God told me to do it.

In 2001 a Texas woman named Andrea Yates confessed to drowing her 5 children in a bath tub. She was convicted of murder in 2002. But because of a prosecution witnessed lied about there being a Law and Order episode that matches what she did, her murder convictions my be over turned. They are trying to get her a not guilty ver dict by reason of insanity.
Don't you just love the american justice system??
Here is the full story
https://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/06/children.drowned/index.html

sick man!

I think the sorriest excuse for a human being is a mother who murders her own children. Indeed, I believe a mother who does this is insane, but she could not have been legally insane. She knew what she was doing. It takes at least about three minutes for someone to be without oxygen for them to die. She had to do this five time. Not to mention all but one probably had at least a little fight in them. The one child she had to chase around the house.

The family knew that she had something wrong with her to the point that they made sure that she wasn't home alone with the kids. Well, this one day she was and this is what happened. It had to be planned out. I've had severe depression after I had my twins. For about a month, I felt as though I was in a dream world and everyone else was in reality, but I did not kill my children.

Thats terrible!! Poor children!!

This woman suffered from a SEVERE form or Post Partum depression and had attempted suicide and had a total breakdown. To help her out of her fragile state her husband ignored her pshychiatrists advice to reduce her streass and responsibility and got her pregnant again (twice)and sold the family home moved her to a trailer and let her start home schooling her children.

This woman was VERY ill and I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of her husband. He made her sicker and knew full well she was in a precarious mental state. She needed to be institutionalized, medicated and helped. She didn't need to be made sicker and isolated from society and any support network that may have helped her.

Prayer does not fix post partum depression. I personally am all for HIS being charged with the murder of his children and the abuse of his wife.

anyone who intentionally kills their own children like that should just... die, there is no forgiveness for such a thing

But it was premeditated, she planned it out.

Yes. She planned it out. The same way a paranoid schizophrenic makes plans to get 'the voices'. My heart broke when this happened. It' is an unbeleivable horrific disease that is very commonly swept aside by people who have never experienced it. It is an unacceptable thought that any mother would hurt a child and I am sickened by child abuse or neglect of any kind.

If I remember, you are a nurse or a nursing student, and you should really do some research on PPD and the effects. Also go and study this case. This woman never would have harmed her children had she been in her right mind...she is not on the same level as the sadist who starves or burns a child with cigarettes. She was tormented to the depths of her soul and the people who were SUPPOSED to protect her failed her.

Her husband did everything wrong that could have possibly been done wrong. And he didn't do it out of ignorance. I read about this alot when it happened. He knew full well what could happen and ignored all the medical and family advice and further abused this woman. It's a wonder she made it as long as she did before her mind snapped.

I have seen a documentary on this and I am sort of unsure how her husband did absolutely everything wrong.

At one point, they did move out of their house and she did start homeschooling her children, not by his decision alone, but due to some religious zealot who was giving them advice. He did move them back into a house after one of her hospitalizations in an attempt to alleviate her stress.

This woman was hospitalized several times and given dozens of medications in an attempt to help her. They even wanted to try ECT as a last ditch effort. She refused all treatment and flushed her meds down the toilet or simply refused to take them because she wanted more children, or she was afraid that it would interfere with breastfeeding, or she simply did not want to take them, or any other excuse that people come up with not to take their meds.

People TRIED to do what they could to protect her, but she would not comply with them. So, someone wants to lay all the blame at her husband's doorstep? Foolishness. This woman has stated several times she wants to die. Let her.

I guess the point I was trying to make was they are going to throw out her conviction because a prosecution witness lied about working on the Law and Order show. I do know some about PPD but not that much I admit, however I have never bought into insanity as a legal defense. It's an easy way out.

^^ Further commentary from above posting:

I am not saying that perhaps her husband could have done nothing more, but I do not believe that he should be the sole person responsible for this tragedy. There were plenty of others (i.e., medical/mental health professionals) who should have taken this further than they did at the time.

AND, you have to hold people accountable for their actions at some point.

I am actually interested what [G]od-fearing individuals would think about this. She killed someone. "Thou shalt not kill" and all of that, obviously wrong. Yet, people claim it was not her fault. So does [G]od agree and not see this as her fault and send the husband to hell instead because she had diminished cognitive capacity and he should have known better? He opens his arms wide to her or what . . . simply because she could not have possibly done right? Or does he send her to hell anyway because she broke the almighty's rules?

Sorry, reiko, my posts were not directed towards actually answering your question. I got sidetracked by tlynn's indication that it was all the hubby's fault.

This news actually isn't 'new'. I recall hearing about this at least last year if not earlier. I still think it's screwed up. What I love even more is they are all going expressly against the woman's wishes, regardless if she's insane. She has said repeatedly that she did not want to plea 'not guilty' and she did not want to leave her psych ward. But, they still act as if she deserves to be set free to make more babies & drown them

Sorry...not meaning to be a man basher. (I'd be saying the same thing if she were married to a woman) I just get worried that she has taken the full burden of the punishment that's all. I'm not saying she shouldn't be punished, but she, to her husband, really was another child. He had a responsibility to oversee her treatment because that was his role as a spouse. She was mentally incapacitated around the birth of the second child. PPD escalates with each pregnancy. She was in NO state to demand more children...he should have cared for her not gotten her pregnant again. ( My children wanted chocolate before dinner, but I always said no...)If she was flushing her meds he should have institutionalized her. Instead he left his children alone with her. He, in my mind, shared the greater part of the blame as he was the only one in a state of mind capable of making rational decisions.

It's not an uncommon problem with mental health. When the meds start working the patient flushes them saying they are cured and by the time they have spiraled back down they don't know up from down anymore. This actually is a bigger issue....

For example, just like parole, should there be a registry where violent or high risk patients have to take their meds in front of a qualified professional. (Just like a methadone clinic) Is the violation of their personal right greater than the safety of society. Perhaps, just perhaps, had she been forced to take her medication, being a high risk patient, none of this ever would have happened.

But she did the killing and planned it out. I'm sorry PPD or not she is responsible, not her husband or anybody else. Millions of women suffer from PPD but it doesn't compel them to kill their children and then claim god told them to do it.
Besides sick or not it should not ever be a defense in a premeditated murder.

That bloke is a f***wit