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Pastimes : Who's Guiltier?-- Andrea Yates or her Husband?
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To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (37)2/27/2002 10:02:04 AM
From: Quahog   of 74
 
Ni hao.

IMO it would be awfully difficult to hold the husband criminally responsible for the children's death.
Where I see this kind of thing the most is in the civil, family court context where a father has been abusing the children and the mother did not take appropriate steps to intervene or protect them. In that context, the issue is usually whether the mother's parental rights should also be terminated for neglect or abuse. It is a much lower, civil standard that begins and ends with a determination of the "best interests of the child."

In the criminal context, it would appear to me to be very difficult to say that Mr. Yates failure to protect his children from their mother amounted to criminal intent to harm them, beyond a reasonable doubt. I think it would be difficult to convince a jury that he KNEW his children were in imminent danger, when mental health professionals with a legal responsibility to report such danger if it exists failed to do so (or apparently to even recognize it).

And as you point out, clearly there is a double standard here. Many times a year we hear about unstable or chemically dependent men that kidnap and/or kill their own children (and then themselves). These men usually have a long history of violence, and clearly the wives knew about it. I don't recall ever hearing the public cry out for criminal charges against the wife in such circumstances. Rather, she is usually viewed as a victim too, who had been unable to escape the physical and mental clutches of her abusive husband.
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