Hi 87 / Lo 58
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Hi 87 / Lo 58 |
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Volume 72, Issue 59,
Friday, November 10, 2006
News Mental health, law to be explored Participants in Yates trial will speak at symposium Saturday by GABRIELLE LYONS
The UH Graduate College of Social Work will co-sponsor a free symposium titled Beyond the Andrea Yates Verdict: Women's Mental Health and the Law from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the University Hilton. The symposium will "bring to the public more information about the law in Texas and the need for public understanding of the relationship between mental health and competence," Paul Raffoul, associate dean and associate professor in the College of Social Work, said. The relationship between mental health and the law came to the forefront during the widely-publicized Andrea Yates trial. Yates is the Clear Lake mother who drowned her five children in 2001. She suffered from postpartum depression, a form of depression that affects men and women after childbirth. Originally convicted of first degree murder in 2002, Yates was sentenced to life in prison, but her conviction was later overturned on appeal this year. The symposium will "take advantage of the recent court decision regarding one of our citizens in her recent trial for killing her children," Raffoul said. George Parnum, the criminal defense attorney who defended Yates in court, and psychiatrist Lucy Puryear, who served as an expert witness in the trial, will speak at the symposium. "They are the two people who won the case. They are the ones who convinced the jury that she was not competent when she committed this terrible act," Raffoul said. "The problem with that is that in the legal system, being mentally ill is not the legal grounds for pleading guilt or innocence. In the legal system, it's a matter of competence. "So the question is, Is a person suffering from a mental illness competent?' In this case, to know right from wrong." Raffoul hopes the symposium will help educate the public on mental health. "I think the message, the meaning to all of this, is ... to be informed about the issue," he said. "I think legal competence and mental illness is very confusing to most people the whole issue of her illness was not seen as justification." The seminar is also sponsored by the Mental Health Association of Greater Houston. The MHAGH is a non-profit United Way agency that advocates increased funding and access to mental health services and provides information for community awareness about mental health issues. Seating for the event will be limited and prior registration is recommended. To register, call MHAGH at (713) 523-8963 or visit www.mhahouston.org. Send comments to dcnews@mail.uh.edu |
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