Andrea Yates | |
|---|---|
 Yates in 2001 | |
| Born | Andrea Pia Kennedy July 3, 1964[1] |
| Status | Institutionalized |
| Spouse |
Russell "Rusty" Yates
(m. 1993; div. 2005) |
| Children | 5[a] |
| Motive | Postpartum psychosis Schizophrenia |
| Criminal charge | Capital murder (x5) |
| Penalty | 2002: Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 40 years (overturned 2005) |
| Outcome | Found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2006 retrial |
| Details | |
| Date | June 20, 2001 |
| Killed | 5 |
Andrea Pia Yates (née Kennedy; born July 3, 1964) is an American woman from Houston, Texas, who confessed to drowning her five children in their bathtub on June 20, 2001.[2] The case of Yates—who had exhibited severe postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, and schizophrenia leading up to the murders—placed the M'Naghten rules, along with the irresistible impulse test for sanity, under close public scrutiny in the United States.
At Yates' 2002 trial, Chuck Rosenthal, the district attorney in Harris County, asked for the death penalty. Yates was convicted of capital murder, but the jury refused the death penalty option. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after forty years. The verdict was overturned on appeal, in light of false testimony by one of the supposed expert psychiatric witnesses.[3]
On July 26, 2006, a Texas jury in her retrial found that Yates was not guilty by reason of insanity. She was consequently committed by the court to the high-security North Texas State Hospital in Vernon,[4] where she received medical treatment and was a roommate of Dena Schlosser, another woman who committed infanticide by killing her infant daughter. In January 2007, Yates was moved to Kerrville State Hospital, a low-security state mental hospital in Kerrville, Texas.[5][6]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
omalleywas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Spitz, Daniel J. (2006). "Investigation of Bodies in Water". In Spitz, Werner U.; Spitz, Daniel J. (eds.). Spitz and Fisher's Medicolegal Investigation of Death: Guideline for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigations. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas. pp. 846–81. ISBN 978-0398075446.
- ^ Williams, Pete (January 6, 2005). "Convictions overturned for mom who drowned 5 kids". NBC News. New York City: NBCUniversal. Archived from the original on March 5, 2013. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
- ^ "Not Guilty Verdict for Andrea Yates", CNN, July 26, 2006.
- ^ "Andrea Yates". Abclocal.go.com. January 26, 2007. Archived from the original on October 19, 2007. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
- ^ Lewis, Brooke A. (June 17, 2016). "Fifteen years later, Andrea Yates case still resonates". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).