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CNN SUNDAY
Mother Accused of Drowning Her Five Children Goes on Trial Tomorrow
Aired January 6, 2002 - 15:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In Texas, the trial is set to begin tomorrow against a mother accused of drowning her five small children. Andrea Yates faces three capital murder charges. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
CNN's Ed Lavandera takes look a look at Yates' history of mental problems.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 1999, the Yates family had dreams of living in a modified RV. They spent part of the year in a converted bus: two adults, four children, 350 square feet. The bus was still parked on the side of the Yates' home, the day Andrea was arrested and charged with drowning her five children.
But in June 1999, according to medical records submitted to court, Andrea Yates tried to commit suicide, taking an overdose of anti-depressant medication, which belonged to her father. She began a series of treatments at psychiatric hospitals in Houston. In July 1999, Russell Yates found his wife holding a steak knife to her throat. She told doctors she worried about her children and that she'd visions of a person being stabbed. Experts say these are signs of post-partum psychosis.
LUCY PURYEAR, PHYSICIAN, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: The psychotic symptoms often center around the children. Mother has thoughts and feelings about hurting the children that are often bizarre and delusional. And if the woman's not treated, some bad things can happen.
LAVANDERA: According to the medical records, doctors said Russell Yates was pressuring his wife to get home. She was allowed to leave on August 20, 1999. But a doctor wrote, "apparently patient and husband plan to have as many babies as nature will allow. This will surely guarantee psychotic depression."
For the next two years, Andrea Yates would remain at home, receiving private therapy along the way. The Yates settled into a suburban Houston home near the Nasa space center, where Russell worked. But in November of 2000, the family's fifth child was born. And last March, Andrea's father dies. Those two events would trigger another severe round of depression and psychosis. Between March 31 and May 22 of last year, Andrea is in and out of a psychiatric hospital. She showed signs of improvements, then relapses. Russell Yates, according to the records, told doctors Andrea was found in a bathroom filling a bathtub with water. Andrea told doctors she is not good mother.
Dr. Mohammad Saeed wrote, "Andrea Yates presents a substantial risk of serious harm to self and others." Less than two months after that diagnosis, Andrea was allowed to go home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the responsibility of the physician to protect that patient from himself or herself, and to petition the court system for intensive involuntary care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like the hospital and the doctors did everything they could to warn the family. What else could they have told them?
LAVANDERA: The world knows the ending to this story. Twenty- nine days after leaving the last psychiatric hospital, police say two years of suicidal impulses turned homicidal.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Houston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIN: Obviously, the case captured enormous attention across the nation, which might pose a problem in finding an impartial jury.
Joining us from Houston to talk about this is criminal defense attorney Randy Schaffer. Good afternoon, Randy. Thanks for joining us on this Sunday afternoon.
RANDY SCHAFFER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: My pleasure.
LIN: All right, jury selection starts this week. What kind of jury or what kind of juror, is the prosecution likely to be looking for, then?
SCHAFFER: Well, I think for the most part, they're looking for a juror who can give lip service to the insanity defense, qualify for jury service by saying, "Yes, I can consider the insanity defense," but who in their heart of hearts really doesn't buy it, and is willing to overlook the fact that a person might be insane if, in fact, what the person did was so horrendous that they feel it's sufficient to justify a conviction.
LIN: So contrast that with what the defense attorney is going to be looking for in a juror?
SCHAFFER: Well obviously, the converse. The defense is looking for intelligent people, who either understand that mental illness is something the individual can't help, or have had experience with a family member or friend who is mentally ill and understands that those persons are not always accountable for everything they do, because they can't control it. LIN: And how do you find that, though, in a jury pool, which clearly has been exposed to all the media coverage of this sensational case?
SCHAFFER: Well, that's easier said than done. I mean, you question the people individually. And it's a process that can take weeks and sometimes months. It all depends on whether they're candid and tell you the truth. Or they say just what they think you want to hear either to get on or off the jury, as the case may be.
LIN: All right, Randy, take me then to that moment. The questioning begins with the individual jury candidates. What do you ask them to find out what their mindset is?
SCHAFFER: Oh, I think you ask what experience they've had in terms of studying psychology, psychiatry, being exposed to mental illness, how they feel about the insanity defense, how they feel about the person's being accountable for their conduct.
Whether, you know, from the prosecution's standpoint, you're wanting to know can you focus on what the individual did and what their mental state was at the very moment of the crime and not necessarily what sort of mental condition they had in the months, weeks or even days leading up to the crime?
Because the state, in this case, is obviously going to have to live with the fact she has a long, well-documented history of mental illness. So they've got to sell the position that she may have been mentally ill, but she was not insane at the time of the crimes.
LIN: Randy, can you ask the individual jurors about their own personal history? And how important is that in a case like this?
SCHAFFER: Well, you can ask anything the judge will let you ask. I think that that will be fair game for the questioning. And I think it is important, because some people are of the mindset that it doesn't matter how mentally ill someone is. We're interested in what they've done. And if they've commit a crime, we're not going to excuse them for it, no matter how insane they might be.
LIN: All right, so the balance between men and women on this jury. What do you think prosecution and defense would be looking for there?
SCHAFFER: Well, that's hard to call, because you can overgeneralize to an extent. I think the general rule of thumb would be that, probably the defense would not want younger women with small children, because no matter how bad things have gotten with their children, they haven't killed them. And they may have a more difficult time understanding a woman who did.
LIN: But they may also be women who've experienced postpartum depression?
SCHAFFER: That's true, but I think that the conventional wisdom would be, that regardless of how depressed they got, they didn't murder anyone, and they would have a hard time understanding someone else doing it.
LIN: This is going to be interesting.
Randy Schaffer, thank you very much for joining us.
SCHAFFER: Thank you.
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