Attorney for Andrea Yates to speak at UF on insanity defense

March 21, 2006

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Lawyer George Parnham, who is defending former Texas housewife Andrea Yates on charges she murdered her own children, will speak Wednesday at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law.

Using audio and video recordings of Yates after her arrest, Parnham and Stephen C. O’Connell Professor of Law Christopher Slobogin will discuss how postpartum depression and other women’s mental health issues are treated in the criminal justice system. The presentation will begin at noon in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom.

“The Andrea Yates case focuses attention on ‘female’ types of insanity,” said Jennifer Kent, a member of UF’s Law Association for Women, which is organizing the event. “We’re interested in bringing Parnham to UF because of the national discussion the Yates case provoked.”

Andrea Yates was arrested in 2001 for drowning her five children in the bathtub of her Houston, Texas, home. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2002, but her conviction was overturned when a factual error was discovered in the testimony of a forensic psychiatrist in the case. Yates’ retrial, originally scheduled for this week, has been postponed until June. Her lawyers have pursued an insanity defense, arguing that Yates is the victim of postpartum depression.

The speech is free and open to the public.

Media interested in attending are asked to contact the Levin College of Law Communications Office at (352) 273-0650.