Fifty-four percent of the respondents to an online Web site for pregnancy and parenting advice say Andrea Yates, the Houston mother accused of drowning her five children, should receive the death penalty. Another 25 percent believe Yates should receive a sentence of life in prison.
The poll was posted in January at the americanbaby.com Web site. One question, asking what should happen to Yates, drew 631 responses.
A spokeswoman for americanbaby.com stressed that respondents were not chosen at random, but opted to participate in the poll during a visit to the Web site, which is the online adjunct to the monthly magazine, American Baby, owned and published by Primedia in New York.
Judith Nolte, editor of American Baby, said she was “very shocked” when she first learned of the large percentage of respondents favoring the death penalty for Yates. “Everyone on my staff just looked at each other and said, `What’s going on here?’ “
Nolte said most of the respondents to the online question are “a very select audience” of parents or expectant parents and most readers of American Baby are from the same group. “Many are first-time mothers and they feel so devoted to their kids, and that probably played into the responses we got,” she said.
The response to the online question was especially harsh in comparison with polls that called on a random sample of public opinion. A poll by the Houston Chronicle last November showed only 19 percent of those surveyed wanted Yates to receive the death penalty, while 57 percent believed a life sentence was fair punishment.
In the americanbaby.com poll, 93 percent believe families are not properly educated on the signs and symptoms of postpartum disorders.
The high number of respondents calling for better education about postpartum problems is a strong indication of widespread misunderstanding, Nolte said. “If there was a better understanding of the psychosis, the public would be more understanding toward Yates,” Nolte said. “I mean, what [Yates] did was horrendous and everybody was completely shocked, but this was a harsh reaction, that [respondents] felt no forgiveness.”
