Andrea Yates has been found guilty. Would you want her to receive Life in Prison or the Death Penalty? Okay, I'll throw in the Insanity deal.
My first instinct say’s death..... but after I thought about it awhile, spending the rest of her life thinking about what she did could be worse.
jeff.. i know same here. i only heard two charges being read to her yesterday and I thought i'd heard somewhere before that they only charged her with two of the murders? if that's true I wonder why.. seems like only being charged with two instead of 5 could help her get parole down the road as well... samuri.. yeah. i wonder which one she wants.. i dont know how you could stand to live with that for 50 or whatever years..
smokey.. that makes sense I guess.. just thinking more charges against her would lessen her chances of getting parole...
Chance of parole after 40 years. 40 years. That's a long freaking time. She'd be, what, in her seventies?
I can't believe none of you see this for what it is. The woman is clinically insane (and the doctors proved that). However, the legal definition of insanity means that she did not know what she was doing was wrong. It's a fine line and one that's really not fair. I think she knew it was wrong. The point is that she was so mentally ill that she knew she couldn't take care of her kids. She thought she was saving them. She doesn't need life in prison or the death penalty. She needs mental help and she won't get that in prison. She already has to live with the fact that she murdered her children, whether or not she's in jail for it. This is a poor, sick woman, not a criminal mastermind.
I'm not trying to overlook that fact. It is sad. But the whole situation is sad, not just their deaths. If people refuse to see or understand why she did it and what is truly wrong with her, then there's nothing that can be done. She has a serious problem. Almost every doctor on that stand said so. I do feel sorry for her. Her husband didn't love her enough to see her problems and get help for her. She believe that she was a terrible mother who would never be able to care for her kids. She was delusional and thought she was saving her kids by killing them. And she has to live with what she did for the rest of her life. She's not an uncaring, murderous, evil person. She killed them because that's all she thought she could do. I do feel very sorry for her and all the other women who suffer from this debilitating illness.
She has a serious problem. Almost every doctor on that stand said so. Lots of people out there have serious problems, but that doesn't make it OK for them to commit crimes. This isn't an isolated thing -- I'd say a good percentage of murderers currently in our jail system have serious and real mental issues that led them to commit their crimes. Do you think they should all be put in mental institutions? Honestly, I'd have no problem with that, except that these institutions aren't always (1) helpful in solving their problems or (2) helpful in keeping these people away from society where they may do more damage. I'm all for the rehab approach, but you've first got to find a way to make it actually work.
How about when we find a way to rehab the murdered little children, then we can think about rehabbing the murderer? You don't have to be a criminal "mastermind" to murder someone and deserve the Death Penalty. You just have to be stronger then they if drowning is your preferred method of execution. She was a predator of her babies. Think about that. Taking them one by one and submerging them in cold bathwater until they drowned. Can't you just see them flailing in desperation for a breath of air. She had to have determination and concentration to carry on in the face of that struggle for life. Sick. I believe that she even ceremoniously laid them out on her bed. Yeah, that's wildly out of control. She even chased her oldest down the hallway to capture him. The others came willingly and trustfully to their mother. Next she called 911 and then her husband to let on to "a problem at home." Such deliberate action indicates that she knew what she was doing. I do feel sorry for the anguish that she must be feeling as a murderous mother but she killed them with her own bare hands. Her lawyer likened her to one of the Salem Witches. How many children did they murder?
How about when we find a way to rehab the murdered little children, then we can think about rehabbing the murderer? The primary logic for rehabbing people is not to help them out. Outside of the rare death penalty situation (which I don't think will occur here), most criminals (especially in Texas, since we don't have life-without-parole) will eventually be back in society again. It's in the best interests of society that these criminals, while they are sitting around for 10-50 years doing nothing else, are taught how to be better people so that they are not as likely to commit a crime again. There's nothing we can do to undo the last crime, but there are ways to help prevent future crimes.
She was and is obviously a very deranged person, but as others have mentioned it seems pretty clear that she knew what she was doing. If I killed people and said it was because I thought I was Satan like she did, I shouldn't be allowed to get away with killing those people. She has to be held accountable for her actions, especially when those actions are as sick as drowning 5 kids.
Yeah, but NOTHING works like the Death Penalty. I just wish it weren't so expensive. If we can't make our cities safe, how are we going to civilize a prison population with little or no hope living in necessarily sub-human conditions? You don't rehab someone. They rehab themselves by making changes in their life and working through the challenges. NOT everybody deserves that chance though. I don't think Andrea Yates does. I didn't think that Karla Fay did either. Sometimes your good intentions just arrive too late.
Let me just restate my view: KILL THE b****!!! I also read that she would do at least 40yrs. I don't think she would get to serve 40. There would be so many mom's in jail lining up to kill her. I also read the defense only charged her with 3 counts so that they could still try her with the other 2 deaths if she got off.
