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American Morning

Sound Off: Should Russell Yates Be Held Accountable?

Aired February 27, 2002 - 08:42   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to this morning's "Sound Off." The jury in the Andrea Yates trial must ultimately decide whether drowning her five children was an act of murder or insanity. But the question many courtroom observers are asking is, could the tragedy been averted? Should Russell Yates and Andrea Yates have had another child when doctors said it would guarantee her future psychotic depression? And does Russell Yates bear any responsibility for what happened?

Joining us now from Washington, Bob Beckel, Democratic political strategist. Hello, Bob.

BOB BECKEL, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Hello, Paula.

ZAHN: And Cliff May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Good to see you, as well, Cliff.

CLIFF MAY, FOUNDATION FOR THE DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Good morning and happy birthday to you, by the way.

ZAHN: Well, thank you very much. Those greetings just keep on coming. I love it.

MAY: We were born -- you and I were born on the same day, decades apart of course, but the same day.

BECKEL: If I were you, man, I'd leave it right there.

MAY: I said it right.

ZAHN: Let's go back to the issue of Russell Yates, Bob Beckel. Obviously, Andrea Yates is on trial, but, clearly, there are people asking very tough questions about Russell Yates and whether he should share any blame for what happened to his children.

BECKEL: Well, I don't think she should be on trial in the first place, let alone him. I think it's just absurd. The fact of the matter is, Andrea Yates ought to be in a psychiatric hospital, and the next patients in ought to be the prosecutors from Harris County. The idea that they would put this woman on trial in the face of their own psychiatrist's reaction to her depression, and the fact that she was not in touch with reality when she interviewed here.

But, secondly, let me make this point. Russell Yates is not a professional psychiatrist. This woman was before psychiatrists and hospitalized, and they're the ones who are responsible for warning social services if they believe that someone is a danger to children. They didn't do that, and so you can't put it on Russell Yates.

ZAHN: But, as you know, Bob, I mean, what has surfaced is this information that these doctors had told Russell Yates that if they had more children, that might cause her to break.

BECKEL: Well, I mean, that may well be true. I'm not going to deny that, but the point is, I mean -- first of all, how do you control that? This is a somewhat religious family, I mean, maybe -- whatever. The fact is, they did have another baby. They didn't believe in abortion. And if this psychiatrist was so concerned about that, why didn't -- when he knew they had another baby, go to social services and say, "this is a situation ready to explode?"

They didn't do it, and they ended up in Texas, which has a judicial system but no justice system.

MAY: Let me...

ZAHN: What about that point, Cliff, that social services should have taken action earlier? I mean, there is a story that when Russell Yates moved his family to Florida, they were living in this converted bus. A social worker was observing them, and she said -- quote -- "living arrangement" -- that she was concerned about not only the "living arrangement," but "the fact that (the) patient's husband allows the 3 1\2-year-old son to use a power drill."

MAY: Look, there is...

ZAHN: What kind of an alarm should have gone off here?

MAY: A lot of alarms should have gone off. There is plenty of blame to go around, although, at the end of the day, the criminal culpability falls on the person who actually committed the acts of murder. Now there's -- but there's also a problem, I think, with our legal system that this brings up.

You cannot simply say that somebody who kills their kids must be crazy. Therefore, they're not responsible. Therefore, they're not held criminally accountable. It's a get out of jail free card. You put them in an institution. Then some psychiatrist says, "Ah, she's cured." She goes out, she gets married again, has more kids and kills them.

That can't be the way you do it. There should be a choice for a jury that says, "this person is guilty, but insane." Right now, that choice does not exist for juries in the United States. They either have to say guilty, innocent -- not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity. There needs to be a fourth choice. Guilty. She did it. She killed her children, but she's insane. Never again let her out in the world.

ZAHN: Need 15 seconds apiece from you on what you think Russell Yates has to communicate to the jury today if he wants to save his wife from a conviction? Bob? BECKEL: I think what he's going to have to say is that this is a woman who was a very good mother. Did suffer a lot of depression, and when he left her that morning, he couldn't believe that she would do something like this, so she must have been out of her mind. And also to say, to have this woman on trial for her life -- as Texas last year and Virginia were competing for the golden needle award in capital punishment -- that this is wrong, dead wrong, and the State of Texas ought to be ashamed of itself.

MAY: Let's listened to what Bob just said. He said, he needs to convince her she was a good mother, except that she murdered her children. I don't think she should be put to death. I don't think it's capital punishment. I do think she should be institutionalized, really, in a prison for the criminally -- for the criminally insane. In some kind of institution for the criminally insane for the rest of her life. She should never be out in society. Never have the chance to give birth to children again and kill them.

ZAHN: All right. We're going to have to leave it there this morning. Cliff May, Bob Beckel, thanks for your insights. And, once again, Russell Yates is expected to testify, along with Andrea Yates' mother later on today. Thanks, gentlemen.

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