Andrea Yates Essay

Nancy and her husband Bob had been married for 31 years and had two sons together. Nancy was planning to divorce Bob because throughout their marriage there had been numerous occasions of spousal abuse. The morning of May 10th Nancy and Bob got into a heated argument because Bob had found out that Nancy had bought a condo in Florida and was planning on leaving him for good. Nancy then went on to explain that Bob said that he wasted his life with her and why didn’t Nancy just die, and he proceeded to kick her. Bob then proceeded to chase Nancy to the garage with a knife. Nancy responded by taking a hatchet that she had bought the day before and striking him fifteen times and then taking the knife that he had and stabbed him 21 times. Nancy then left to go to work at Longacre Elementary school after the murder. She came back during lunch to clean up the place before her son could see what had transpired in the garage, she said that she had planned to turn herself in but on her own terms. Nancy was caught when police officers found her husband’s body wrapped in a tarp in the trunk of her car a few days later. During the time of her trial both of her sons testified her youngest son testified on her behalf and her eldest son testified against her, giving two conflicting recollections of their marriage. Also, during the trial, the prosecutor argued that the murder was premeditated because they had proof that Nancy went to home depot May 9th and bought the hatchet that she used the next day to murder her husband. Nancy was found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. In 2010 Nancy appealed to the court to have her sentence overturned because she claimed her legal counsel was ineffective and did not create a strong case to prove that she suffered from battered woman syndrome. In 2012 the federal court of appeals denied her request for a retrial and she remains in jail

Andrea Yates at the time she committed her crime was a thirty-seven year old married mother of five children from Houston, Texas. Her five children, Noah 7, John 5, Paul 3, Luke 2, and Mary 6 months was murdered by their mother by her drowning them. She held each one of her children under the water in the bathroom bathtub. She drowned them one by one and once they were dead she placed them under a sheet on her bed. All except for Noah who was found still face down in the bathtub when the police arrived.

Andrea showed signs of severe mental illness before, during, and after the crime had taken place. It was clear that Andrea’s judgment had been impaired more often than not. The extent of Andrea Yates’s mental health issues were shown through many documented psychotic episodes of hallucinations, delusions, attempted suicides, eccentric behaviors, and homicidal ideations. Over the course of the births of her five children, Andrea went through many treatments, psychiatric hospitalizations, and antipsychotic drug therapies. According to Deborah Denno, Founding Director of the Neuroscience and Law Center, Andrea’s struggle with postpartum began to appear following the birth of her first child, in which she experienced hallucinations of stabbing someone with a knife (Denno, 2003). After the birth of her fourth child, Andrea attempted suicide twice, once by overdose, and the second by holding a knife to her own throat (McLellan, 2006). Yates had also suffered from delusions in which she believed that cameras had been placed in her home in order to monitor the quality of her mothering, and that her defective parenting would cause all of her children to burn in hell (Resnick, 2007). Yates held the belief that she had failed her children in the eyes of god, and became fixated on biblical scripture. Despite medical advice to not have any more children in order to prevent postpartum relapse, Andrea and Rusty continued to grow their family. In order to become pregnant, Andrea discontinued her use of antipsychotic medication. The discontinuation of medication prompted more psychotic episodes, which resulted in further hospitalization. In many instances, when Andrea was being treated in mental health facilities, doctors would often release her before the end of her treatment due to insurance no longer covering her stay. Any progress that was being made under psychiatric care was cut short, and as a

On the morning of June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates murdered all five of her children by drowning them in her household’s bathtub while her husband was away. After the birth of her 4th child, Yates became diagnosed with postpartum depression and this carried on after the birth of her 5th. Yates indicated the killing of her children was due to the fact that she was seeing violent images and hearing voices telling her to get a knife, or even hearing a voice she believed to be the devil that told her he was after her children. Such voices can be explained by the psychodynamic perspective that Yates’ behavior of killing her children was a result of these unconscious voices that were demanding her to take such violent action. Growing obsessively religious over the years, Yates followed extreme Christian views presented by the

Yates was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 after being convicted of capital murder for drowning her 5 children, ranging from 6 months to 7 years old. Andrea Yates story begins two years before the incident. After the birth of her fourth child, she attempted suicide, and was diagnosed with postpartum depression and psychosis. A month after her first diagnosis, she attempted suicide again. About a year after her attempted suicide, she became pregnant with her fifth child. During her pregnancy, her father died and her psychosis returns and she was given medication to treat it. Two days before she murdered her children, Andrea and her husband Rusty went to the doctors in an attempt to get the doctors to switch her medication. The day of incident,

Aileen blamed herself for that death and found herself having many run-ins with the police. At eighteen, Aileen was arrested in Colorado, for a DUI, disorderly conduct and firing a .22-caliber pistol from a moving vehicle (?). In 1976, shortly after her marriage fell apart, she was arrested in Michigan for assault and disturbing the peace after she had thrown a cue ball at a bartender’s head (?). At twenty-six she was arrested in Florida for armed robbery, after robbing a convenience store for thirty-five dollars and two packs of cigarettes (?). She was sentenced to three years in prison and was released in 1983 (?). The next year she was arrested for attempting to cash forged checks in Key West. At thirty, Aileen was arrested in Miami for car theft, resisting arrest, and obstruction of justice (?). Police also found a .38-caliber revolver and ammunition in the car which she had stolen in 1985 in Pasco County (?). That year police also detained her after a male companion accused her of pulling a gun on him and demanding two hundred dollars. Police found her carrying spare ammunitions and a .22 pistol in her

It was a clear night in London, Ontario. Twenty year old Mary Hicks was sleeping peacefully in her apartment. She was in her last year, studying at the University of Western Ontario, when suddenly, tragedy comes her way. That very morning of October 19th, 1973, Hicks was pronounced dead. She was found lying in her bed, still in a natural sleeping position . There were no signs of struggle nor any hint of forced entry in her apartment; it was as if she was untouched. Mary Hick’s death was ruled by apparent natural causes and nothing was thought of it again. A few years go by and the incident is forgotten. In 1978, Russell Maurice Johnson was arrested for the murder of three women. It was this trial that he admitted to the murder of Mary Hicks, the first of many of his victims. Johnson is responsible for the deaths of seven women between the years of 1973 to 1977 and is suspected for an additional ten deaths (http://murderpedia.org/male.J/j/johnson-russell.htm). He was given the name “The Bedroom Strangler” for his victims were all suffocated in their sleep. This serial killer was able to go a long time without getting caught, keeping his victims’ families unsettled. At Johnson’s trial,

Andrea Yates conviction was a unjust trial at first and later on the conviction changed to a just one. She was convicted for the murders of her children (Chan). She suffered from depression and had tried to commit suicide (Chan). Yates was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison (Chan). This convictions was later over turned and she wasn’t found guilty anymore because, of insanity (Chan). This was a more fair verdict to me. Yates was mentally ill, She needed treatment and not a torture place like jail. Yates attorney stated “ She committed the murders because, of psychotic delusions and postpartum depression” (Chan). Yes, Yates was guilty because, they were her actions but, she was mentally ill and was a very religious woman.

3-4). She went to university and became a nurse (para. 11). Yates got married to Russell “Rusty” Yates, an evangelical Christian (Langford, 2006, para. 21). Andrea Yates husband introduced her to Micheal Peter Woroniecki, a spiritual guide who preached to live a non-materialistic lifestyle (para. 19). This resulted in the couple selling their house and buying a bus transformed into a trailer, in which they and their three children, at the time, lived in (para. 23). After birthing four children, while still living in the bus, Yates threatened to commit suicide twice in the year of 1999 (Roche, 2002, Para. 8). These threats resulted in the family moving into a house (Para. 9). First, on June 17, 1999, Yates overdosed on medication used to treat depression; she was admitted to a hospital where she is diagnosed with major depressive disorder. (CNN Library, 2016, para. 11). Next, on July 21, 1999, she is again admitted to a hospital for psychiatric help, as she tried to kill herself with a knife (para. 12). Yates, mental health was in decline, as her father died in 2001; she felt she wasn’t doing a good job as a mother since she was always in the hospital (para. 26). Yates had five children back to back; she went against the psychiatrist’s advice (Roche, 2002, Para. 9). In the spring of 2001, Yates was admitted twice to a psychiatric hospital and prescribed strong anti-psychotic medicine.

After each child, her symptoms seemed to worsen. She overdosed on depression medicine and was admitted for psychiatric treatment many times after multiple attempts to kill herself. Her husband claimed to have never changed a diaper in his life and was also known to be very controlling and manipulative. They claimed to have been living a hypocritical Christian lifestyle, where her husband made it seem like they were a happy family, but was actually a huge role in Andrea’s depression. There is no doubt that all this outweighed stress and manipulation took control of her life. So, in June of 2001, Andrea Yates drowned all of her children in the bathtub of her own home and later called the police and turned herself in. She claimed that Satan had spoke to her multiple times and told her that unless she killed her children, they would end up in

To survive, she would hitchhike and sell herself for money along the way (Biography.com, n/d). From late 1989 to the fall of 1990, she was responsible for murdering six men in Florida and was a suspect in a seventh (Koch, 2002). In 1992, Wuornos was found guilty for the first murder discovered and got the death penalty. She spent over ten years waiting to be executed by lethal injection. Wuornos ended up firing her lawyers who were trying to delay her execution even more (Biography.com, n/d). It was suggested that Wuornos was insane and didn’t understand what she was doing, but after multiple tests she was declared mentally competent (Koch, 2002). In the fall of 2002, Aileen Wuornos was put to death by lethal

Wow! That was the first word that came to my mind when I heard professor Idler talked about Andrea Yates killing her 5 children in 2001. This was the first time that I heard about it. Andrea was a motherhood who filled a bathtub with water. She then drowned her five children, one by one, in the bathtub. She laid the dead bodies of five-year old John, three-year-old Paul, two-year old Luke, and 6-month old Mary on her bed. She left her oldest, Noah, age 7, in the tub. She called the police and her husband asking for help. I still cannot find a reason on how can you kill your five children. It is still sad because I consider that Andrea had the perfect life that anybody wishes to have. She had a united family when she was younger, graduated with

Murder is by far one of the vicious crimes in the world. Murder is the unlawful killing of a person with malice aforethought. (List statistics of murder in the U.S.) Aileen Wuornos is a serial killer who went on a yearlong killing spree leaving seven men dead. But, who was really Aileen Wuornos? Was she a natural born killer or made into one? Wuornos lived a rough life, which it is believed to have led to her serial killer lifestyle, but there are other reasons that caused her wild actions. Aileen was never truly loved by any of her family or associates. It took a toll on her because she never had anyone to go to for comfort. So, anger had constantly built up in her. On top of that, mental illnesses and abusiveness somewhat ran through her

Aileen was a pathological liar who’d claim that her acts of murder were often in self defense, where she believed her life was in danger and murder was to protect her life. As Aileen is a female prostitute, one can argue that she is a easy target for men to take advantage, being automatically vulnerable as a woman. Aileen took this presumption to her advantage often claiming that her murders were in an act of self defense. With the case of her first victims, Richard Mallory, Aileen allegedly claimed that he raped her yet her allegation proved to be inconsistent with the forensic evidence given. “Aileen reported that she would fight wither victims about sex and that when they became abusive, demanding that she have intercourse with them, she endeavored to protect herself from being raped.” (Arrigo

The police in Florida find the body of a dead man in the woods in Florida which immediately hits the news. They immediately say that the murder was a female and that she was caught. At the time of her arrest many people want to interview her, because it is unknown for a prostitute to commit the murder. It was usually the prostitutes who were the victims of such attacks. Throughout the whole trial Aileen claims that she killed those men in self defense. However people and jury believe that she should be charged with first degree murder and sentence for the death penalty. Aileen’s previous lawyer Steve in fact was very inexperienced in his profession and had no ability to fight for her rights. As we read later in the book that he never investigated anybody in her defense and never tried to win the case for her. Even more he would advise her to plead guilty. Aileen also claims that she has never had a fair investigation, a real trial and could not file proper appeals. Jeff Bush the governor of Florida signs the death warrant which surprisingly is a month before his reelection. However her last words scream for death. She no longer has the desire to live, and some people say is because Aileen lost her