Mothers who murder their own children seem to be some of the most unnatural and cold-blooded killers ever brought to justice. What makes women kill their own children? How does the criminal justice system view these kill

Yates was tried in March 2002 and convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In Texas, where Yates lived and was tried, the only way a defendant can be judged not guilty by reason of insanity is when the court is convinced the defendant did not know what they were doing at the time. In the Yates case, the prosecution convinced the jury that Yates knew what she was doing when she drowned her children, and so, they convicted her. However, the case stirred up national controversy with its verdict and Yates' mental health problems. The CNN Web site notes, "The Yates case created national debate over the legal standards for mental illness and whether postpartum depression is properly recognized. Women's advocacy groups had harshly criticized prosecutors in the Yates case for seeking the death penalty" (Editors, 2005). With the overturning of the case, Yates and her depression are again in the news, and have brought the issue of mothers who murder their children into the forefront again. Legal writer Manchester continues,

Andrea Yates has recently been in the news, as her original murder conviction was overturned this year by a Texas court. The conviction was overturned because of the testimony of an expert witness, who said Yates might have committed the murders at least partially because she was influenced by a specific episode of the series "Law and Order." However, research indicated the episode the witness referred to never aired on television. The court felt this testimony could have affected the jury, and so, the decision was reversed. However, Yates' attorneys have not sought her release from a psychiatric detention ward, and that it is the "best possible" place for her to be (Editors, 2005). Yates' trial was originally quite controversial because her attorneys plead her not guilty by reason of insanity, and her bouts with depression and mental illness took center stage during the trial, pointing out the problem many mothers have with postpartum depression and associated violence.

Legal writer Lucy Jane Lang notes, "There are many parallels between theories of suffering and theories of motherhood that have gone unnoticed in political and legal theory. [...] To conceive of motherhood as suffering is an attempt to grant mothers agency within a theoretical structure that has long denied this power" (Lang, 2005). It is clear in each of these cases that the mothers suffered greatly in one way or another. One suffered from long term mental illness. Another suffered from molestation as a child, and broken relationships as an adult. Each of these women indicates the difficulties of motherhood that are compounded when the mother is physically or mentally unable to properly care for their children and this is something the courts must begin to recognize as the stresses of the world simply seem to increase with every passing day.

Smith, like Yates, appeared to be a laudable mother, at least on the outside. Smith was a religious North Carolina native who had spent all of her 24 years in Union. She was extremely cheerful on the outside, but inside she was troubled. Her father killed himself when she was young, and she (like Yates) attempted suicide several times during her life. Her stepfather molested her when she was a teenager, and her parents refused to seek psychiatric hospitalization after her first suicide attempt. She married her husband, David, in 1991 when she was already two months pregnant, but she slept with several other men during her marriage, and her husband also carried on affairs. Her most notorious affair was with her wealthy boss, Tom Findlay, who she hoped would marry her. She separated from David in September 1994 and filed for divorce, but Findlay also broke off their relationship. She was alone with two young boys, and she "felt hopeless, desperate, and alone. On the night of October 25, seven days after her breakup with Findlay, Smith put her children in the back seat

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Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)