Yates On Trial

Andea Yates' retrial for the murder of her five children in 2001 opens today. Yates was found guilty earlier, despite pleading insanity, but a retrial was ordered because one of the prosecution's witness lied on the stand. So here we go again. It's not clear if they'll argue she was bipolar or nailed with psychotic depression, but her defense team will argue insanity again. That's tough to make a go of in Texas where the legal bar is pretty damn high.

My own thoughts on this are that any mom would have to be in a delusional/psychotic state to kill her own children, and frankly unable to tell the difference between right and wrong. I'm not a big fan of insanity defenses and the "bipolar made me do it" syndrome, but this is one of those times when the shoe might fit.

Anyway, the Associated Press thinks it will be a test of public attitudes on mental illness. We shall see.