Absolute Atonement for Andrea Yates

Re “Jury Rejects Insanity Claim, Convicts Mother of Murder,” March 13: My mother took her own life. She was well aware of what she was doing, but emotional illness altered her perception of the value of her life. Andrea Yates knew what she was doing, but emotional illness had altered her perception of the value of her children’s lives.

I feel our system is unjust to define mental illness by a single, simplistic criterion: awareness of what one is doing. Whether Yates’ own life proves to be long or short, I take comfort in my belief that she will be pardoned the only way any of us will be, by the just judge who took the penalty phase on himself for all humankind.

Felicia Brichoux

Santa Ana

*

Now that Andrea Yates has been convicted for drowning her children, when does her husband Rusty go before a jury? Or is it a husband’s right to ignore his wife’s depression and suicide attempts and continue to father more children in his authoritarian household?

Even in this litigious society of ours it seems there’s room for one more category of conviction: stupidity. I nominate Rusty Yates to inaugurate the new legal category.

Anne Wold

Rancho Palos Verdes