Texas V. Andrea Yates

Texas v. Andrea Yates




A 37 year-old women stunned the nation when she drowned all five of her children on June 20, 2001.   Her name is Andrea Yates and she went on trial for their murders in the case known as Texas v. Andrea Yates.   Her trail lasted for four weeks and much controversy surrounded it.




Andrea admitted to police that she drowned her five children:   Noah, 7, John, 5, Paul, 3, Luke, 2, and Mary 6 months.   This whole situation turned into a controversy because prosecutors in the case tried to convince the jury that Yates was sane during the murders while her defense insisted that she was suffering from postpartum depression.




Andrea Yates admitted that she decided to kill her children the day before she carried the murders out.   She was certain that she was possessed by the devil and that “the sign of Satan, 666, was marked on her scalp” (Gospelcom.net. The Evil Inside).   She wanted her head shaved so that prison doctors could see this mark.   Andrea believed that her children where not developing correctly, not doing well in their studies (the children were home schooled by her) and did not have good manners.   “She came to believe that she had failed so badly to measure up to her own extreme ideals of motherhood (she thought the kid’s should say their ABC’s by age 2)” (Roche, Timothy, 17).   She also stated that “the death of her children was her punishment, not theirs.   She said their deaths were a mother’s final act of mercy, and told doctors that only her execution would rescue her from the evil inside” (Gospelcom.net).




On the day of June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates filled a bathtub up with water.   She took 2 year-old Luke into the bathroom and held his head under water until he stopped struggling.   Next was Paul, 3, followed by John, 5.   Mary, the six-month-old baby was laying on the floor of the bathroom during the first three drownings.   When 7 year-old Noah came into the bathroom and seen Mary...