Posted on 03/14/2002 2:49:18 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
March 14, 2002, 5:05PM
Associated Press
Russell Yates enters the Harris County Courthouse today
for the sentencing phase of the capital murder trial of
his wife Andrea Pia Yates. Andrea Yates was found guilty
Tuesday in the June, 2001, drowning deaths of three of
their five children and faces either life in prison or
the death penalty.
By CAROL CHRISTIAN
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
An undisclosed witness is expected to be the last to testify Friday before jurors begin deliberating the fate of convicted capital murderer Andrea Pia Yates.
The panel of eight women and four men on Tuesday convicted Yates of capital murder in the drowning deaths of three of her children. They must now decide whether to sentence her to life in prison or death.
Jutta Karin Kennedy, Yates' 73-year-old mother, wept on the witness stand this morning as she asked the jury for mercy.
"I'm here pleading for her life," Kennedy said. She told jurors that her daughter was a loving mother and compassionate nurse who suffered with her patients.
The punishment phase of the trial began this morning with a 10-minute statement from defense lawyer George Parnham. The prosecution made no opening statement, presented no witnesses of its own and asked virtually no questions of the 11 witnesses called by the defense.
"Andrea has been helping people all her life," Yates' mother testified. "The two times she really needed help, it wasn't given long enough for her to really get better."
Kennedy apparently referred to her daughter's history of mental illness, which included four hospitalizations and two suicide attempts.
Kennedy started to make a comment about her daughter's reaction to the verdict but was cut off by an objection from prosecutor Joe Owmby, which was sustained by the judge.
Outside the courtroom, another family member said Kennedy had wanted to say that following the verdict Tuesday, Yates called the family and apologized for the trouble she had caused.
Russell Yates, the defendant's husband, smiled at his wife as he took the stand. During his four-minute testimony, he said of Yates, "She's the kindest and most caring person I know."
Blinking back tears, he said she gave the children Band-Aids for injuries so minor they were undetectable.
The Clear Lake homemaker was convicted Tuesday afternoon, following a surprisingly short 3 1/2 hours of jury deliberation.
Jurors found her guilty of drowning Noah, 7, John, 5, and Mary, 6 months. She also confessed to drowning their brothers Paul, 3, and Luke, 2.
Witnesses this morning all described Yates, 37, as a dedicated, loving mother who had never committed acts of violence prior to drowning her five children in the bathtub June 20. Psychiatrists testified during the trial that Yates was mentally ill at the time of the murders and drowned her children because she thought they were doomed to burn in hell.
Her mother-in-law, Dora Yates, described Yates as the most compassionate person she had ever met.
"If she meets anyone, she tries to be their caretaker immediately," she said. "Of course I separate what happened to the children. To me, that wasn't her. The children loved her. We all love her."
Molly Maguire-Stefano, who said she met Yates as a teen-ager working at a grocery store in Pasadena, described the defendant as an "awesome mother."
For example, Yates used cloth diapers and helped the children make Christmas ornaments, her friend said.
"They could do more crafts than I could do as an adult because she worked with them," Maguire-Stefano said.
Several witnesses testified that, before drowning her children, Yates had never broken the law aside from getting one speeding ticket.
In determining the sentence, jurors are not asked to state directly, "She should spend her life in prison," or "She should die by lethal injection."
Rather, they are asked to render an opinion on two issues. For Yates to get a death sentence, the jury must agree unanimously on both questions.
The first issue is "future dangerousness" -- whether it's likely the defendant would commit future violent crimes that would constitute a continuing threat to society.
Dr. Lucy Puryear, a Houston psychiatrist who interviewed Yates in the Harris County Jail, testified that Yates is not a future threat because her mental illness was triggered by childbirth. According to other testimony, she is unlikely to give birth in prison.
"I've seen lots of people with mental illness and lots of people with anti-social, criminal backgrounds," said Puryear, former director of the Baylor Psychiatry Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine.
"Mrs. Yates is a woman who has severe mental illness and does not have the personality of someone who commits crimes, except as a result of the illness."
Puryear said that working on Yates' case for eight months had been emotionally draining.
"I spend a large part of my time trying to prevent what happened," said Puryear, who specializes in women's psychiatric problems related to childbirth. "As a mother of four, I find it almost unimaginable to think about what happened."
One juror wiped away tears as Puryear testified.
If at least 10 of the 12 jurors say Yates does not pose a future danger, she is automatically sentenced to life in prison, according to Texas law.
If all jurors say Yates is likely to commit future violent crimes, then they move on to the second issue, "mitigating circumstances."
On this issue, jurors are asked to consider all the evidence -- including the circumstances of the offense, the defendant's character and background as well as the defendant's personal moral culpability -- and then decide if there is anything that reduces the defendant's "moral blameworthiness."
Under Texas criminal procedures, the jurors need not agree on which piece of evidence constitutes a mitigating circumstance.
If jurors agree unanimously that there is no evidence to warrant sparing her life, she is sentenced to death.
If, however, 10 or more agree that there is at least one mitigating circumstance, she is sentenced to life in prison. In that case, she would become eligible for parole after serving 40 years.
At that time, Yates would be 77 years old.
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Local & State
This article is: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/topstory2/1295953
Yates' defense calls friends to stand
http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/031402dntexchildrenslain.a76b1.html
03/14/2002
HOUSTON - Prosecutors said today they would present no additional evidence to the jury that convicted Andrea Yates of capital murder for drowning her children in their bathtub. Defense lawyers and Yates' relatives urged the Houston mother be spared from a death sentence.
"All of the evidence was admitted during the case in chief," assistant district attorney Joe Owmby told jurors and State District Judge Belinda Hill as the punishment phase of Yates' trial got under way.
| Related Yates home: A yard stands empty, a husband stays silent 'Law & Order' denies that idea for drownings came from show |
Hill then denied a request from Yates' attorneys that the judge sentence Yates to a life prison term since prosecutors were calling no new witnesses.
Jurors who convicted Yates of two counts of capital murder on Tuesday have two options: life in prison or death by injection.
Defense attorneys began calling friends, family members and a psychiatrist who evaluated Yates to discuss her background, character and whether she could be a future danger to society.
"I'm here pleading for her life," Yates' mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy, told jurors.
"I've lost seven people in one year," Kennedy said, referring to her five dead grandchildren and her husband, who died one year to the day jurors convicted Yates.
"In effect, her life is over one way or another," defense attorney George Parnham said, telling jurors he accepted their verdict but didn't agree with it. Yates had claimed she was innocent by reason of insanity.
"Her children are gone and she sits here through her lawyers asking that she be spared," Parnham said.
Under Texas law, the decision comes down to how jurors answer two questions: Does she pose a future danger to society? And are there mitigating circumstances to sentence her to life as opposed to death?
Jurors must be unanimous on both questions that she is a danger and that there are no mitigating circumstances in order for a death sentence to be imposed.
The jury could begin considering the questions Friday, Parnham told them.
James Cohen, a professor at Fordham University School of Law, said even though the jury of eight women and four men rejected Yates' insanity defense, it doesn't mean the panel won't consider her mental history during the trial's punishment phase.
"Their refusal to accept it the first time is not any indication they won't accept it in sparing her life," Cohen said.
Legal experts say prosecutors face an uphill battle in trying to prove Yates is a continuing threat to society.
"Before it was a much tougher case for the defense," Southern Methodist University School of Law professor Dan Shuman said Wednesday. "I think now it is a much tougher case for the prosecution.
"The jurors now are operating under no illusions that she is going to be set free."
As for mitigation, South Texas College of Law professor Neil McCabe said the state already has acknowledged a major mitigating circumstance by saying Yates did suffer from a severe mental disease.
"It wasn't enough to carry their burden on the insanity defense, but since the government admits she is severely mentally ill they could run that around the courtroom some more," he said.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, 31 people were sent to death row last year, down slightly from 34 in 2000. In 1999, 48 convicted killers were condemned.
Texas by far, with 262 executions since 1982, is the nation's most active death penalty state. During the past 20 years, two women have been put to death.
Yates was convicted on two capital murder charges in the deaths of 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.
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.
"I would be shocked if it came back capital punishment," Shuman said. "However reluctant jurors are to punish or to give absolution to people who commit heinous acts, they have heard all the information about how this woman struggled with mental health problems."
Unless she is in solitary, she will have a very short life.
Why am I not surprised that a Kennedy is involved? Andrea learned well from distant relative Teddy the Swimmer.
She'll get life, not the death penalty.
On February 24, 1996, three light aircraft left Miami on a routine flight. Their missions, to search the waters off the Florida Coast for rafters trying to reach the US shores, and bring them help by guiding the US Coast Guard to their location. That day in February, only one plane would return to its home base in Miami.
Tune in to Radio FreeRepublic this Thursday, March 14, at 9 PM EST, and listen to the actual sounds of a terrorist in action, murdering unarmed American citizens.
Sr. José Basulto, founder of Brothers to the Rescue and pilot of the surviving Cessna, will shed light on the events of that day, and detail how the Clinton administration withheld advanced knowledge of the attack from the humanitarian volunteer group, helping seal the fate of these four courageous flyers.
Radio FreeRepublic, fearless talk radio.
I'd be curious to hear who is the cruelest, least-caring person he knows. Sounds like the prosecution is not going for the death penalty. This is unfortunate. Perhaps the jury, who seem to have their heads screwed firmly on, will surprise us. Someone has to speak for the five little citizens of Texas who were wantonly slaughtered.
"One juror wiped away tears as Puryear testified."
This jury will hang-- and the judge will pronounce sentence.
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