Andrea Yates Found Guilty 2002 - A Texas jury found Andrea Yates guilty of capital murder Tuesday, rejecting her claim that she was insane when she drowned her five children in a bathtub last summer. Yates, 37, met the verdict stoically, nodding, with the twitching of a jaw muscle her only sign of emotion. Her husband Russell, who steadfastly supported his wife throughout the trial, sat in the courtroom after the verdict with his head in his hands.
The court will reconvene Thursday to begin the trial’s penalty phase where she faces the death penalty or life in prison.
“I think mental illness is still obviously not understood, not appreciated and I hope that we will be able to save her life,” said defense attorney Hugh Parnham.
After more than three weeks of testimony, including complex and often conflicting statements from prosecution and defense psychiatrists, the verdict from the jury of eight women and four men came quickly, after three hours and 40 minutes of deliberation.
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.
1 year ago
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