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
If I remember correctly, he is a very eccentric person to say the least...at one point having her and I think 4 of the kids living in a bus..
NO excuses for her...but, as far as I am concerned he is guilty as well..
Are you a doctor (just curious)?
Yep. And she waited until the 1 hour a day that she was alone to do it. If she didn't know it was wrong, why did she call the cops and not the ambulance? On the 911 tape the dispatcher says something like, "You want the police? If your kids are hurt do you need an ambulance, too?" She hesitates then says yes.
Well that's a reasoned well though out post BUT what about her whacko husband??
I think you need to check your facts. This is the exact verdict that was handed down.
Was she sane enough when she heard voices? Was she sane enough when "the devil" started giving her commands? Would you be, if that was what you really believed was going on? Glad to hear you are totally immune to insanity and probably all other diseases, as well as a full expert on the mental health of others. /s
"Guilty but insane" doesn't exist in current Texas law.
Of course he is! Women just shouldn't have that many children to take care of without a nanny. My God, what were they thinking?
Umm,...that could be said about any heinous crimes. What's your point?
He's remarried. So he's sowing his oats somewhere else now.
For example,if...say 2,or 5,or 10,or 20 years from now...the hospital declares her to to be "completely cured",does she have the legal right to be unconditionally released?
The prosecution didn't even ask for the death penalty this time, and it did seem to be a half-hearted case on their part. And there won't be any more trials.
This is a pitiful woman who did a horrible thing and will now be kept behind locked doors, pumped full of drugs to protect her from herself.
"Guilty by reason of insanity"
Yates is NOT GUILTY. Check YOUR facts.
How ridiculous!
She should be swinging from a gallows, but since she's a woman, she gets to live. BS.
People TRYING TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER don't call the cops on themselves. Name one sane one who did.
We're all waiting.
Absolutely INSANE!!
Punish a mass murderer for drowning innocent children.
Why she did it, might make an interesting read for some liberal, but it should have no affect on punishment.
Example; "Religious" male leaves Mosque and proceeds to food market where
he plants a bomb that later kills 16 shoppers.
His reason for murdering the innocent was that he wanted to be a martyr and be received by a truck load of virgins.
If you call him insane, you will be labeled an insensitive bigot.
Of course the woman was insane. But who cares? Murder is murder. And it's even worse that it was children. Shows EXACTLY how much society values its children...
Exactly. (I'm so glad you're here. I'm getting creamed for this! I'm gonna have to shut off my pinger beacon!)
I despise that guy. I think he's pretty well responsible for everything. He'll get the justice in the long run, not helpless Andrea.
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