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CNN Live At Daybreak
Postpartum Depression is a Serious Issue for Families
Aired August 08, 2001 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: It is time for more now on the arraignment today of Andrea Yates. She's accused of killing all five of her children, drowning them in a bathtub. She had been treated for postpartum depression and her lawyers say she has a history of mental illness.
Joining us now for more on this, Dick DeGuerin who is a defense attorney in Houston, Texas, quite experienced in these types of cases.
Mr. DeGuerin, thanks for being here.
DICK DEGUERIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Sure.
MCEDWARDS: One of the things that's expected to happen at the arraignment today is that the judge will rule on whether or not to have a competency hearing. What would you expect in a case like this? Would you expect such a hearing to be granted?
DEGUERIN: Yes, all that has to happen is for the defense to raise the question of her present competency to stand trial and then there'll have to be a hearing. It'll have to be before a jury and a jury will have to find whether she is presently competent or not.
MCEDWARDS: And in that hearing, I mean what kinds of things are -- is the jury going to be hearing? What are her lawyers going to be trying to show?
DEGUERIN: Well, I think they'll try to show her history both of her mental problems and her dissent into what's obviously madness. This case has insanity, which is different from competency, written all over it.
MCEDWARDS: Yes, explain that difference.
DEGUERIN: Well, competency means a present ability to assist your lawyers to understand the charges against you, to know what's going on around you and that may not be the same as insanity or a mental condition at the time of the crime.
MCEDWARDS: So insanity would suggest that at the time the crimes were allegedly committed she didn't know what she was doing? Competency speaks more to whether or not she can understand what's going on around her in the legal proceeding? DEGUERIN: There's a slightly different test. Insanity goes back to the old McNalton (ph) rule of hundreds of years ago that the person did not know the difference between right and wrong. Competency means a present ability to understand the proceedings.
MCEDWARDS: All right, if you were her lawyers in this case, what would you be doing?
DEGUERIN: Well, I'd be investigating. I'd be having her examined by a psychiatrist and psychologist, but I'd also be investigating all of the circumstances of her home, her background, her friends, her family. This is a tragedy, but it's probably one that could have been avoided by those around her seeing that she was crazy.
MCEDWARDS: And in terms of entering a plea, which is also expected to happen today, I mean what do lawyers do? Do they want to get an insanity plea in right away or what?
DEGUERIN: Yes, they have to file notice of reliance on an insanity defense, but they also need to raise the present competency issue, which has to be determined before there can be a trial on guilt or innocence at all.
MCEDWARDS: Mr. DeGuerin, explain what's going on. She's charged in connection with three of the deaths, no indictments on the other two. That, I suppose, gives the prosecution a bit of room?
DEGUERIN: Well, the prosecution may be holding back and at the same time, they may recognize that this is a clear-cut case of insanity and they've done the bear bones minimum. But still, the decision whether to seek the death penalty, even though the -- there's a capital murder indictment, that decision hasn't been made yet.
MCEDWARDS: All right. Dick DeGuerin, thanks for the insights into this big help (ph).
DEGUERIN: You're welcome.
MCEDWARDS: Appreciate it.
Well, since the Andrea Yates' story broke, mental health experts say that they've gotten a flurry of phone calls. A lot of those calls are coming from concerned husbands.
CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has one couple's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was supposed to be a perfect time for the Kazak family, their daughter, Ashley, had been born. But things didn't turn out quite the way Justin and Cynthia had expected.
JUSTIN KAZAK, HUSBAND AND FATHER: It's not that perfect situation and it makes it very frustrating and that brings everything to a grinding halt basically.
GUTIERREZ: Frustrating because Cynthia suffers from postpartum depression. It's a biochemical brain condition that makes it nearly impossible for her to function.
CYNTHIA KAZAK, WIFE AND MOTHER: My husband would come home from work and I'll see what I want for dinner. And I'd go without eating because to make the decision of what to eat would just be too hard.
J. KAZAK: I'd come in the door every night, it's like here, here's Ashley, just, you know, take her from me for a while. I just need, you know, some rest.
GUTIERREZ: Justin and Cynthia knew they were dealing with something far more serious than the baby blues.
J. KAZAK: I've seen my wife get to that point of being really frustrated that she has to lock herself in her room.
C. KAZAK: It's really devastating, you know like I've said, when you've gone without the sleep and when you can't think straight and then the only thought in your head is, you know, you need to get out of here, you need to get out of this life.
GUTIERREZ: The Kazak's turned to Dr. Diana Barnes at the Center for Postpartum Health in the San Fernando Valley.
DR. DIANA BARNES, POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION SPECIALIST: I'm getting more and more calls from husbands concerned about their wives. Most of the flurry of activity has been in response to the Andrea Yates case, and I would say that I have had probably double the phone calls in the last two months.
GUTIERREZ: Dr. Barnes says PPD can strike anytime within a year of childbirth, but only one or two of every thousand births ever turns into postpartum psychosis where a mother can harm herself or her child.
Justin says he feels compassion for his wife, but it's hard to cope.
BARNES: Men will experience anger that this isn't what I bargained for. You know I wanted to have a baby and look what's happened, I've lost my wife. I don't know who I'm living with anymore.
GUTIERREZ: But now Justin understands PPD is a mental biochemical condition his wife cannot control.
J. KAZAK: To have somebody tell you that your wife's got postpartum depression just really just runs everything into a block wall.
GUTIERREZ: But Justin is holding out hope, PPD is treatable. Cynthia takes antidepressants and she's in therapy.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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