http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/03/12/yates.verdict/index.html
HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- A jury of eight women and four men found Andrea Yates guilty Tuesday of two counts of murder for drowning her children in the family bathtub.
She now faces the death penalty or life in prison.
The jury surprised practically everyone by deliberating only three hours and 40 minutes before reaching a verdict in the murder trial of the Houston area woman.
Yates was found guilty of two counts of capital murder for the deaths last summer of Noah, 7, John, 5, and Mary, 6 months. One of the counts covers the two eldest children. She was not on trial for the drownings of Luke, 3, and Paul, 2.
One charge covers the intentional deaths of two people in the same event or scheme; the other covers the death of a child under 6.
Under Texas law, if jurors believed Yates knew right from wrong at the time of the killings, they could not have found her legally insane.
The prosecution did not contest that Yates suffered from a severe mental disease, but contended she knew killing her children was wrong and that the acts were premeditated.
"This is a crime of horrific proportions. This is a crime where she made a choice, knowing it was a sin, she had to conceal this act because others would stop her from doing it," prosecutor Kaylynn Williford said in her closing argument.
"It was wrong in the eyes of God and it was wrong in the eyes of the law."
Prosecutors also suggested that Yates might have killed the children to get back at her husband, Russell.
"I think anyone who has a mental illness [and] who watched that should be offended," Russell Yates said after the closing arguments.
Andrea Yates confessed to killing the children but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
"If this woman doesn't meet the test of insanity in this state, then nobody does," defense attorney George Parnham told the jury. "We might as well wipe it from the books."
Yates attorney Wendell Odom argued that Yates was an "extremely sick woman" when she drowned the children.
"The state is looking for a technicality on how to convict her, because some people simply do not want to accept the fact that you can be so mentally ill that you kill five people," he said.
Odom said a number of the medical experts who testified Yates was the sickest patient they had ever seen, suffering from schizophrenia, depression and other mental conditions.
He said those conditions, combined with postpartum depression following Mary's birth, cause a "full-blown psychosis."
Odom also challenged the credibility of several prosecution witnesses, including high-profile UCLA psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz whose testimony Odom implied might have been for sale.
"I know one thing, that if we had between $50,000 and $100,000 and we called him first, Park Dietz might have been testifying for the defense," Odom said.
Dietz testified Yates was mentally ill but still knew her actions were legally and morally wrong.
Prosecutors also played video and audio tapes in which Yates confessed to the killings and said what she did was wrong.
Williford described the steps Yates took in preparation to drown the children and said it took about three minutes for Paul to lose consciousness.
"I would ask that you take at least three minutes of silence, and sit there in silence and realize, realize how long it takes for a child to lose voluntary control of their body," she said.
Yates' attorneys asked for a mistrial Tuesday after prosecutor Joseph Owmby told jurors "there was no question" Yates acted knowingly and intentionally when she drowned her five children.
Odom argued a new trial should be granted because Owmby inappropriately defined the charges.
The arguments came after three weeks of testimony from police, medical experts and family members. The defense rested Monday after calling rebuttal witnesses in the trial of Andrea Yates. The prosecution rested over the weekend.
The prosecution has not charged Yates in the deaths of two children, preserving its right to charge her later. Legal analysts have speculated whether or not this would constitute double jeopardy -- trying a person twice for the same crime -- which is unconstitutional.
"As every one knows, there are mistakes in the Bible" - The Watchtower, April 15, 1928, p. 126
Believe in yourself, not mythology.
<x ><
