By Melissa Marshall

Andrea Yates was a 36 year old Texas mother who drowned her five children in the bathtub in June of 2001. Despite a not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) plea initially she was found guilty of capital murder with the jury recommending life in prison rather than the death penalty. In a re-trial Ms. Yates was found NGRI in July.

The Andrea Yates case, as did the John Hinckley (the man who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the assassination attempt on President Reagan) case before it, has ramifications for all people with psychiatric disabilities. Media coverage and general discussion perpetuates the myth that people with psychiatric disabilities are more violent than others.

We want to distance ourselves from Andrea Yates and others who have committed a heinous act and pled not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI). We are not like her. We are no more likely to be violent than people without psychiatric disabilities. We may be crazy, but we are not capable of the wanton brutality that she was. Maybe there shouldn't even be an insanity defense. Maybe we shouldn't support people getting off by reason of insanity. Oops did I say 'get off'? I meant be found NGRI. And so we descend the slippery slope of separating ourselves from a more devalued group.

I have a radical idea. Why don't we stand up for our brothers and sisters who have been found NGRI? Let us take the less simplistic approach to removing stereotypes by explaining that 'Yes people with psychiatric disabilities are no more likely to be violent than others' but that sometimes, like members of other groups we are violent. On rare occasions, we are violent because of our disability. Let's then go on to explain that the general public should not fear us all as potentially violent any more than anyone else. We can then explain that no one 'gets off' by reason of insanity. In Connecticut most individuals found NGRI are sent to Whiting which is a maximum security forensic facility and perhaps to Dutcher, a medium security facility. These institutions, both on the grounds of CVH, are far from the country clubs that the media would have us believe them to be. (Those of you who have been in locked state institutions know what I'm talking about.) Some people are released under heavy supervision into the community eventually.

Let us explain to the world that people found NGRI are first and foremost people, that they have historically been misunderstood and oppressed. Kind of sounds familiar doesn't it? Let's not take the simple way out by distancing ourselves from 'those people'. Let's have the sophistication to acknowledge the complexity of the situation and the discipline to refuse to succumb to the temptation to give simple sound bite answers. If not us, then who?


An Insider's View of the Andrea Yates Case and Decisions
By Dave Messenger

Dave Messenger is an AU Advocate who lives at CVH.

When Andrea was convicted by the Texas courts and system five years ago, I was both dismayed and appalled. We who have "been there" know that someone like her, a devoted mother who obviously lacked any sane motive for killing her children and who did so with no thought for her own well-being, was not truly responsible for her actions. She was as much a victim of her then mental illness as a perpetrator of violence. But she was tried by a jury who had no framework for understanding - and who were not even told of her probable fate if she were found "not guilty" of the terrible acts. They probably thought she would "walk". The public's demand for "justice" in an atmosphere of sensationalized, gruesome publicity, surely weighed in at the time.

So, I was equally elated by the turn-around five years later. Not so much for her fate as for the fact true justice was served and the better legal precedent for the future. She, contrary to what most people still think, will undoubtedly be confined for many long years in an environment which will still be far from ideal for her true recovery and well-being. I can only hope that this acquittal will help relieve her of a little of the monumental guilt and shame she will feel to the end of her days. I know, I not only have been there, but still am "here" in a similar institution. People just have no idea of how psychosis rules the body and mind. We live in a society where an "eye for an eye" often still holds sway. Ignorance, fear and prejudice dominate this whole realm - only education and enlightenment can counter. I so hope society can move beyond medieval mentality in the coming years, but it's anybody's guess. Science and fact need to gain the upper hand; I do have faith they can and will. Here's to progress!