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CNN Live Today
Jury Begins Deliberations in Andrea Yates Trial
Aired March 15, 2002 - 14:03 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Want to get back to Houston, Texas, the life-and-death decision now before a jury in the Andrea Yates case. Jurors must decide if that Texas mother should be executed for drowning her five children or spend the rest of her life behind bars. Deliberations set to get under way this afternoon, and Ed Lavandera is now outside the courthouse to bring us up to date. Lunch over, Ed, there?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All indications are this is about the time they're supposed to be wrapping up the lunch hour and getting back into the court to get some brief instructions before the jury would head into the jury room and begin deliberations on the punishment phase of Andrea Yates' capital murder trial.
And of course, one of the main question that they will have to answer as they begin filling out the forms that is required of jurors in cases like this is whether or not Andrea Yates will be a future threat to society. Her attorney is making the case that Andrea is no longer a danger, that she will never be able to have kids again, because worst-case scenario is that Andrea Yates will be locked up in prison here in Texas for at least the next 40 years. She wouldn't be eligible for parole until the age of 77.
And one of her attorneys saying, what greater punishment is there to give Andrea than to force her to sit in prison and to think about her children. Defense attorney is also making out the case that she is no longer a danger, and that they should also think of all the other circumstances that she has had to deal with over the course of the last two years, and her mental illness. Defense attorneys speaking to jurors this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE PARNHAM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It was difficult for everybody on this defense team. And it dawned on me that it was difficult because we couldn't identify -- we couldn't identify the woman with the act. The act itself defined her. And it took a long time for us to be able to absorb the reality of what she did and to draw a line between what she did and who she was and who she is, and that's what we are trying to convey to you, who she is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: It seems prosecutors have been walking a fine line in the punishment phase of this trial. They decided to not call any witnesses back to the witness stand to make the case that Andrea Yates should be put to death for the drowning of her five children, but they also did perform some closing arguments this morning, instructing the jury -- they said five times that it was in the jury's hand, that we would be happy with whatever you decide, telling the jury whether that be life in prison or the death penalty -- one prosecutor telling the jury, "you did the right thing in determining guilt, and we know that you'll do the right thing again," but not saying what exactly they wanted that right thing to be.
But having said that, prosecutors also laying out -- putting up the pictures of five children and reminding the jury very vividly that Andrea Yates is the convicted murder of her children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH OWMBY, PROSECUTOR: There is nothing I can do to restore these lives. The death penalty won't restore their lives. But it is important, it is essential, and no one could rest unless we made it clear that these five children were unique individuals, and that no one has the right to take their lives without justification.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: Prosecutors say that they didn't put on any witnesses because they will let the testimony and the evidence that they presented during the guilt phase of this trial to stand as the evidence to whether or not Andrea Yates should be out to death for the crime. They say that the crime alone is enough to suggest that if someone on that jury feels like Andrea Yates should be put to death, that in their eyes that would be an acceptable punishment at this point.
So right now, we sit and wait as the jury begins its deliberations. And Bill, a lot of people around here suspecting that since they took less than four hours to determine the guilt of Andrea Yates that perhaps we'll have a verdict in the punishment phase sometime this afternoon.
HEMMER: All right, Ed. Thank you. Ed Lavandera, watching things in Houston, Texas.
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