Sorry - but this lady needs to get the Death Penalty

[GotZoom]

HOUSTON - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused Wednesday to reconsider a lower court's decision to overturn Andrea Yates capital murder convictions for drowning her children in a bathtub in 2001.

Harris County Assistant District Attorney Alan Curry said the case would be retried or a plea bargain considered. Jurors rejected Yates insanity defense in 2002 and found her guilty of two capital murder charges for the deaths of three of her five children.

"Andrea Yates knew precisely what she was doing," Curry said. "She knew that it was wrong."

Curry said if the case goes back to trial, he is confident Yates would be convicted again. He said a plea bargain also may be discussed.

Yates' attorney, George Parnham, did not immediately return a phone call to The Associated Press Wednesday.

The First Court of Appeals in Houston overturned Yates' 2002 convictions in January because of false testimony from forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz.

Curry asked the highest criminal court in Texas, based in Austin, to reconsider the lower court's ruling. He said the lower court wrongly applied the law when it overturned the convictions.

Yates, 40, was sentenced to life in prison and is jailed at a psychiatric prison in East Texas. Yates called police and an ambulance to her home within hours of her husband leaving for work on June 20, 2001. She answered the door in wet clothes and told an officer what she had done.

She then led the officer to a back bedroom where the four youngest children's lifeless bodies were laid out on a bed. Police later found the oldest child, Noah, 7, floating face down with his arms outstretched in the tub's murky water.

During her trial, psychiatrists testified that Yates suffered from schizophrenia and postpartum depression, but defense and prosecution expert witnesses disagreed over the severity of her illness and whether it prevented her from knowing that drowning her children was wrong - the two requirements to be declared legally insane in Texas.

Jurors determined Yates knew it was wrong to kill her children and found her guilty.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/13122552.htm

 

[5stringJeff]

Mental institution or jail, she should be locked up for life.

(#7,800!)

 

[-Cp]

Sad, but true IMO:

Andrea Yates, the Texas woman who drowned her five young children four years ago, will likely get a new trial, prosecutors said.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday declined to interfere with a lower court's decision to overturn her convictions. Though Yates was convicted of murder in 2002, the First Court of Appeals overturned the convictions in January after finding a key witness gave false testimony.

Harris County Assistant District Attorney Alan Curry said he would seek a new trial or consider a plea bargain — the latter option being highly unlikely, according to legal experts.

"Andrea Yates knew precisely what she was doing," Curry said. "She knew that it was wrong."

Yates' attorney, George Parnham, told FOX News his client was "back to square one," and a new trial would be something "she dreads extremely."

Yates' attorneys claimed in her 2002 trial that she suffered from mental illness and postpartum depression. The jury found that Yates knew what she did was wrong, and found her guilty of two capital murder charges for the deaths of three of the children.

Curry said if the case goes back to trial, he is confidant Yates would be convicted again. Because she was not sentenced to death in her first trial, it is highly improbable Curry will seek the death penalty this time around, Parnham said.

The convictions were tossed because renowned forensic psychiatrist, Park Dietz, erroneously hinted that Yates may have watched an episode of TV crime show "Law and Order" in which a mentally ill woman drowned her children and was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Dietz was a technical consultant on the show. However, the episode in question never aired, the show's executive producer told one of Yates' attorneys.

The First Texas Court of Appeals ruled there is "a reasonable likelihood that Dr. Dietz's false testimony could have affected the judgment of the jury."

But prosecutors said that whether the episode existed or not had no bearing on whether Yates knew right from wrong when she murdered her children.

"The incorrect testimony — you can say it was false because it was incorrect — it was a mistake that happened. There was no intent to deceive. The evidence was credible that she knew right from wrong," Joe Owmby, a prosecutor in Yates' original trial, told FOX News.

While prosecutors agreed Yates was mentally ill, they argued that the illness was not severe enough to impede her ability to know right from wrong. Jurors agreed, and did not declare her legally insane.

Yates, 41, was sentenced to life in prison and is jailed at a psychiatric prison in East Texas.

The murders of the children, the youngest a 6-month-old baby and the oldest a 7-year-old, horrified the country and became a high-profile instance of postpartum depression used in an insanity defense. Yates' name has been frequently evoked in similar cases, most recently last month when a young mother dropped her three young children to their deaths in the San Francisco Bay.

On June 20, 2001, Yates called police and an ambulance to her home within hours of her husband leaving for work. She answered the door in wet clothes and told an officer what she had done. She then led the officer to a back bedroom where the four youngest children's lifeless bodies were laid out on a bed. Police later found the oldest child, Noah, floating face down with his arms outstretched in the tub's murky water.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,175041,00.html

 

[GotZoom]

Someone please merge these two. Thanks!

http://www.usmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26692