You guys get a grip. Andrea Yates was certifiably mentally ill BEFORE the killings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Yates Quote:
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Yates confessed to drowning her children, but her defense asserted postpartum psychosis as the reason she committed the killings. Although all expert testimony agreed that Yates was clearly psychotic, Texas law requires that in order to successfully assert the insanity defense, the defendant must prove that he or she could not discern right from wrong at the time of the crime. In March 2002, a jury rejected the insanity defense and found Yates guilty but spared her the death penalty. The trial court sentenced Yates to life imprisonment with eligibility for parole in 40 years.
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http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...218445,00.html Quote:
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In Texas, the law on insanity defenses is among the most restrictive in the nation. So narrow are the nuances of the state's centuries-old law that it was not enough for Yates' defense lawyers to simply prove that she twice attempted suicide, had been hospitalized four times for psychiatric care and nursed a psychosis before the drownings clearly documented in thousands of pages of medical records. No, Andrea's motives may have been delusional, but if she were able to distinguish right from wrong — good from evil — while committing the crime, jurors had little choice but to reject her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and convict her.
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Delusional and in need of treatment, obviously. A danger to the community? Hardly...