Just thought I'd pass it along - the news just broke.
quote:
Yates Sentenced To Life
Yates' Family Begs Jury To Spare Her Life
Posted: 9:23 a.m. CST March 15, 2002
Updated: 1:44 p.m. CST March 15, 2002HOUSTON -- A decision has been reached today in the life-or-death punishment phase for Andrea Yates of Houston, who drowned her five children.
No word yet on the punishment. Jurors had the case less than one hour before reaching a decision.
Closing arguments got under way shortly after 10:30 a.m. with State District Judge Belinda Hill giving the jury its instructions before deliberating Yates fate.
The same jury that convicted Yates, 37, of two capital murder charges for killing three of her children will now determine whether she gets sentenced to life in prison or death by lethal injection.
Jurors must be unanimous in determining whether Yates is a future danger and if there is mitigating evidence to keep her from being executed, the two questions they must answer under Texas law in the punishment phase. Anything less than a unanimous vote means a life term.
Prosecutors waived their right to begin their final arguments, so the defense began addressing the jurors at 10:45 a.m.
"Although I may disagree with your verdict, I know your verdict was based on what you perceive the law to be," defense attorney Wendell Odom said.
"I believe that the law is quite clear that unless you know beyond a reasonable doubt this woman would be a future danger to society ... you cannot answer that question, yes."
Yates' other defense attorney, George Parnham, followed Odom.
"I want her to live," Parnham said.
The defense wrapped up at about 11:15 a.m., at which time the prosecution began its final arguments. The prosecution is seeking the death penalty.
"The crime itself can be sufficient for the jury to come back and answer special issue number one, yes," prosecuting attorney Kaylynn Williford said. "It's an appropriate answer, because this crime is of horrific proportions.
"This crime is a crime of the ultimate betrayal," Williford said. "The ultimate betrayal of a mother to her children, and that is exactly why this law was created to protect the children, because those children never had a chance."
The prosecution ended its closing arguments shortly after 11:30 a.m., at which time Hill recessed the jury for lunch and asked jurors not to begin deliberating until after they are instructed to do so.
The arguments came after Hill denied a motion from defense attorneys for a mistrial.
Testimony earlier from a state psychiatrist, Dr. Park Diest, indicated Yates might have come up with the idea for drowning her children from an episode of NBC television program "Law & Order," which he said told the story of a mentally ill woman who drowned her children and was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
"That show never existed," Parnham said.
Prosecutors did not address the testimony in their arguments.
If Yates receives life, she would have to serve at least 40 years before becoming eligible for parole. If sentenced to die, she would become the ninth woman on Texas' death row.
Yates Family Testifies
Calling the Yates they know a wonderful person, tearful relatives begged a jury not to impose the death sentence on her for drowning her five children.
"I'm here pleading for her life," Yates' 73-year-old mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy, told jurors as she cried.
"I've lost seven people in one year," said Kennedy, referring to the slaying of her five grandchildren, the death of her husband and the conviction of her daughter in the children's deaths.
Defense attorneys called Yates' family, friends and a psychiatrist to testify Thursday in an attempt to save her life.
"She is just a beautiful person inside," said Yates' mother-in-law, Dora Yates. "The children loved her. We all love her."
Prosecutors offered no witnesses or evidence. All of the evidence was admitted during the trial, assistant district attorney Joe Owmby said.
The decision by prosecutors not to offer additional evidence was in line with their strategy, legal experts said.
Legal Experts Debate Yates' Fate
"Their strategy in this case has been just to hammer away at the enormity of what she did," Baylor University Law School professor Brian Serr said Thursday. "That evidence is already there."
"There are times when less is more and this may be one of those times," Southern Methodist University law professor Dan Shuman said.
Neil McCabe, a professor at South Texas College of Law, said he believes prosecutors aren't presenting additional evidence because they can't prove Yates is a future danger.
"They don't have the evidence, so they are not putting it on," he said. "She won't be dangerous in the future because there won't be any children in the future for her to kill."
Defense attorney George Parnham called a representative of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, who told jurors that Yates would not get conjugal visits in jail and would receive psychiatric medication on a voluntary basis.
Joe Lovelace, who has worked with legislators to increase funding to care for mentally ill prisoners, said if Yates were to become pregnant while in jail her child would be taken from her upon its birth.
"There would be no opportunity to raise a family in the prison system," he said.
Yates had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, contending it was severe psychosis from postpartum depression that drove her to kill 7-year-old Noah, 5-year-old John and 6-month-old Mary. Charges have not been filed in the deaths of Paul, 3, and Luke, 2.
Human Rights Group Files Complaint
A human rights group has filed a complaint with state regulators over Yates' psychiatric treatment, contending that she received "shoddy" mental health care before drowning her children.
Yates was in a psychotic state caused by premature release from care, use of inappropriate drugs and overmedication, according to the Citizens Committee on Human Rights Texas' complaint filed with the state Board of Medical Examiners.
Yates Got Life in Prison
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