andrea yates church
"She's been approved by a certain church to attend Sunday services, and I anticipate that that recommendation will be forthcoming from her doctors," Yates' attorney, George Parnham, told ABC News. He would not name the church.
Parnham said he expects doctors at Kerrville State Hospital to file a letter to the state district court within 10 days recommending that Yates be granted a two-hour pass to attend church on Sundays, the first step toward a permanent release.
"I hope that little by little she will adapt to the outside world by taking baby steps," he said.
Yates was convicted of capital murder in 2002, but acquitted at a retrial in 2006 after jurors found her not guilty by reason of insanity. The stay-at-home mom had a history of mental illness and suicide attempts before drowning Noah, 7, John, 5, Paul, 3, Luke 2, and Mary, 6 months, after her husband, Rusty, left for work.
Yates confessed to the killings after calling police to her home. A police video showed a wet sock in the hallway and the body of one of Yates' children face down in the bathtub. The other four bodies were laid on a bed and covered with a sheet.
In tapes released to ABC News' Primetime in 2006, Yates said she drowned her children because she didn't want them to go to hell. Yates' defense team argued she was influenced by Michael Woroniecki, a preacher from Oregon.
"The church she requested to attend is 180 degrees different from the ramblings of that hell, fire and brimstone preacher," said Parnham. "She would just like to get back into a stable church whereby God and Christianity become a role in her life. There's nothing nefarious about that."
Experts testified that postpartum psychosis prevented Yates from knowing right from wrong. With treatment, the delusions and hallucinations cleared and Yates realized what she had done.
Parnham said Yates makes cards and other crafts and sells them in the hospital gift shop. She sends the proceeds to the Yates Memorial Children's Fund, a charity founded by Parnham to fund women's mental health education.
While Yates' doctors may deem her ready to re-enter society, the public may feel differently.
"We tend to keep people with psychosis hospitalized a lot longer than we need to, partly because society is spooked by these individuals and judges tend to reflect those views," said Dr. Phil Resnick, director of forensic psychiatry at UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland. Resnick testified in both of Yates' trials in her defense. "States tend to be quite conservative in releasing people."
Dr. Stephen Montgomery, a forensic psychiatrist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, said church could be a good starting point for Yates' return to life outside the hospital.
"It's always healthy for patients to be reintroduced into society, and church is a good support network and source of strength for many people," he said. "The only concern would be making sure she's no longer having any type of delusion that might affect her understanding of spiritual scripture."
After seven years of treatment, Parnham said Yates is "just as normal as you or I." He hopes conditional release for weekly church services will be the first step toward her one day living on her own and holding down a job.
Yates had tried to kill herself on two separate occasions before she drowned her children — one time with pills, the other with a knife. After these attempts she was sent to a psychiatric hospital where she remained for three weeks and was diagnosed with PD.
The woman’s thoughts would race about her children and she worried how they would turn out. But she started taking two anti-depressants, Wellbutrin and Effexor, and an anti-psychotic, Haldol. Her mood improved and the Yates’ decided to have another child despite written warnings from a physician that her depression would return.
“She’s been approved by a certain church to attend Sunday services, and I anticipate that that recommendation will be forthcoming from her doctors,” Yates’ attorney George Parnham told ABCNews.com. He would not name the church.
Parnham said he expects doctors at Kerrville State Hospital to file a letter to the state district court within 10 days recommending that Yates be granted a two-hour pass to attend church on Sundays, the first step toward a permanent release.
“I hope that little by little she will adapt to the outside world by taking baby steps,” he said.
Yates was convicted of capital murder in 2002, but acquitted in 2006 after jurors found her not guilty by reason of insanity. The stay-at-home mom had a history of mental illness and suicide attempts before drowning Noah, 7, John, 5, Paul, 3, Luke 2, and Mary, 6 months, after her husband, Rusty, left for work.
Yates confessed to the killings after calling police to her home. A police video showed a wet sock in the hallway and the body of one of Yates’ children faced down in the bathtub. The other four bodies were laid on a bed and covered with a sheet