as culpable if not more so in the death of the Yate's children. |
Reply By: Shovelheat |
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I know I'm the odd ball here, but I think she needs to die for her crime, if anybody dies for their crime. Of all people, a mother should protect, even at the expense of her very own life, her children. A juror in the Scott Peterson trial pointed out that fact about him, that instead of protecting his wife and unborn child, he murdered them. Yates knew what she did, just like Peterson. I just can't believe otherwise.
Reply By: iamheather
if you really read into the story, you would see he was severely culpable. It wasn't just his inaction. He sold all of their stuff at some point and made her live in a bus with five kids. A bus....with five kids....that would drive anyone crazy. He also never bothered to make sure she took her meds and continued seeing the doctor. My husband has been married to me for 8 years, and even this morning, he asked me if I took my medication. He makes sure my med is refilled and picks it up from the RX.
Andrea was and is mentally ill. She hallucinated, heard voices, and was haunted with her own demons from the illness. I am not denying her responsibility, but she is a classic textbook case for "insanity." She should be hospitalized for the rest of her life.
Reply By: Shovelheat
Of all people, a mother should protect, even at the expense of her very own life, her children. A juror in the Scott Peterson trial pointed out that fact about him, that instead of protecting his wife and unborn child, he murdered them. Yates knew what she did, just like Peterson. I just can't believe otherwise.
Reply By: shadesofgrey
I don't believe in the death penalty, so I don't believe that she should be put to death. However, I also do not believe that anyone else is responsible for her actions other than herself. Yes, she might be mentally ill, but her husband is not her keeper, he does not control her. It is nice that your husband is concerned about you/cares about you enough to ask if you have taken your medication, but in my opinion, taking medication is the responsibility of the individual and no one else. This is just another attempt to shirk individual responsibility and place the blame elsewhere.
I don't know all that much about the case--if he emotionally or mentally abused her, than he should be culpable for those actions--but nothing further. |
The above comments will give insight to what I am about to write.
First let me state, that I believe Andrea Yates is exactly where she should be. I believe she was guilty of five horrific murders. She brutally drowned her babies. She must remain under treatment and incarcerated. As for the death penalty, I will leave that in the hands of the jury.
My main assertion in my comments was the culpability of Rusty Yates. He has been portrayed as an unsuspecting victim. He is anything but!
In any marriage, whether good or bad, commitments are made to love, honor, and cherish the significant other. This commitment includes at the least a concern for the welfare of your spouse. In addition, both parents are legally and morally responsible for the welfare of their offspring. The father and mother are equally liable for the upbringing and care of their children.
Rusty Yates, assuming he is not mentally ill as well, holds a greater culpability in the deaths of his children than Andrea, in my opinion. Andrea's mental illness was apparent for years. She had been seeking treatment and on medications for literally decades. Rusty was well aware of her illness and need for treatment including her medication.
Often people who take any kind of medication for any kind of illness, whether it is a cold, flu, or mental illness, are lulled into a feeling of being well while on the medicine. They feel like they no longer need the remedy because the symptoms are masked, but the illness manifests itself again once the medication is ceased. For example, antibiotics usually have a label on them from the RX stating, "Take all of this medication, even if you feel better after a few days."
People who are mentally ill want to get better. They want to be "cured." The medication can make someone feel healed. Andrea Yates had a history of taking her medication for a while, and then stopping once she thought she was cured. Her illness always came back. Her delusions and hallucinations returned shortly thereafter. Andrea did this for years, on and off her medication, again and again.
Rusty Yates did not help his wife through her illness. He did not help her monitor her medication. He did not encourage her to continue the treatment when she began feeling better. No, he is not her keeper. No, he cannot force her to swallow the pills, but a person with Andrea's severity of illness cannot be expected to "think" like a normal person. She, alone, cannot be responsible for taking her medication.
Furthermore, he chose to willingly leave his five children with Andrea everyday. He committed the care of his five precious babies to the care of a woman who was mentally ill, without medication, and delusional. He committed the murders through his negligence and lack of parenting.
If I ever refuse to take my medication, I demand and expect that my husband not leave me responsible for watching and home-schooling our children. Take them to his parent's house, my parent's house, a daycare, anywhere but under the care of a mentally deranged woman.