Mental health is defined as the level of emotional or cognitive well-being of an individual . An individual is said to have a sound mental health when his or her mind does not exhibit any mental disorder. Individuals who suffer from mental disorders such as severe postpartum psychosis and postpartum depression have an increased likelihood of committing carious crimes including murder. Among the criminal cases that are influenced by abnormal health is the Andrea Yates case. On 20th June, 2001, Andrea Yates murdered her young children by drown them. Andrea Yates committed the murder crimes possibly because she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and postpartum depression in the previous days.
According to Mackenzie, the criminal case of Andrea Yates depends on mental ill health as the major factor. The psychiatrists agreed that she was seriously mentally ill with some psychotic disease during the time she murdered her children. Andrea Yates and her husband, Russell Yates, had been counseled and warned by a psychiatrist against bearing more children. The psychologists realized that Andrea Yates is among those women who develop psychotic symptoms just after childbirth. They had been given some medication to suppress psychotic symptoms, but they decided to discontinue with it as a preparation for another child. This case challenged the criminal justice system because Andrea Yates appeared to have planned the murder of her five children.
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In 2005, the prosecution had decided for a death sentence, but the jury did not agree to the death sentence option. Because of the disagreement, Yates was sentenced to life imprisonment for a prison term of forty years with a possibility of parole. In 2006, she stood acquitted of the murder charges because of insanity. Therefore, she was released on bail for her mental conditions to be examined further in a mental health hospital. The state of Texas defined that Yates was not guilty because of insanity. In 2007, she was transferred to another a mental hospital within Texas.