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Andrea Yates: Guilty but Insane The case of Andrea Yates has troubled us all when we learned that a mother drowned 5 kids in her home in Texas nearly two years ago. As this horrific family slaughter stirred up both feelings of hate and sympathy, many people were trying to find out whether she was really insane and unable to control her behavior at the time she committed this terrifying crime. After her conviction of murder, many of us questioned if it was justified or not. Sentencing to life in prison with a right to parole in 40 years is the harsh punishment for someone who is clearly insane. There were a few cases in our history when insane people were sentenced to serve time in prisons instead of getting proper treatments in mental institutions. According to the number of doctors who tested Andrea Yates, described her condition as a very rare case in which many factors contributed its influence. Andrea had a long history of a postpartum depression and has been diagnosed with psychosis. That is enough proof to state that Andrea is a very mentally disturbed person full of delusions and visions from the outside of this world. It’s hard to tell whether these mental illnesses were inherited or developed later in life, but the