Posted by yo-wazzzup on June 25, 2001, at 16:21:03
Texas Mother's Mental State May Be Best Defense
Updated: Mon, Jun 25 4:18 PM EDT
By Jeff Franks Related stories
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The lawyer for a Texas woman who confessed to drowning her five children said on Monday her defense likely would be based on a simple premise: no mother in her right mind would do such a horrendous thing.
Attorney George Parnham told Reuters that his client, Andrea Yates, who is under suicide watch in the Harris County Jail since the killings on Wednesday, was in a "deeply psychotic state" that could offer the only explanation for an inexplicable act."That screams out as a logical reaction when observers see that a mother has taken the lives of five children and the mother by all objective evidence was a loving mother until she ventured into this black hole of acute psychosis," he said.
Husband Russell Yates, a NASA computer engineer, has said his wife suffered postpartum depression after the birth of their last two children and was taking medication for it.
While a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity is most likely, Parnham said he wants to build a case strong enough to convince all skeptics before making a final decision.
Yates could face the death penalty if convicted.
"It may well be that this is the only defense available, but I want to make certain there is sufficient evidence to avoid the obvious tongue-in-cheek attitude that is sometimes displayed when a lawyer invokes such a defense," he said.
Yates, 36, was charged with capital murder after telling police she drowned her children in the bathtub of their Houston home.
News reports said Yates told police she killed the four boys and a girl, ages six months to 7 years, one-by-one, but had to chase down the eldest son and wrestle him into the water.
She reportedly said she had thought of murdering the kids for months because she considered herself a bad mother who raised them poorly.
Parnham said Yates was taking anti-psychotic medicine in jail and getting treatment from psychiatrists, but that she was in a zombie-like, uncommunicative state.
"She's flat-lined, for want of a better phrase," he said. "Basically what my visitations consist of are unilateral conversations and observation."
He said her doctors advised him that her mental state was so fragile that discussing specifics of the case "could literally drive her so far down into psychosis that she's irretrievable."
Parnham, a well-known defense lawyer in Houston, was hired by Yates' family on Friday. He said the family, including her husband, support Yates fully.
The five children will be buried on Wednesday in a joint funeral at a Houston church
Texas Mom Killed Kids One by One, Chased Oldest
Updated: Fri, Jun 22 10:14 PM EDT
By C. Bryson Hull Related stories
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The husband of a Texas mother who admitted killing their five children visited her in jail on Friday for the first time since she reportedly drowned them in a bathtub one by one and chased down her terrified eldest son to finish the job.
Andrea Yates, 36, started her day giving short, barely audible answers as she stood with crossed arms before State District Judge Belinda Hill. The judge granted her indigent status and a court-appointed attorney to defend her against a charge of capital murder.By day's end, the former registered nurse who admitted killing her children had a private attorney and a jailhouse visit from the victims' father -- her husband Russell -- and her relatives.
Russell Yates, who was not in court during his wife's appearance, arrived along with several relatives and attorney George Parnham after planning for the burial of his children next Wednesday.
"The family standing behind me is very supportive of Andrea, and this includes the father of these children and the husband of their mother," Parnham said after the visit, gesturing to Russell Yates and the other relatives. "They are unified in seeing her through this."
She faces a single capital murder charge that could bring her the death penalty. Prosecutors have not yet said whether they would seek that punishment.
A computer engineer with NASA's space shuttle program, Yates said on Thursday he loved his wife and would continue to support her because it was the "psychotic side effects with her depression that led her to do this."
Andrea Yates had been taking drugs including the anti-psychotic Haldol to combat postpartum depression, a 1999 bout of which led her to attempt suicide, Russell Yates said. Postpartum depression in its most severe form can include violent psychosis, doctors said.
Parnham deflected questions about whether he would pursue an insanity defense.
"I want the service for these children to take place before any pronouncements, announcements or discussions take place relative to a defense or her current status," he said.
KILLING DETAILS EMERGE
The children's memorial service will be held exactly a week after Yates made her confession to police just moments after drowning the last of her five children.
"This is the most horrendous thing I have ever seen," Harris County Assistant District Attorney Joe Owmby said after the morning hearing, which the judge postponed to July 24 so Yates could consult her lawyer. He would not discuss details of the killings.
A report in Friday's Houston Chronicle said Yates drowned her youngest children one by one in a bathtub, then chased her oldest son, 7-year-old Noah, through the house and dragged him to the bathroom after he figured out what she was doing.
A later report in The Dallas Morning News online edition on Friday quoted an unidentified police official as saying Yates had thought about killing the children for several months.
"She essentially said she had realized that she was a 'bad mother' and she felt that the children were disabled -- that they were not developing normally," the official told the newspaper. "She told us that she had thought about doing this for several months."
The Chronicle report, citing a police official who listened to Yates' taped statement to investigators, said the mother and former registered nurse recounted the events in a "zombie-like fashion."
"What's wrong with Mary?" Noah reportedly asked his mother when he saw her placing 6-month-old Mary in the tub.
Yates said her son ran from her, but she chased him through the house, dragged him back to the bathroom and drowned him alongside his infant sister, the report said.
Before that, Yates said she killed, in order, Luke, 2, Paul, 3, and John, 5. After drowning them, she carried the bodies onto a bed and covered them with a sheet, where police said all but one body, Noah's, was found, according to the paper.
She reportedly left Noah in the tub before calling police and her husband, who was at his job at the nearby Johnson Space Center.
**sigh** It's alot to absorb. Anyone know anything about the med. the article refers to?
poster:yo-wazzzup
thread:6778
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010622/msgs/6778.html