Andrea Yates: Not guilty by reason of insanity

Via Fox:

HOUSTON — A jury on Wednesday found Houston mom Andrea Yates not guilty of murdering her five kids by reason of insanity.

The decision comes after the jury deliberated for three days in Yates’ retrial to determine whether she was legally insane when she drowned her five kids in the family home’s bathtub. Her 2002 murder conviction was overturned because of incorrect testimony by a witness.

It’s expected Yates will be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released. She would have been sentenced to life in prison if convicted of capital murder.

The defense never disputed that Yates drowned her five children one by one in the bathtub of their Houston-area home. But they said she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her and was trying to save them from hell.

Yates stared wide-eyed in court Wednesday as the verdict was read. She then bowed her head and wept quietly.

I’m weeping, too, over this verdict – but for far different reasons:

John Cannon, the police spokesperson, described for the media what the team had found.

On a double bed in a back master bedroom, four children were laid out beneath a sheet, clothed and soaking wet. All of them were dead, with their eyes wide open. In the bathtub, a young boy was submerged amid feces and vomit floating on the surface. He looked to be the oldest and he was also dead.

Here’s a photo of her children, with Yates and her then-husband Rusty. Here’s a photo of the boys – Noah, John, Paul, and Luke – prior to the birth of their little sister Mary.