Andrea Yates found Not Guilty

Andrea Yates was found a href=”http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4073570.html”Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity today/a:br /br /blockquoteA Harris County jury has found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity during her second capital murder trial for the drowning deaths of her children in the family’s bathtub in 2001.br /br /The verdict upholding Yates’ insanity defense comes after the jury deliberated more than 12 hours over three days. Yates appeared shocked and sat staring wide-eyed with her lips slightly parted as State District Judge Belinda Hill asked each juror individually shortly after noon today whether they agreed with the verdict.br /br /….It is unknown how long Yates will be hospitalized, but she will be subject to periodic reviews by state District Judge Belinda Hill’s court./blockquotebr /br /My bet is she will be out within seven to nine years–wish her five children could have been so lucky.br /br /Update: Dave Kopel has more on the a href=”http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel082801.shtml”double standards for parent murderers: /abr /br /blockquoteMurder a bunch of people in your family. Take long enough to perform the multiple killings so that it’s plain that the killings were not a momentary passion. Are you the victim?br /br /Consider Nikolay Soltys, currently on the FBI’s most-wanted list for murdering seven people: his three-year-old son, his pregnant wife, two cousins (aged 9 and 10), and his aunt and uncle. Nobody defends those heinous acts. Nobody offers excuses about how tough it is to be an immigrant, to support an extended family, to cope with job-related stresses, or the like. Even though there is speculation that money problems helped push Soltys over the edge, nobody is claiming that the murders are “society’s fault” because society isn’t supportive enough of fathers of small children. Instead, Soltys is accurately described as a “monster.”/blockquotebr /br /a href=”http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopelprint082801.html”Read more/a…