After reading the article (yeah, I didn’t read it before I commented), it seems clear that Rusty Yates is just as bonkers as his wife, just in a way that’s more socially acceptable.
During his children’s eulogy:
After Andrea went off medication to have a fifth child:
And of course, all the talk about how he sold their house and moved the family into a bus so they could follow around a “prophet.” I hadn’t heard that part of the story before. And now he’s going to marry and impregnate another woman? Just going to move on? He doesn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt over this?
Andrea probably shouldn’t be let out of an institution ever again, not for punishment reasons, but because from what I’ve read she probably won’t ever be cured. Rusty, though, definitely deserves to spend the rest of his life in “real” jail. Why didn’t they stick a gross negligence or manslaughter charge on this guy? Oh, right, the patriarchy.
Yes, thank you Susie Derkins. I am amazed at the bravery you show (especially in THIS crowd). The thing is, many MANY people can and do recover from this form of psychosis. Andrea Yates may never have that opportunity because her illness took her to the ultimate limit. But had someone intervened earlier, she may have had a fighting chance.
And to all you experts on criminal justice and mental illness, I hope you never have to experience what happened to Andrea. It can happen to ANYONE. It happens to perfectly normal, healthy people every single day.
I am a proponent of the death penalty for people who are a risk of continued violence against others. I wouldn’t even jail Andrea Yates. Just provide her with appropriate support in a mental institution.
As a former psychiatric nurse I assume that all the posters who glibly dismiss her mental state have never had anything to do with anyone in a psychotic state. These people do horrific things because they have lost contact with reality. In 99% of cases the innocent victim is themselves.
There’s such a belief that bad things only happen to weak or bad people, and because they either actively enjoy those bad things or are just too weak to fight them off. The idea that a good person could do something awful and do it without even being aware of it or responsible for it is terrifying. Once she got so ill, the symptoms of the disease prevented her from being aware that in fact she was ill.
That is why I asked if she would be prone to depression\psychosis in the future. If she has killed 5 times because of her mental state, what is to say that she won’t kill again? Or was this only about her kids to the point that she could now become a baby sitter?
As a professional in this field, do you believe that Andrea Yates was or is incapable of getting better with proper medical care? She may have to be medicated for the rest of her life, but there are plenty of people, i.e., some schizophrenics, who, without medication, would be dangerous to others.
Susie Derkins, thanks for sharing that. You are very courageous to have shared that with us. And let me also congratulate your family for what they did, it says a lot about them.
In a show I saw years ago (sorry, can’t remember which one, so you make take my account with the caution it deserves) I saw some women who suffered from this condition explain exactly what you felt. Some didn’t even dare tell their families, after all, how can you tell your husband that you are fantasizing about killing your precious child? The mother feels like a monster, but she’s compelled to do it, and to top it all if you have an ignorant or dismissive family your definitely screwed.
I am appalled that some people are so quick to demand the death penalty for this woman. I am against the death penalty on principle, but to apply to someone so sick, without regards for her condition says a lot about the proponents. It is beyond barbaric.
It is brought on by pregnancy and childbirth, and it is completely curable. All you really have to do is make sure that you don’t kill your kid while you wait for it to go away (simplified, but basically true). I know that I can be trusted with other people’s children as well as my own. It’s not kids that make you crazy, it is the hormones that are in your body. And if, like Andrea Yates, you aren’t given that opportunity to recover, it can get worse with each child.
Thanks for those of you who say that I am brave, but this is just a subject that I have a hard time not talking about. I spent my pregnancy reading all the books, playing music with headphones on my belly, eating all the right things, and really looking forward to having my baby. When she was born the psychosis stole all my happiness, robbed my child of a mother for the first months of her life, and nearly drove me to commit suicide. I wasn’t suicidal before. I prepared myself for motherhood as best I could. It just happened, and it was scary as hell.
[QUOTE=Susie Derkins]
And if, like Andrea Yates, you aren’t given that opportunity to recover, it can get worse with each child.
[quote]
Made worse by the fact that she apparently she wasn’t all that stable *before *she started having kids.
I am so aware of it that my husband and I discussed this months ago. The fact that I personally know two women who went through it makes it the more scary. Women with previous problems, and who have gone through traumatic situations may be more at risk of touching rock bottom (or so I heard), but it also happens to perfectly normal women who planned for their child and did “all the right things”. That’s what’s scary. Thankfully my husband is educated on this fact.
I simply cannot believe that anyone who actually understands the situation can just set the facts aside and vote for locking her up for life or killing her. If ever there were a case of “temporary insanity”, this is it. And as such, she should be set free. I’d support her being sterilized, because giving birth triggers her insanity. But nothing more than that.
There is no point, no reason, and nothing valuable for anyone except the vengeance-crazed in punishing this woman any further.
And as others have said, simply being Andrea Yates at this point has to be greater punishment than anything society can impose.
No, she was insane for several years leading up to the murders, and she’s extra insane now because of them. I’m against the death penalty in general and especially in this case, but I don’t think personal freedom is something she ought to have.