Andrea Yates Murder Conviction Overturned on Appeal

[Audrey]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... WvexeE&ref

[doug65oh]

I read that a bit earlier. Here's a link to the First Circuit's opinion in this case, issued earlier this morning.
http://www.1stcoa.courts.state.tx.us/op ... onID=81309

[Kat]

Thanks you guys!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0743244 ... eader-link

I just read this book on the case in late October. The author can probably be credited with the successful appeal.
This was a very interesting look inside the mind of Mrs. Yates and her husband, who was villified in the media. This family struggled with Andrea's illness since the very beginning and her condition seems to have been misdiagnosed and her meds were not appropriate.
When I learned, in the book, about Park Dietz' misrepresentation on the stand in testimony it was sickening. I think there were a couple of mis-trial issues in this sloppy prosecution, beginning with the charge.

[Audrey]

I did a web search for Park Dietz and found his web site-- proclaiming his many "skills" as a professional witness. Not a word about this situation on the site.

[Kat]

Apparently he didn't check what he was testifying to. He took another's comment and expanded on it, and being an expert he was believed. He *phoned in* his testimony, so to speak. That's what happens when one starts resting on their laurels.
It will be on Peter Jennings World News in a minute. ABC.

[doug65oh]

I wouldn't mention it if I were Park Dietz either. The Yates trial was not one of his more stellar moments as I recall.

[Kat]

"The Investigators" tonight on Court TV had an hour show they hauled out of the vault and showed with a written update at the end as to todays events. They pretty much covered the same story I read in the book, except they left out the part where Andrea, going through her psychological rehabilitations prior to the murders was enrolled in a substance abuse program, partly, as I recall, because of insurance purposes and partly because the private sanatorium which was close to the Yates' home was mainly for alcohol and drug abuse treatment.
The terrible irony here is that because she wasn't taking her medication she was psychotic, and she might have quit taking them somewhat because she was influenced by the anti-drug message she was trained to repeat at the drug rehab program.
Talk about a mixed message! This made Rusty Yates mad, but there wasn't much he could do other than not bring her there and at that time it wasn't an option!

[Allen]

I watched that show also Kat. I think it was such a tragedy. That quack who was sending her all that religious mumbo jumbo had a big influence on her mental state also. The cartoon and the caption depicted in the program, written by that nutcase, was sickening. I do not understand how they decided to keep having children, when they both knew that it triggered the post partum psychosis. Yes, children are a blessing, but at what cost to her mental stability? And to the children she brought into the world in the end? Just a tragedy, and one that cost this world 5 precious human lives.

[Kat]

I saw a segment on Dr. Phil about a woman who already had boys and really wanted a girl, and she had the history of significant post-partum depression to the point that she needed family help to get over the aftermath of the pregnancy and birth. In this modern age, she knew she could go off her meds, get pregnant hoping for a girl, and then after birth go back on the meds and *level out.* She wanted to know from Dr. Phil if he thought this was a good plan. Her husband didn't think so.
Nobody could talk her out of it tho. Sometimes those people who come on his show for his advice, just dismiss it and do what they wanted to all along.
This was a conscious choice, but the mind making it doesn't realize it's *sick.*
Very odd situation.