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CNN Talkback Live

Jury Hands Down Sentence in Andrea Yates Trial

Aired March 15, 2002 - 15:00   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.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, HOST: Hello everybody. Welcome to TALKBACK LIVE. I'm Arthel Neville. And this is free-for-all Friday. First up for discussion, Andrea Yates. The jury took less than an hour to come back with a sentence for the woman who drowned her children in a bathtub.

Right now, we're going to turn to Ed Lavandera to fill us in on the details -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Arthel. We are waiting right now for defense attorneys and prosecutors to come out. You might be able to see just over my shoulder the crowd of people gathering by a podium where it looks like the attorneys will be able to come out and speak with us. We don't know quite yet if Russell Yates is planning on coming out and speaking with -- or any other family members.

But, about a half hour ago, as you've here heard on CNN, Andrea Yates, the jury has determined, will be sent to prison for life, which means Andrea Yates will not be eligible for parole here in Texas for another 40 years. It means she will be 77 years old by the time she might be eligible for parole. That doesn't mean she would get out then. It just means that there would be that option available to her.

The other issue here is that the jury finding that Andrea Yates would no longer be a threat to society, that was the main question that they had to answer in this case. Defense attorneys saying this morning that because Andrea Yates would no longer be able to have children and that she would be locked up for 40 years, that shouldn't be an issue and that she's no longer a threat to anyone.

CNN's Gary Tuchman was inside the courtroom as the verdict and punishment was read down. You sat just across the aisle from Russell Yates and his family. What was the reaction?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what I was doing -- I was sitting in the back of the courtroom. I only have two eyes, but I wanted to watch three people. I wanted to look at Andrea Yates, who was in front of me. I wanted to look at Russell Yates, who was to the left of me. And then I wanted to look at Karen Kennedy, Andrea Yates' mother, who was to the right of me.

So when the judge -- and this is very confusing, as you know in Texas. The judge just doesn't say death or life. She reads the first question. At least 10 of the jurors said she is not a danger to society, which automatically meant that she would get life. But not everyone immediately understood that. I could tell that her mother didn't understand that right away. But then people started tapping Andrea Yates' mother on the back, congratulating her. She looked relieved. Russell Yates, on the other hand, understood right away and he started nodding his head like this and smiling, and people started tapping his back. And Andrea Yates had no reaction from where we were sitting.

LAVANDERA: But you could contrast from what we saw Russell do two days ago.

TUCHMAN: Two days ago, Russell Yates said, oh, my God, buried his head in his hands. Today, he had a smile on his face. A great deal of relief, you could tell.

LAVANDERA: All right, Gary. Thank you very much. And as we mentioned, we are waiting here for defense attorneys, prosecutors to speak out. Andrea Yates will be sent to a prison near Waco, where she will be processed and there, prison officials here in Texas will determine exactly what kind of medical care and psychiatric treatment she will need for the rest of her life essentially. And then they will determine from there exactly where she will be sent. But there is a unit about 150 miles southeast of Dallas that has a psychiatric unit and perhaps there are some indications that that's where she might be headed after she goes to the initial prison to be processed into the Texas prison system -- Arthel.

NEVILLE: Hey, Ed, you know TALKBACK LIVE is all about the people. So I have Beth standing here with me and she has a question for you.

LAVANDERA: All right.

BETH: I'd like to know, there's a lot of tension I suppose a lot going on there. What is the general mood of the folks in and around the courtroom and the courthouse?

LAVANDERA: The mood -- obviously a lot of family members around. And you have to remember, this trial has been so different because the woman on trial, Andrea Yates, usually the victim's family, the Yates family and Russell, in particular, considers himself a victim in this case because he also lost five children. So there isn't the antagonistic feeling in the courtroom. You don't have a family that is super angry at Andrea Yates for what she has done. In fact, just the opposite. You have two families that are very supportive of her. So in that sense, it is very different from any other kind of murder trial or capital murder trial that you might see covered on a daily basis.

NEVILLE: Hey, Ed, I know you mentioned that Miss Yates can no longer have children. You did say that, right?

LAVANDERA: Yes.

NEVILLE: Right. OK, because that was one of the questions here was regarding that. Listen, I know you have to go back and gather some more people to get interviews and everything, but thank you so much for that update. And, of course, we'll check in with you if anything else breaks. Thanks, Ed.

LAVANDERA: You got it. Thank you.

NEVILLE: OK. Well, we are going to meet right now our radio talk show hosts to talk about this more. In Seattle, Mike Siegel, a syndicated host with Premiere Radio Networks. Also, Alan Amberg, president of Diverse Communications.

ALAN AMBERG, FORMER RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Hi.

NEVILLE: Hello. He's the former host of Les-Bi-Gay Radio in Chicago. Jason Jarvis is a nationally syndicated talk show host. Hey, Jason.

JASON JARVIS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Howdy.

NEVILLE: And Peter Noel, he has a talk show on WRKS in New York. Welcome to all of you.

And we just heard the verdict. And I want to know, given the option, do you think the jury made the right decision?

MIKE SIEGEL, PREMIERE RADIO NETWORKS: Under the law, Arthel, in Texas, they almost had no choice because the question was were there mitigating circumstances to deny the death penalty, and there were, frankly. She was delusional. She did have mental problems. She is mentally insane, not to the point of being criminally insane, but mentally insane. And they could consider that in the penalty phase, although not in the trial itself. And so therefore, they possibly came to a right decision.

But I have a problem with it because what if she were male? What if this were a man? And, in fact, there is a case in Los Angeles right now where a guy has been charged with the murder of five of his six children and no press about it, no concern about it. Had this been a man, would anybody spare his life? And I think that's a big problem.

JARVIS: I tell you what, Mike is absolutely right. I'll tell you, I would hate to be a taxpayer from Texas at this point in time because this woman killed her five children. I can't imagine that she, in any case, should live. It just doesn't make sense to me.

PETER NOEL, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: No, I disagree with that. I think the jury made a great decision. I think the jury made a great decision in trying to spare this woman's life. I think it was a great decision for anti-death penalty advocates. Twice in one week, you know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in Atlanta.

And I think that people are realizing, hey, you know, we need to study Andrea Yates. We need to study what caused her to do something like this. Across the country, yes, people are killing their kids. But why? I mean, of course we know she was insane. There were problems. She was disillusioned about a lot things, and she was this postpartum depression. We need to examine all these things, and not just kill her.

SIEGEL: You know, one of the problems though is...

AMBERG: They are having a debate in the great state of Illinois about the very question of the death penalty. And our governor rather, who is rather conservative, actually put a moratorium on the death penalty here.

One of the problems, and I want to be clear from the beginning, I think that there are some people who do things so heinous that they've really kind of forfeited their right on the planet. And, by the way, I do wonder whether the leaders of Enron also should get 40 years before parole because they have not only, they've deprived thousands of people of their life savings and their retirements and I wonder why it all hangs on this poor one woman.

But you know what? The problem seems to be that in this country, justice is a matter of how good a lawyer you can afford. And what we found in Illinois is that poor people who don't have good lawyers, more than half the time wind up with a capital sentence. That is wrong. For some reason, it's wrong. Now again, I think some people do forfeit their place and I'd hate to be a taxpayer supporting this woman as well.

(CROSSTALK)

NEVILLE: Excuse me, guys. I want to go with two guests standing here with me now. We have got Barbara and Greg. You guys are from Houston. What is your reaction?

BARBARA: My reaction that this is an appropriate punishment for her. We'll never know if she was...

NEVILLE: Excuse me. This is definitely an unfolding story. We have got some new developments and we are going to toss to Bill Hemmer in the newsroom.

(INTERRUPTED FOR BREAKING NEWS)

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