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A Houston jury today found Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity. This means that Yates will be committed to a mental health facility, and her case will be reviewed regularly to see if she is eligible for release.

It is an unthinkable verdict, and the latest in a series of developing around a bizarre, incomprehensible day when Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub. Not once, but five times she acted, and she called police after her actions were concluded. While I have no doubt that yates was mentally ill, as it seems silly to suggest that any but one severely under the grip of mental illness could commit such a heinous act, against their own children even, I question the logic of even suggesting that Yates should EVER be a free woman again. She has proven herself to be a danger to society, and even if medications can keep her murderous urges under control, the mere possibility that she could fail to take her meds after she has been released is not one that we can or should risk. Yates should, quite simply, never walk this earth as a free woman again.

Yates is not the first person to bring this question to light. The diabolical murderer and suspected cannibal Ed Gein was deemed "not guilty by reason of insanity", and although he ended his days in a mental institution, the mere spectre of his release was not one that a reasonable or sane society should have even considered for a second.

A very simple solution to this problem would be to change the verdict to "guilty, but mentally insane", and allow sentencing to be structured in such a way that if the person is ever deemed to be "safe" to release, their release should be to a penitentiary where they spend their remaining days in confinement. What Yates did was cruel, was calculated, and, most appallingly, was repeated five times with children who were unable to defend themselves. Sure, she's mentally ill, but she is also unsafe to release in society.

Those who argue for a lenient sentence for Yates will often hinge their arguments on the possible culpability of Russel Yates, who was warned of his wife's mental instability, but who refused to do anything to help her. While I fall in the crowd that believes Russell Yates will bear the stain of his children's death the remainder of his days, I do not in any way believe that exonerates Andrea of her actions. For her own protection, as well as the protection of others, she should not ever walk outside of heavily guarded walls again.