Page 5 - Andreap Yates News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Think happy thoughts. >> two days after that appointment on june 20th, 2001, andrea yates drowned her children one by one and then patiently waited to be arrested. >> when i saw her in the jail that first time, i would ask her questions, and she would answer it in nonsense. she heard the tv talking to her, and she was picking her scalp, which i saw her do later to learn that the belief was that the number 666 had been branded into her scalp. >> as irrational as andrea's symptoms sounded, at least one expert had a scientific term for her season, cacodemonomania. >> cacodemonomania is literally ...

Charges arguing that a second trial would constitute double jeopardy. finally, in january 2005, some 3 1/2 years after the original conviction, the texas state supreme court issued an opinion. double jeopardy did not apply but andrea yates would be granted a new trial. >> tonight, she drowned her five children, was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison, but recently a texas appeals court overturned andrea yates' conviction. >> pending the new trial, the defense succeeded in having yates moved from the mountain view prison unit to rusk state hospital. >> how's she being treated? >> ...

Very harsh in their assessment. the community of psychiatric workers, doctors were horrified that we would prosecute someone who had a legitimate mental illness, but that was a minority. >> andrea yates' actions were certainly incomprehensible. but did that mean she was insane? >> you can be mentally ill and the standard under the law is that if you know right from wrong, that's not a medical standard. that's a legal standard. >> there's no legal definition for what's right or wrong, and the law tells us that if there's no legal definition, then a juror is able to use the common, everyday mean...

She obviously wasn't herself. and i think that will come out. ou know, i'm just completely surprised that people think that, well, because i defend andrea as being a wonderful mother, that she shouldn't be punished, that somehow, you know, i'm condoning her actions, you know? her actions were almost indescribably devastating to me and my family. >> he took it upon himself like it was some kind of badge of honor and on tv and giving interviews and all kinds of stuff which is macabre and then at the funeral he actually had a slide show of his kids. >> the funeral took place one week after the mu...

>> given the circumstances, it was inevitable. almost overnight andrea yates became a household name and a condition called postpartum psychosis a hotly contested topic. >> it is not the same as the baby blues, which are very common. postpartum psychosis is about 1 case in 1,000 births. often a woman is very psychotic, hallucinations, delusions, confused, usually so severe, it requires hospitalization. >> on june 20th, 2001, andrea yates called police to her home, showed them the bodies of her drowned children. noah, 7, john, 5. paul, 3. luke, 2 and mary, 6 months. you know, i had no idea what...