FROM THE ARCHIVES: SHE SHOULD BE INSTITUTIONALIZED. THE HUSBAND SHOULD GO TO JAIL:

I would have acquitted Andrea Yates. (Charles Krauthammer, Jewish World Review, March 18, 2002)

It is not an easy call. But to be guilty, one needs to have free will. How free is the will of someone who is seriously psychotic?

The insanity defense is specifically intended to cover someone who is so crazy that they neither flee the scene nor try to cover up their crime. By that standard, and given her prior diagnoses and suicide attempts, she seems unquestionably insane and those who left children in her care are the guilty parties. (2002-03-18 19:22:00) Posted by Orrin Judd at January 6, 2004 7:00 PM