Andrea Yates: Psychosis or Murder?

Recently, the nation was divided over the fate of Andrea Yates. Yates drowned all five of her children during an episode of psychosis brought on by schizophrenia. The sentence handed down to her was a just one because Andrea Yates was not sentenced to the death penalty. Quite a few members of society would have her put to death because she committed five murders and not only that, the victims were children-her children. In fact, the prosecutor who has recommended a death sentence stated that the people who are against this decision do not know the full story of what really happened. ("Prosecutor defends") The citizens who are for her execution believe that her illness is just an excuse; she still committed five murders for which she should be punished by death. However, does yet another death solve anything? Our country should not execute a person who is diagnosed with an illness that may have led to their crime.

Andrea's murderous visions started as soon as 1994 after the birth of her first child. She saw an image of a knife and someone being stabbed. Shortly after, Andrea became pregnant again and shortly after, tried to commit suicide. There were obvious symptoms of something being wrong, yet the Yates family continued to produce more children. Andrea did see a counselor after this suicide attempt but the doctor assessed her as having temporary postpartum depression, not a mental illness. (Roche 1) The visions continued and became worse, to the point of returning to Andrea at least 10 times a day. Finally, after another episode, Andrea was put on the drug Haldol and seemed to be doing better until she became pregnant with her fifth child. Numerous hospitalizations did not help and Andrea's visions and paranoia increased. Ultimately, on June 20th, 2001, Andrea Yates drowned all five of her children in the bathtub of their home.

Andrea did not know that she was wrong when she killed her children. She told officials that it was her punishment for being a bad mother and this was her final act of mercy because she loved her children. She actually thought that she was saving them from the clutches of Satan. ("Doctor: Yates") Her crime was committed under psychosis and had someone tried a little harder to help Andrea, perhaps her children would be alive today. In many countries, a woman who kills her child while suffering from postpartum depression only receives a manslaughter conviction due to the fact that this is a recognized illness. Andrea was obviously a very ill woman. If we would have convicted Andrea Yates and sentenced her to death, do not others in her life hold some of the responsibility? She was married to a husband who was controlling and although he saw that she was ill, insisted on having more children. The doctors Andrea saw tried to help her in some ways but never carried out a full diagnosis. Nor did they take desperate measures to insure the safety of Andrea or her family.

Obviously, Andrea has to be punished but a death sentence is not appropriate considering the fact that Andrea could not help herself. Andrea may have had paranoia as well as catatonic schizophrenia. Neuroscientists have now traced hallucinations such as Andrea experienced, to malfunctions of the brain. Another brain imaging study shows that schizophrenia is marked by abnormally low activity in the frontal lobes. These regions are what give us a "reality check." (Begley 44) To suffer from schizophrenia, you need the aberrant sensory and emotional functioning but you also need aberrant front lobe functioning, which causes you to have no "reality check." This is why the sufferer thinks the visions are real. Therefore, it is not as if a person wakes up one day and decides to suffer from this disease. It takes a lot of the "right" conditions to produce schizophrenia and it is indeed a legitimate illness that can cause some people to do things they would not normally do. Andrea Yates suffered from this illness and although her crime was atrocious, she could not help herself without the right sort of care in a professional environment. Perhaps if she had stopped conceiving after her first child, she might have been safer from the visions but five children would have multiplied her symptoms.

In a society that is supposedly more accepting of mental illness, why should this ill person be put to death for something she could not help? Her calculating way of killing her children would make anyone cringe yet we have to look at the causes of her illness and what cold have been done to prevent this tragedy. If Andrea Yates is guilty of murder, is not her husband also guilty to some degree? Of course he did not participate in the actual deaths but he did nothing to stop them by having less children or getting more help for his wife. People turn a blind eye to mental illness and then when a tragedy such as this happens, they want to execute the sick person.

I believe a change is in order and the death penalty should not have been a consideration in a case such as the Yates trial. Andrea was and still is, a sick woman who needs care, not an execution for a crime she had no control over. We all know that ultimately, Andrea was sentenced to life in prison and did not receive the death penalty however, she could have.