Posted by yo-wazzzup on June 25, 2001, at 16:48:25
In reply to News reports re: Texas Mom, posted by yo-wazzzup on June 25, 2001, at 16:21:03
Lawyer Says Texas Mom Is in 'Deep Psychotic State'
Updated: Mon, Jun 25 8:18 AM EDT
Related storiesWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Texas mother said to be suffering from postpartum depression and who confessed to drowning her five children in a bathtub is in a "deep psychotic state" and on 24-hour suicide watch in jail, said her lawyer on Monday.
George Parnham, attorney for 36-year-old Andrea Yates, said he had seen his client over the weekend at the Harris County Jail where she has been held since the murders last Wednesday.
"She is in a very deep psychotic state. She is being cared for very, very well by mental health professionals in a jail facility and is obviously heavily medicated ... and is on a 24-hour suicide watch," Parnham told ABC's "Good Morning America" program.
Parnham said he had not yet been able to have a rational conversation with his client.
"I anticipate that eventually the medication she is on will kick in and there will be some ability to have a rational conversation with her. That moment in time has not yet arrived," he said.
Yates, he said, had been under psychiatric care for some time, adding that he was studying her medical history closely before deciding to proceed with a defense of insanity.
Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to pursue the death penalty against Yates, but legal experts say they could have difficulty doing this if her husband opposes it, as he has done so far.
TAKING MEDICATION IN RECENT YEARS
The husband, NASA computer engineer Russell Yates, has said his wife suffered from severe postpartum depression and had taken anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medication in recent years.
According to newspaper reports, Yates told police she drowned her children one by one and chased her oldest son around the house before wrestling him into the water to kill him.
The children, four boys and a girl, ranged in age from 6 months to 7 years. A joint funeral is scheduled to be held in a Houston area church on Wednesday.
Parnham said it was important to remember that tragedies of this magnitude did not happen in a vacuum.
"This is not a situation where a husband and wife sit at a the breakfast table, kiss each other goodbye, he goes off to work, she has a cup of coffee and then decides that it is time to drown the kids. There is a progressive disease that in my estimation is evidenced by actions that happened in the past ... that led to this tragic event," Parnham said.
The woman's husband saw her in jail this weekend in a meeting her lawyer said was "as intense, as private and as heart-rendering as any meeting between two individuals that I have ever witnessed."
Parnham said Russell Yates was very supportive of his wife. "He is taking this on as his own personal responsibility. I applaud him for that. He and the remainder of the family love this woman and are very, very supportive of my efforts to defend her," he said.
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thread:6778
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