The former husband of Andrea Yates, the Texas woman who drowned her five children while in the throes of postpartum psychosis, says that Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy should not go to jail — as he urged people not to judge the father.
“But for her sickness, she would never, ever, ever would have harmed our children,” Russell “Rusty” Yates told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo of his ex-wife, Andrea.
In 2001, Andrea drowned the couple’s five young children in a bathtub at their Houston home. The youngest, Mary, was just six months’ old.
She was initially sentenced to life in prison, but the verdict was overturned in 2006 on the grounds that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, in addition to severe postpartum depression and schizophrenia, at the time of the killings.
Though Yates divorced Andrea in 2005, he told Cuomo that his ex was a “wonderful mother,” and insisted that women suffering from postpartum psychosis should not face criminal charges.
“It’s much like having a dream or nightmare overlaid on reality so that a person sees things that aren’t real, hears voices that aren’t real, believes things to be true that aren’t true and they act on that,” he said of his experience with the condition.
“It’s every bit a part of their reality as everything else — they can’t distinguish between those thoughts and images and voices and anything else.”
At yesterday’s arraignment in Plymouth District Court, Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington alleged that his client — who appeared via Zoom from her hospital bed — told a psychologist that she heard a male voice urging her to kill the children and herself.
Prosecutors, however, allege that Clancy, 32, was never formally diagnosed with postpartum depression.
They also argued the mom plotted for her husband to be out of the house for at least 20 minutes, giving her enough time to kill all three children.
Speaking to Cuomo, Yates also rejected the idea that partners or fathers can truly protect children from a psychotic loved one.
“You can do all you can but you really can’t protect yourself from a psychotic person at home,” he said.
“They can get up in the middle of the night and light the house on fire or poison everyone.”
Yates then urged for forgiveness in cases involving postpartum psychosis.
“When someone acts so out of character like that it’s a flag that something else is going on. As far as forgiveness goes, it’s kind of the start,” he explained.
Shortly after her conviction was overturned, Andrea Yates was moved to Kerrville State Hospital, a mental institution where she resides to this day. Although she is eligible to be reviewed for release annually, she denies each opportunity.
In the lead-up to the funeral service for his three children, Patrick asked the public to “forgive Lindsay.”
“The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone — me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace,” he wrote.
