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American Morning

Sound Off: Videotape, Audio Tape, Pictures in Andrea Yates's Trial

Aired February 22, 2002 - 08:46   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to this morning's Sound Off. At the murder trial of Andrea Yates, prosecutors yesterday presented a 15-minute video of the crime scene. Jurors wiped away tear as they saw investigators search the house graphically detailing the evidence Andrea Yates left behind. Four of the children were shown tucked into their bed, their heads on their pillows. This, obviously, is family video at a happier time of the family's life. But the oldest Yates child was shown in pictures floating facedown in the bathtub. Will this bolster the prosecution's case or make the defense argument that she was insane?

Next week's cover of "People" magazine asks the question, is Andrea Yates a villain or a victim?

Joining us now from Washington, former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne. Good to see you again.

CYNTHIA ALKSNE, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Good morning.

ZAHN: And from Houston, defense attorney Dick DeGuerin. Nice to host you as well.

DICK DEGUERIN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Hi, Paula.

ZAHN: Good morning.

All right, I'm going to start with you, Dick, this morning because you're standing outside to make it easier for this morning. We talked a little bit about the jurors' reaction to these -- the videotape that was shown in addition to the stills that were shown. How do you think that evidence ultimately plays with this jury?

DEGUERIN: Well the prosecution's doing their best to prejudice the jury. The law in Texas is that if you can talk about something you can show pictures of it, but I think they may have overplayed their hand. This is -- it's horrifying to see what happened to these children, but at the same time, it just smacks of insanity.

ZAHN: What about that, Cynthia Alksne? There is always the risk of that happening with the jury. Andrea Yates clearly visibly shaken by seeing the pictures of her children and the video.

ALKSNE: Exactly. I mean I think that's a risk that the prosecution recognizes it's taking. On the other hand, welcome to a murder case. This type of evidence is admitted in murder cases all over the country every single day. And it is a case about the death of these children, and the jury is going to have to make some determinations based on what they learn at the crime scene. So they need to see it.

And I might tell you that during the month of jury selection, one of the things that prosecutors typically do is explain to the jury you're going to see some pretty graphic pictures, can you handle that? Can you be a juror in a case that is as sad and as grizzly as this one? So I'm sure it was difficult for the jurors but not a surprise.

Also, the defense has painted the defendant, Ms. Yates, as somebody who is basically catatonic. And the prosecution has allowed them to define her that way and hasn't dealt, in my opinion, enough with the psychiatric testimony. So at this point, now they have to explain to the jury in great detail that on the day of the murder she wasn't catatonic. And one way to do that is to show the amount of energy and struggle that it took to murder these five children. Remember, there is an issue with the oldest child about bruises and the -- and they have to explain to the jury that she had a real ferocious struggle with the child and that is not something that occurs with a catatonic person.

And finally, they have to...

ZAHN: What about that, Dick? Yes, but, Dick, how does the videotape and these very graphic pictures speak to her state of mind?

DEGUERIN: Well you know there's one thing that's missing on the videotape and that's any pictures of Andrea Yates. These are homicide detectives who prepared this case. They're trained interrogators. They're trained to gather evidence that will lead to a conviction, not just evidence of everything. And I think the jury is wondering why she wasn't on the videotape.

Now they do have audio tapes of her so-called confession. But what's striking about that is that all of the information in the audio tape comes from the detective and Andrea Yates basically just says yes and no in an almost flat, catatonic expressions.

ZAHN: So I think Dick just raises an interesting point from the jury's point of view, Cynthia, so if you're exposed to this videotape and you don't see Andrea Yates on it and then you hear this audio tape and you hear these very simplistic, dull, flat answers, what are you supposed to read into it?

ALKSNE: Well that's why we have juries. They're going to have to make the decision on whether or not that morning she knew the difference between right and wrong and whether or not as the detective explains the different conversations that he had with her when they first arrived at the scene and when she had conversations with her mother-in-law and with her husband, how did they evaluate that and that's their job, but it's not going to be an easy one in this case.

ZAHN: Final word from Dick DeGuerin this morning, do you think the judge should have allowed for the -- this inflammatory videotape to be shown? And then I know there were a lot of arguments back and forth between the defense and the prosecution about what pictures they could use, were those ultimately prejudicial?

DEGUERIN: Well I think they were probably more harmful to the prosecution's case. But what the judge has to do is weigh the prejudicial affect of evidence against its probative value. I frankly think that there's not much probative value in the question of whether she killed her children, she did, and there's certainly some probative value in her state of mind as to the audio tapes. But as the videotapes, it don't -- it doesn't show her at all.

ZAHN: All right, we're going to have to leave it there this morning. Dick DeGuerin, Cynthia Alksne, thank you both for talking about this case with us this morning.

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