stRgrL,
***You know the thing that bugs me most about this case, is that people are not taking responsiblity for their actions.***
Andrea Yates took responsibility for her actions. According to her videotaped testimony, she knew that she would have to answer to the state for what she had done. She called 911. She turned herself in. She confessed.
***Mentally ill? Yes. But she knew the difference between right and wrong. *****End of Discussion***** as you would say blond_cupid.***
(Actually, it was mrk who I was quoting as having said "End of Discussion". I thought that remark was laughable.)
Anyway. Yes, Andrea Yates was mentally ill when she killed her children. In fact, she was insane - and as an insane person she should have been found "not guilty" by reason of insanity. Yes, she knew the difference between right and wrong but not in the sane sense that you and I know it. Her perception of right and wrong was relative to her insanity. She knew that killing her children was wrong is the eyes of the state, however, in her mind it was right for her to kill her children because it would have been MORE WRONG if she did not kill them and instead allowed Satan to get ahold of them.
***Even if she did think Satan was coming for her children, she should know that a person doesnt have the right to take the lives of her children.***
She knew that she did not have that right in the eyes of the state (the law). However, in her mind she rationalized that she was doing the right thing for her children by saving them from Satan's eternal torment and giving them to God.
Let me ask you something, stRgrL...
Suppose a mother and her five children had been trapped in an interior bathroom of a home fully involved in fire with no way out and no hope of being rescued and the mother, in an act of mercy, drowned her children rather than have them suffer through the torment of being burned alive. What would you think of THAT woman?
***If she was believed in God and Satan and was a religous person, then she really should of known that it was wrong.***
Again, she knew that it was wrong in the eyes of the state. However, in her insane mind, she thought it was right to give her children to God rather than let Satan have them. Again, her perception of right and wrong was relative to her insanity.