Jury finds Yates not guilty in drownings

[Zkribbler]

Re: Jury finds Yates not guilty in drownings

Originally posted by SlowwHand
What horse****. Name a murderer who's mind was right.
Take your time.

There's no doubt that she's clinically insane. Sane mothers don't kill their children.

The question is if she's legally insane, which is a much different standard.

This differs from time-to-time and from place-to-place. The old standard of "irresistable impulse" is pretty much discredited everywhere. I image Texas's standard is something like "unable to realize the nature of her acts" or maybe "unable to realize what she was doing was wrong." Essentially, she has to be so wigged out that she doesn't know what she's doing. (Does anyone here know what it actually is?)

I'm embarrassed to say that I can't remember what her story was. Was it that God told her to do it? Something like that??

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
You miss the point Wezil. She's not even getting a determined, as yet, sentence. Whenever she drops her act and seems ok, she's out.

Same with Manson. Doesn't mean she's ever going to get out, though.

[Dr Strangelove]

She believed that she was infested with Satan and that the kids would be better off dead. It's likely that she had some difficulty dealing with so many kids but was unabel to rationally deal with her anger, which she probably began to feel was unnatural. from there she eventually came to the conclusion that her angry thoughts came from a devil infesting her. That did not satisfatorily abate her warring feelings of anger and guilt, so she decided either that the demon would remove the kids or that the kids needed to be saved from the demon by sending them to heaven. Please don't use this incident as an excuse to condemn religion, she could just as easily have evolved a non-religious delusion, i.e., a dog could have told her to do it.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
She believed that she was infested with Satan and that the kids would be better off dead. It's likely that she had some difficulty dealing with so many kids but was unabel to rationally deal with her anger, which she probably began to feel was unnatural. from there she eventually came to the conclusion that her angry thoughts came from a devil infesting her. That did not satisfatorily abate her warring feelings of anger and guilt, so she decided either that the demon would remove the kids or that the kids needed to be saved from the demon by sending them to heaven. Please don't use this incident as an excuse to condemn religion, she could just as easily have evolved a non-religious delusion, i.e., a dog could have told her to do it.

I do recall that she also had a psycho-chemical imbalance. I've heard rumors that, after the fourth kid, she and her husband were told not to have any more because that would increase her psychological problems. --Like I said, there's no doubt that she was clincially insane.

I'm trying to picture myself as a juror in this matter. Assuming I buy her story that she believed she was saving her children from a demon -- as opposed to killing them -- I'd probably conclude that she was so crazy, she really didn't know what she was doing, so:

Not guity by reason of insanity.

-- But I'm willing to listen to arguments as to why my verdict is crazy.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

I dont recall a chemcial imbalance however i do know they were using post partum depression as a the reason for her doing this. I dont know aobut having to be insane to kill kids, susan smith from south carolina drowned her boys by driving her car into a lake and leaving them strapped in car seats. she did all that for a man. To me that is not really insane but utterly selfish and idiotic

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Mrs. Tuberski
I dont know aobut having to be insane to kill kids, susan smith from south carolina drowned her boys by driving her car into a lake and leaving them strapped in car seats. she did all that for a man. To me that is not really insane but utterly selfish and idiotic

I stand corrected. Susan Smith was sane.

[Thorn]

Do you think I be not guilty be reason of insanity if I ever did anything I wonder.......?

[Winston]

I think it's reasonable to presume that Yates met the legal definiton of insanity, that is, she did not know at the time that what she did was wrong.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Originally posted by Winston
I think it's reasonable to presume that Yates met the legal definiton of insanity, that is, she did not know at the time that what she did was wrong.

That is my thoughts excatly she was reported on the news stating she knew killing the kids was wrong but she did it to protect them from said demon. to me thats not insane.

[Donegeal]

Originally posted by Asher
I agree, she doesn't deserve to see the light of day...whether that's in prison or locked up in a mental institution for the rest of her life, I don't care.

OMG! I agree with Asher!

[Berzerker]

In my opinion any time you kill another person it's murder. Whether it's "justified" or not is another matter...

So what word do you use to describe a justified "murder"?

[SlowwHand]

Yes. Killing isn't always murder. You're in threat of your life, manage to kill the assailant, that's not murder.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Arrian
I don't really get the whole insanity plea thing. Never have. You kinda have to be nuts to kill little kids. So?

-Arrian

There's nuts and there's nuts. Yates was hearing voices nuts, trying to kill herself multiple times nuts, on five anti-depressants at the same time nuts. She had such a severe case of post partum depression that she was psychotic.

It was a good decision. I would have gone for 2nd degree homocide based on the fact that both she and her husband knew what they were doing by having more children, even though her post partum depression got worse and worse each time. Anyone with any brains (well, I guess I am talking about Texans . . never mind) would realize that at some point, she's not just gonna be a danger to herslef, but to others.

What I don't understand is how some people can't understand she was out of her mind and think this was just an act.

[SlowwHand]

The Texas remark is a show of ignorance, and I'll leave it at that.
Would you care to discuss Floridians and "Orlando outlaws feeding homeless people." ?

[DinoDoc]

What I want to know is why the husband was never charged with anything? No one gets crazy enough to go hunt down and brutally kill your kids without being crazy enough for people to notice.