Dallas Morning News Accused Mother's Defenses Limited By Diane Jennings Suburban Houston mother Andrea Yates, who was being treated
for postpartum depression, is facing a possible death penalty
in the murders of her five children, ages 6 months to 7 years.
In many other Western countries, new mothers accused of
killing young children are afforded legal protection that
takes into account her mental condition. Special infanticide
statutes in 30 countries rule out murder charges and typically
impose sentences of probation and counseling, experts say. In the United States, however, laws make no special
allowances for a new mother who kills her child while
suffering from postpartum depression. Her fate may rest largely on the ability of her attorney to
convince a judge or jury that she should not be held
responsible. Mrs. Yates, 36, was charged last week with capital murder
in the drownings of her children in the bathtub of the
family's home in Clear Lake. Her husband said she had suffered
from depression after the birth of their fourth and fifth
children. She attempted suicide in 1999 and had been treated
with a variety of drugs. Authorities said they are weighing whether to seek the
death penalty. Her attorney, George Parnham, has said he won't
discuss her defense until after her children's funeral
Wednesday. Since the mid-1980s, postpartum depression has been
introduced as a defense factor in murder cases nationwide,
said Michelle Oberman, law professor at DePaul University in
Chicago. "The best chance she has, if she's got any good chance,
lies in hoping the jury understands the circumstances under
which she was operating and to understand the reality of
postpartum depression," Ms. Oberman said. Such defenses are still rare, said Ms. Oberman, whose book,
Mothers Who Kill Their Children, will be released in
August. Postpartum depression is a mental state resulting from
chemical imbalances after childbirth, combined with stress.
Most cases are mild, but some women enter a psychotic state
and experience hallucinations and delusions. An estimated 10 to 20 percent of mothers experience some
form of postpartum depression. It usually can be treated with
medication and counseling. Cases in which mothers are charged with killing their
children are particularly difficult to defend, said Michael
Dowd, a New York defense attorney. "They're very tough cases for two major reasons: One is the
fact that it is children who are dead, and it seems to be
clearly it's often beyond people's understanding," Mr. Dowd
said. He successfully defended Ann Green of New York, who was
found not guilty in 1989 of smothering two newborns. One died
in 1980 and a second in 1982. The deaths were not investigated
until she tried to kill a third child. At her trial, she said she had seen hands she did not
recognize holding pillows over the infants' faces. Found not
guilty by reason of insanity in 1989, she was released after
37 days in a mental hospital. Use of postpartum depression is "an insanity defense," said
Mr. Dowd. "It's a defense of being not responsible by reason
of mental disease or defect." Insanity defenses as a whole are rare, said George Dix, law
professor at the University of Texas, and successful defenses
even rarer. Most attorneys use it only as a last resort, he
said. "No matter how attractive insanity defense seems in the
abstract ... when push comes to shove and a jury looks at a
particular case, it often becomes very difficult to find a
persuasive enough case to excuse a particular act or series of
acts," he said. An insanity defense did not persuade a jury to acquit
Sheryl Massip of Orange County, Calif., in 1987. Though
suffering from postpartum depression, she was found guilty of
murdering her 6-week-old son by tossing him into traffic, then
intentionally running over him in a car. A judge overturned the verdict, reducing the charge to
manslaughter and sentencing her to outpatient treatment. LaTrena Pixley of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to
second-degree murder in 1992 after smothering her 6-week-old
daughter. Her lawyer cited postpartum depression as a
mitigating factor, and she was sentenced to three years of
weekends in a halfway house. Brian Shannon, a law professor at Texas Tech University,
said the insanity defense is rarely used because the legal
definition of insanity is extremely narrow. "The question the
jury is asked to consider is pretty much limited to a
right/wrong test. Did the person at the time of the events in
question know whether the actions were wrong or not?" Before the 1980s, the defendant could argue that emotional
ability to control behavior was considered as well. But that
defense was eliminated after the trial of John Hinckley for
the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. "Once John Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of
insanity, we saw a rush both in Congress and the states to
substantially narrow the defense," Mr. Shannon said. To be found not guilty by reason of insanity, Mrs. Yates
would have to convince the court that her mental impairment
made her believe circumstances were different from what they
were, Mr. Dix said. For instance, if she "believed her children to be devils,
she's entitled to acquittal," Mr. Dix said. "Homicide consists of causing the death of another person,"
he said. "If you believe the thing you destroyed was not a
person, the verdict is your conduct wasn't criminal." A case like that occurred in Houston three years ago, when
Evonne Rodriguez was charged with capital murder in the
beating and strangling death of her 4-month-old son. Ms.
Rodriguez said she threw his body in Buffalo Bayou because she
thought he was possessed by demons. A jury acquitted her, and a judge sent her to a state
mental hospital. Other women have been less successful in avoiding prison
time in Texas for killing their children while suffering
postpartum depression. Experts estimate that a half-dozen such
defendants are now serving prison terms in Texas. Many other Western countries routinely sentence mothers who
kill their infants to probation with counseling. Thirty nations, including Great Britain, Canada and
Australia, have passed special infanticide statutes to take
into account a woman's mental condition within a year after
giving birth. In some, the protection extends to a year after
quitting breast-feeding. "What the laws all agree on is that in the first year after
the birth they say the balance of the mother's mind has been
altered," said Ms. Oberman of DePaul. "That's why they believe
that these crimes should not be charged as first-degree
murder." Dr. Margaret Spinelli, assistant professor of psychiatry at
Columbia University who has studied infanticide, said many
Europeans "think we [Americans] are total barbarians." "We are just the only country, practically, that charges
these women with homicide and puts them in jail," she said.
"If she went to any other country, she would be in a
psychiatric hospital." Copyright © 2001. Dallas Morning News . All rights reserved. saved from url: http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/402079_defense_24tex..html
June 24 , 2001
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