Andrea Yates divorces: gets rights to be buried next to kids she killed

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D88SUIA01.html


Russell Yates finalized his divorce Thursday from his wife, Andrea, three years after she was sentenced to life in prison for drowning their children.

Under the decree, Andrea Yates will get her gliding rocking chair — generally used for nursing babies — and the right to be buried near the five children. Russell Yates will also give her $7,000 and a portion of his retirement benefits from his employment at NASA.

The cemetery has seven Yates plots — five for the children and one each for Russell and Andrea. As to whether Russell Yates will be buried next to Andrea, "Nobody ever knows what the future is going to hold," Salinsky said.

Andrea Yates, 40, was sentenced to life in prison for three of the 2001 drowning deaths, but the capital murder convictions were overturned in January. A panel of the First Court of Appeals in Houston sided with her lawyers, who contended false testimony from a prosecution expert witness influenced the jury. Andrea Yates claimed she was insane at the time of the drownings.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. What happened to for better or for worse?

[rainbow4321]

12. He's taking lessons from Terri Schiavo's "husband"...

the guy who has moved in w/ and knocked up another woman <twice> but still tries to refer to himself as Terri's "husband" <with all spousal rights attached>.

[LisaL]

13. Actually, he is doing the complete opposite-he divorced Andrea.

Before impregnating another woman twice.

[Bridget Burke]

2. I'm sure he's got Mrs. Yates II already lined up.

And they're planning a BIG family.

(Sorry, I saw too much of this guy on TV.)

[trotsky]

3. I was disgusted by him.

His lack of help & support for her with their "litter" of kids should have gotten him SOME sort of responsibility for the crime.

[Robert Oak]

6. I agree

I was watching that with the church and him in essence telling
her she was a baby machine and designed to "serve" her husband..

why she didn't just shoot her husband instead of drowning her
kids is a great mystery, but I kept thinking if she tapped into
the real problem and realized the mind fuck she had been under for
years it probably all wouldn't have happened.

[rainbow4321]

11. Right up there w/ the father of the kid who's arms got cut off...

The guy that beat the mother in the CHURCH PARKING LOT w/ a wooden spoon <per one of their own kids who witnessed it>. The mother had told him like the night before the killing that she was wanting to give their baby to God...and he went merrily off to work the next day.
The TX court system gave him full custody of their remaining kids a month or so ago---one stipulation: they have to be allowed to call their aunt on a weekly basis <she is some social worker or such up in NY>.
Yeah, these kids are going back to a frigging normal, healthy household...NOT!

[pie]

4. He should be in prison

[walldude]

5. Did I miss something here?

I don't know much about this story except for what happened. Was the husband somehow involved? And if you think that a man who's wife drowned his 5 children isn't living in prison you are sadly mistaken...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. Yes, you missed something. Like the fact that he KNEW she had

serious post partum depression PRIOR to her having her last child. Like the fact that he had her participate in an EXTREME fundamental religion that probably FED her mental breakdown. Sorry...Rusty is a pig who is just as complicit in the death of his children.

[AlCzervik]

15. Ding Ding Ding!!!! Thank you!

[redqueen]

22. Thank you.

:hi:

[LisaL]

17. He was not involved in a crime. But he kept on

impregnating her even though the Drs. warned them they shouldn't have more children because of her PPD.

[jdj]

26. the doctors told HIM this WILL happen again.

not maybe, not might, but WILL.

He needs to be brought up on reckless endangerment or something.

It's his fault his kids are dead, that fundie POS.

I loathe this man, he has come to represent in one person everything that is horribly, horribly wrong with fundamentalist religion.

[Orangepeel]

27. child endangerment is a crime

he knew she was unstable and he still left the kids with her. I don't know exactly what he should be charged with, but it should be something. Searching my memory for legal terms from television, maybe "negligent homicide" or "extreme indifference?"

[pie]

28. CLEARLY, he is more guilty than she

He is proud that he never changed a diaper.
Think about that.
This fucker needs to go to prison.
He did not honor his wife.
He did not love his children.
That defines BEAST.

[redqueen]

7. He does.

That's the reason for the divorce, actually.

[Warpy]

10. yeah, probably started looking around the church for one

preferably in her mid teens, the day after the murders.

I saw too much of him, too.

[LisaL]

14. At least he is planning on a big family after a divorce.

It's not that I like the guy, but nobody should be forced to stay married in their situation.

[redqueen]

19. Look how well he helped care for his other children.

He is the one who thought it a good idea to leave a woman with severe postpartum depression alone with five kids.

He shouldn't have any more kids, until he understands he has a part to paly in their care as well as the mother. It seems as if most fundies don't quite grasp that.

[LisaL]

24. I am not arguing with that, but it's not like we can order him what

to do.

[redqueen]

8. I don't begrudge her that.

She's mentally ill. If she'd had proper care, those murders wouldn't have happened.

[Lex]

16. I wholeheartedly agree.

She thought she was 'saving' them by killing them. She had broken with reality at that point.

If she'd had proper care and attention medically, it wouldn't have happened.

[LisaL]

18. Nobody can know what would or wouldn't have happened.

It's not like there are cures for the mental problems she had.

[redqueen]

20. The probability of those murders happening would have been GREATLY reduced

That better?

[LisaL]

23. Yes. Much better.

[Lex]

21. Oh, sorry. I guess I've should've said "in my opinion."

But I figured you knew I wasn't Miss Cleo in the first place.

[jdj]

25. "generally used for nursing babies"

my ass. just give us the facts, newsbot, without adding in the sentimental bullshit.

[Ladyhawk]

29. Actually, that's a good point. n/t

[Ladyhawk]

30. I've come to the conclusion that Yates was insane--both...

...psychologically and legally--when she drowned those kids. She thought she was acting for their own good. Legal sanity means you understood what you were doing was wrong. She didn't.

Usually, I'm for being tough on crime, but Yates is one of the few defendants I've thought actually qualified as legally insane.