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Andrea Pia Kennedy Yates (born July 2, 1964) is a former resident of Houston, Texas, who confessed to drowning her five children in their bathtub on June 20, 2001.〔Spitz, D.J. (2006): Investigation of Bodies in Water. In: Spitz, W.U. & Spitz, D.J. (eds): ''Spitz and Fisher’s Medicolegal Investigation of Death. Guideline for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigations (Fourth edition)'', Charles C. Thomas, pp.: 846–881; Springfield, Illinois.〕 She had been suffering for some time with very severe postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. She was represented by Houston criminal defense attorney George Parnham. Chuck Rosenthal, the district attorney in Harris County, asked for the death penalty in her 2002 trial. Her case placed the M'Naghten Rules with the Irresistible Impulse Test, a legal test for sanity, under close public scrutiny in the United States. She was convicted of capital murder. After the guilty verdict, but before sentencing, the State abandoned its request for the death penalty in light of false testimony by one of its expert psychiatric witnesses. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. The verdict was overturned on appeal. On July 26, 2006, the Texas jury in her retrial found that Yates was not guilty by reason of insanity. She was consequently committed by the court to the North Texas State Hospital, Vernon Campus,〔(Not Guilty Verdict for Andrea Yates; Missing Girl's Body Found in Utah ); Nancy Grace; CNN; July 26, 2006〕 a high-security mental health facility in Vernon, where she received medical treatment and was a roommate of Dena Schlosser, another woman who committed filicide by killing her infant daughter. In January 2007, Yates was moved to a low security state mental hospital in Kerrville. ==Background== Yates was born in Hallsville, Texas. She is the youngest of the five children of Jutta Karin Koehler, a German immigrant, and Andrew Emmett Kennedy, whose parents were Irish immigrants. She suffered from bulimia during her teenage years. She also suffered from depression, and at 17 she spoke to a friend about suicide.〔O'Malley, p. 78〕 She graduated from Houston's Milby High School in 1982. She was the class valedictorian, captain of the swim team, and an officer in the National Honor Society.〔(), ''Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy''〕 Yates completed a two-year pre-nursing program at the University of Houston and graduated from the University of Texas School of Nursing. From 1986 until 1994 she worked as a registered nurse at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. In the summer of 1989 she met Russell "Rusty" Yates, two months her junior, at the Sunscape Apartments in Houston. They soon moved in together and were married on April 17, 1993. They announced that they "would seek to have as many babies as nature allowed", and bought a four-bedroom house in Friendswood. Their first child, Noah, was born in February 1994, just before Rusty accepted a job offer in Florida, so they relocated to a small trailer in Seminole. By the birth of their third son, Paul, they moved back to Houston and purchased a GMC motor home.〔 Following the birth of fourth son Luke, Yates became depressed. The media alleged that her condition was influenced by the extremist sermons of Michael Peter Woroniecki, the preacher who sold them their bus. Her family was concerned by the way that she was so captivated by the minister’s words.〔 On June 16, 1999, Rusty found Andrea shaking and chewing her fingers. The next day, she attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. She was admitted to the hospital and prescribed antidepressants. Soon after her release, she begged her husband to let her die as she held a knife up to her neck. Once again hospitalized, she was given a mixture of medications including Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug. Her condition improved immediately and she was prescribed it on her release. After that, Rusty moved the family into a small house for the sake of her health. She appeared temporarily stabilized.〔 In July 1999, she succumbed to a nervous breakdown, which culminated in two suicide attempts and two psychiatric hospitalizations that summer. She was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. Yates' first psychiatrist, Dr. Eileen Starbranch, testified that she urged the couple not to have more children, as it would "guarantee future psychotic depression". They conceived their fifth and final child approximately 7 weeks after her discharge.〔(Doctor: I Warned Andrea Yates Not to Have Any More Children ). Fox News Channel. July 7, 2006. Retrieved October 3, 2009.〕 She stopped taking the Haldol in March 2000 and gave birth to daughter Mary on November 30 of that year. She seemed to be coping well until the death of her father on March 12, 2001. Yates then stopped taking medication, mutilated herself, and read the Bible feverishly. She also stopped feeding her youngest child, Mary.〔 She became so incapacitated that she required immediate hospitalization. On April 1, 2001 she came under the care of Dr. Mohammed Saeed. She was treated and released. On May 3, 2001 she degenerated back into a "near catatonic" state and drew a bath in the middle of the day; she would later confess to police that she had planned to drown the children that day, but had decided against doing it then. She was hospitalized the next day after a scheduled doctor visit; her psychiatrist determined she was probably suicidal and had filled the tub to drown herself.〔〔Suzanne O'Malley, Are You There Alone?, p. 20〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Andrea Yates」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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