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American Morning

Sound Off: Will Andrea Yates Sentence be Death or Life in Prison?

Aired March 13, 2002 - 08:42   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: Now to this morning's "Sound Off." They've heard weeks of heart-wrenching testimony about Andrea Yates' mental state, but when the verdict came in yesterday, it was clear the jury didn't buy the argument that Yates was so psychotic, she didn't know right from wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE BELINDA HILL: Mrs. Yates, please stand. In cause number 880205, the state of Texas versus Andrea Pia Yates, we, the jury, find the defendant, Andrea Pia Yates, guilty of capital murder as charged in the indictment. Signed by the foreperson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YATES: Her husband, Russell Yates, reacted with disbelief when the guilty verdict was read in court. Jurors will now decide on the punishment for Andrea Yates' crimes. That starts tomorrow. Will her sentence be death or life in prison?

Joining us from Houston, former Texas prosecutor Nelda Blair, and from Los Angeles this morning on a very early Wednesday morning attorney Gloria Allred.

Welcome to you both. Good morning.

Nelda, I'm going start with you. If you were sitting on that jury tomorrow as they start the sentencing phase, what is it you would want for Andrea Yates? Death penalty or life in prison?

NELDA BLAIR, FMR. TEXAS PROSECUTOR: Well, what the jury's going to have to decide is whether or not she's going to be a continuing threat to society, any society, and whether or not there are any mitigating circumstances. You know, you'd mentioned that they've been hearing heart-wrenching testimony about Andrea Yates, but you also have to remember they've been hearing some pretty heart-wrenching testimony about five babies who were drowned at the hands of their mother.

So I think what they're going to probably look at is whether or not this particular type of crime deserves the death penalty in Texas, because it is our law. ZAHN: But Nelda, answer the two questions you just posted. How would you as a juror answer that question, whether she poses a continuing threat to society, or whether there are mitigating circumstances here?

BLAIR: Well, I know Andrea Yates poses a very pathetic person, and makes us feel sympathy for her, and not unwarranted. But I do believe that she could be a continuing threat to any type of society. You know, even if she's in a prison, if there are people she thinks are evil or people that she thinks don't do the right thing under her religious briefs, she could very well feel that she's doing the right thing by hurting them, and I think that that could be a continuing threat. I dot think anyone could say that she will never do anything bad again.

ZAHN: So, Nelda, are you saying a death penalty is warranted here?

BLAIR: Well, the second question is whether or not there are mitigating circumstances. And Andrea Yates' mental health might be a mitigating circumstance. But I'll tell you, the death penalty is the law in Texas. And if we reserve it for the most horrendous crimes, I think this one pretty much fits the bill.

ZAHN: Gloria Allred, you've heard what Nelda's had to say, and it sounds like she really would lean in the direction of the death penalty here. What would you do?

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY: Well, I would not. I think it would be just horrific and sickening to give the poor psychotic woman the death penalty. On the first prong of the issue, is she a danger to others? Would she be a continuing threat? I mean, I think if this woman were properly medicated, properly monitored, she would not be a threat to others. And in fact, there was a significant problem with her medication, her having been taken off Haldol, which could have a significant effect on her body, and might have been one of the reasons she committed this act in a psychotic episode.

So I think if she were properly monitored, and it had been indicated in medical records earlier that she should not be left alone, then she wouldn't be a threat to others, and as to other mitigating circumstances, certainly, Paula, I think her mental health, her medical history, are mitigating circumstances. This is a mother who twice committed -- tried to commit suicide, who had long series of depressions, who was thinking that cartoons on the television could talk back to her, who etched 666 for Satan in her scalp, who thought she was Satan and thought she was saving her children from hellfire and damnation. This is not a person who should be put to death.

ZAHN: All right. Nelda, after the verdict, the defense attorney, George Parnham, said, "Mental illness is still obviously not understood, not appreciated," goes along the same lines at what Gloria was just saying. Let me take this further. This appeared in "The New York Times" this morning in an op-ed piece, and here is the quote, "That a person that is as mentally ill as Andrea Yates is could face the death penalty, as she does now, shows how desperately flawed the knowledge-based insanity defense is.

If, as is the case here, it is widely agreed that a defendant suffers from a severe mental illness, shouldn't such a disability diminish that person's legal responsibility? Are you answering that question no this morning?

BLAIR: Actually, I think way the law's written in Texas, and I know it's taken a lot of criticism, but the way the law is written in Texas is, as we said earlier, if she knew it was wrong when she killed her children. Now, there isn't anyone I think that disputes that Andrea Yates has some mental problems. I certainly don't. But whether or not she knew it was wrong to kill her kids at the time, is what the jury had to turn on. And that doesn't discount her mental illness.

Now, when they check her -- when they decide in the penalty phase, they will take into account the mental illness. But all they were trying to decide yesterday was whether she was so insane at the time that she held baby after baby under the water and drowned them that she didn't know what she was doing, that she didn't know it was wrong. And even though she may have had definitely did have some mental illness, I do not think she should be held unaccountable for those deaths.

ZAHN: Gloria, get the last word. You've got about 10 seconds to pull it off here.

ALLRED: OK, I think she knew it was wrong in the eyes of society, but she thought that it was right in the eyes of God, because she thought she was sending her babies to Heaven and protecting them from Satan. She thought she was a bad mother.

BLAIR: Gloria, that's a post-crime confession, not a pre-crime.

ZAHN: All right, Nelda doesn't buy that all, but we've got to leave the debate there this morning.

Gloria Allred, thank you very much for joining us, as always, and Nelda Blair, good to see you for first time on AMERICAN MORNING.

Hope to have you both of you back.

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