Insane is an over-used term in the English language. It can be used to refer to a college guy who is gambling thousands of dollars on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament or for someone who enjoys having piercings put all over one’s body.

As in the case of Andrea Yates – the Texas mother sentenced to life in prison last week for brutally drowning her five children – she obviously was insane by today’s loose definition of the word, but luckily a jury didn’t find her insane to a much more serious degree of legal terms.

Although Yates suffered from postpartum depression, which was a main factor in driving her to kill her children, the Houston jury made the right calls twice in her trial. Yates deserved to be convicted of capital murder and to be sentenced to life in prison rather than to death.

She did not deserve a lighter sentence due to pleading insanity. As it has been reported, Andrea Yates immediately called her husband, Russell Yates, at work after she finished drowning each of her children individually and told him she did something very wrong. She also called law enforcement officials soon after.

Andrea Yates immediately knew what she did was wrong and, therefore, she cannot be considered insane. She could still tell right from wrong.

The jury also did justice right by sentencing Andrea Yates to life in prison rather than through the barbaric and unneeded death penalty system.

She probably is not a further threat to society, but she still deserves to spend the rest of her life behind bars for her brutal, life-ending actions.

What has been disappointing and surprising throughout her trial is the reaction and display of support for her by her husband, Russell.

If I had a wife who murdered all five of my children – or even one – there would be no forgiveness or sympathy for her. Give her the life sentence and try to move on.

Yet maybe Russell Yates has acted oddly in strong support for his wife because he realizes he was a main factor in driving her to kill their children.

According to Andrea Yates’ family on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Russell Yates never helped his wife with the kids, even after Andrea Yates showed signs of depression.

He also wanted her to keep having children so he could have six boys and one girl.

While aware of his wife’s unstable mental state, Russell Yates also continued to let her stay at home alone with the kids to home school them.

All of this pressure, Andrea Yates said in police confession, made her believe she was not doing a good job as a mother and made her want to punish herself by losing her children through death.

It’s an all-around horrible and sad situation – five young children’s lives ended at the hands of their mother. Yet the end of the ordeal hopefully isn’t over, as Russell Yates should be prepared for some type of charges from prosecutors or Andrea Yates’ family in the near future.

The talks of possible charges are child endangerment and negligent homicide, which sound about right for this previously unsupportive husband.