Posted on 07/26/2006 9:35:01 AM PDT by cajunman
HOUSTON -- Jurors reached a verdict in Andrea Yates' murder retrial Wednesday morning. The jury's decision will be announced at about 11:25 a.m. KPRC and Click2Houston will air the verdict live.
After deliberating nearly 11 hours, jurors returned for a third day Wednesday to determine if she was legally insane when she drowned her five children in the bathtub.
Before court ended Tuesday, the jury of six men and six women asked to review the state's definition of insanity: that someone, because of a severe mental illness, does not know a crime he is committing is wrong.
State District Judge Belinda Hill said jurors, who were sequestered for the second night, , could see the definition Wednesday morning.
Jurors have already deliberated longer than the nearly four hours it took a first jury, which convicted her in 2002. That conviction was overturned on appeal last year.
Yates, 42, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. She is charged in only three of the deaths, which is common in cases involving multiple slayings.
As court was to end Tuesday, jurors asked for one more hour to deliberate. But then the panel immediately passed another note rescinding that request. Hill quoted the note, which read, "We need some sleep," prompting laughs from those in the courtroom.
The jury earlier asked to review the videotape of Yates' July 2001 evaluation by Dr. Phillip Resnick, a forensic psychiatrist who testified for the defense that she did not know killing the children was wrong because she was trying to save them from hell.
Resnick told jurors that Yates was delusional and believed 6-month-old Mary, 2-year-old Luke, 3-year-old Paul, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah would grow up to be criminals because she had ruined them.
Jurors later asked to review Yates' November 2001 videotaped evaluation by Dr. Park Dietz, the state's expert witness whose testimony led an appeals court to overturn Yates' 2002 capital murder conviction last year.
Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist, testified in her first trial that an episode of the television series "Law & Order" depicted a woman who was acquitted by reason of insanity after drowning her children. But no such episode existed. The judge barred attorneys in this trial from mentioning that issue.
On Tuesday, after jurors asked for the trial transcript involving defense attorney George Parnham's questioning of Dietz about the definition of obsessions, the judge brought the jury back into the courtroom.
The court reporter then read the brief transcript, in which Dietz said Yates "believed that Satan was at least present. She felt or sensed the presence." Dietz had testified that Yates' thoughts about harming her children were an obsession and a symptom of severe depression -- not psychosis.
Earlier Tuesday, jurors reviewed the slide presentation of the state's key expert witness, Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist who evaluated Yates in May. He testified that she did not kill her children to save them from hell as she claims, but because she was overwhelmed and felt inadequate as a mother.
Welner told jurors that although Yates was psychotic on the day of the June 2001 drownings, he found 60 examples of how she knew it was wrong to kill them.
If Yates is found innocent by reason of insanity, she will be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released -- although by law, jurors are not allowed to be told that.
Yates will be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of capital murder.
A capital murder conviction in Texas carries either life in prison or the death penalty. Prosecutors could not seek death this time because the first trial's jurors sentenced her to life in prison, and authorities found no new evidence
I don't know.
"Yates will be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released. If convicted, she would have faced life in prison."
Looks like she will at least have the opportunity to be released......
Do I pity the sick woman. No. Not as much as I pity those kids having been abandoned by the one person that should love and honor them more than any other. The horror of the last moments they had here...wondering why, struggling, crying for their mommy probably...it sickens me.
Rest in peace children, let God sing you to sleep.
I wonder how many other desperate mothers or fathers, weighed downed by their own choices will take the easy way out. I pray for unloved children, they deserve better.
I see little difference.
Neither do I..This verdict gives hope to the criminally insane, like Charles Manson, who can now look forward to an "appeal".
sw
Is there a Guilty but Insane finding/choice in Texas?
"It's a miracle, your honor, I'm well!!"
That's not what I mean... I meant his ignoring her mental condition and insisting she have MORE children because his nutty pastor told them so. Having seen his interviews, I think he's crazy.
The problem with saying she should have sought help is you're assuming she knew she was nuts. Part of the problem with insanity is from the inside it looks perfectly normal, the more seriously whacked people don't know they're not normal. You have to have some level of sanity to understand that you're in a version of reality that doesn't match the rest of the world, that's actually one of the most dangerous points in the life of the seriously disturbed, lots of people kill themselves when they start to realize just how nuts they have been, it's a very depressing realization.
And those of you who want to flame me with "there's nothing wrong with big families" after that last statement, save it, I came from a family of six kids.
I HOPE she gets the help she needs since she'll not get the death penalty.
Reverse chutzpah. Chutzpah is where you kill your parents then throw yourself on the mercy of the court because you're an orphan.
Reverse chutzpah is where you kill your children, and tell the court you've suffered enough.
My statement was in reply to another poster describing the murdered children as "unfortunate." I do not care who you are, murdered before your tenth birthday is a bit more than unfortunate.
And no, this was not the most just solutiuon to this episode. Justice would demand that she pay for the crime she committed against her own children.
Was she nuts? I don't know, but justice, nuts or not, would be, at least, for her to sit in a small concrete cell for the rest of her (hopefully) short life.
good post btw
This verdict gives hope to the criminally insane, like Charles Manson, who can now look forward to an "appeal".
Hi Knitting,
This verdict and the fate of the children is one of those heart-wrenching situations that I just have to withdraw from. It's just too much for me.
Anyway, just wanted to say hello to you.
Good day,
Kate
Excellent post!!!
Manson was never judged insane. He was convicted of capital murder.
If she ever regains any of her sanity, that's exactly what's in store for her. And she wasn't a nasty mother nor did she hate her kids, so that realization will be a terrible thing to wake up to.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.