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On this occasion, the jury were persuaded by the evidence put forward by the defence and returned a favourable verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. As a result, the defence were able to utilise this opportunity to present Andrea’s case to a jury once again by applying the insanity defence. Dietz had made an erroneous statement during cross-examination which was referred to by the prosecution during cross-examination of defence witnesses and in the closing statements. This ruling was overturned by an appeal in 2006, upon the discovery that Dr. The jury in the first trial was death-qualified, however, they decided that Mrs.Yates would receive a sentence of life imprisonment instead of being executed. In 2002 the Yates trial was held in Houston, Texas and the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. A multitude of different psychiatrists testified as expert witnesses for the defence, most notably, psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz, who had previously testified in the Hinkley and Dahmer case, provided testimony as an expert witness for the prosecution. In the Yates Case, renowned psychiatrist Dr. On 20 June 2001, Andrea resorted to drowning her five children, all of whom were under the age of seven. Eight years after getting married to her husband Rusty, she began to experience several bouts of postpartum depression which were amplified after the birth of each child. However, throughout her childhood and teenage years, Andrea excelled in school and graduated valedictorian of her high school class, before deciding to pursue a career in nursing. Many members of her family also suffered from depression and bipolar disorder. This article will also discuss the opposing and contrasting perspectives provided by the expert witnesses on the behalf of the prosecution and the defence, while simultaneously tracing the evolution of societal attitudes and developments in Texas case law, involving mothers who commit acts of infanticide when experiencing extreme levels of psychosis and postpartum depression.Īndrea Yates suffered from a variety of psychiatric disorders such as postpartum depression and psychosis. This article intends to outline how the societal views in Texas, and the limited information and research available at the time regarding postpartum psychosis, had an influential impact on the verdict in the Yates trial. As a result, the harrowing question arose about whether a caring and loving mother other is capable of committing filicide by reason of insanity. Due to the extensive media coverage of this case, Andrea Yates was vilified by the media. This infamous case broke international headlines in 2002, as the world struggled to grapple with the news of the mother who drowned five of her young children with her bare hands.
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This article will examine the case of Andrea Yates.