Andrea Yates - Innocent due to Mental Defect or Got Away with Murder?

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Andrea Yates - Innocent due to Mental Defect or Got Away with Murder?

By Shelly E. Justis

Kaplan University

College Composition I - CM103-12

Effective Writing for Criminal Justice Majors

Professor Robert Clay

Andrea Yates p.1

Imagine. The one thing you want more than anything else on earth is to find the love of your life. Your love, whom you spend every day and night. After just a few weeks with them, you start to feel detached, tired, unhappy, overwhelmed and agitated with your love. Years pass and the feelings get worse. One day, you draw a warm bath and call your love to come sit with you. You reach out to hug them, but instead of hugging them, you push them under water. You hold them under until the life is gone from their body. Unthinkable? Not for those suffering from severe depressions such as bi-polar disorder, postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis.

Postpartum psychosis, a far more severe form of postpartum depression, if treated properly, Andrea Yates would not have been found "not guilty by reason of insanity" after drowning her five young children on June 20, 2001.

"Bipolar disorder used to be known as manic depressive disorder. It's a serious illness, one that can lead to risky behavior, damaged relationships and careers, even suicidal tendencies -- if it's not treated". "Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme changes in mood (poles) -- from mania to depression. Between these mood swings, a person with Bipolar disorder may experience normal moods" (definitions, 2008). "Manic" describes an increasingly restless, energetic, talkative, reckless, powerful, euphoric period. Lavish spending sprees or impulsive risky sex can occur. Then, at some point, this high-flying mood can spiral into something darker -- irritation, confusion, anger, feeling trapped (definitions, 2008). "Depression" describes...