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American Morning
Andrea Yates' Conviction Overturned; 'Extra Effort'
Aired January 07, 2005 - 07:29 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: Welcome back, everybody. And good morning on a Friday morning. Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING. Nice to have you along with us today. Soledad continues reporting in Phuket, Thailand. Back to her again at the top of the hour in about 30 minutes from now.
Also, what happened in Texas to Andrea Yates and what happens now? Convicted of murdering her children, yesterday the whole case was thrown back up in the air. We'll talk to her attorney about the new defense now for her after a judge threw out her conviction, something that stunned a whole lot of people across this country yesterday.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It sure did.
HEMMER: How are you doing? Heidi Collins is with me again today. Good morning.
COLLINS: I'm all right. Thanks for asking. And happy Friday to you and to you, everybody.
"Now in the News" this morning.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell touring the devastated region of Sri Lanka. Speaking in Colombo about two hours ago, Powell said some $25 million have already been committed to the tsunami-hit country. This was Powell's last stop on a weeklong tour of Southern Asia. He heads next to Kenya. John King talked to Powell. We are going to have his exclusive interview coming up in just a little while.
And just hours from now, jury selection is set to begin in the trial of Specialist Charles Graner, the accused ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Graner faces 10 charges after Army prosecutors yesterday dropped four of the more serious counts against him. Testimony in the trial is expected to start on Monday.
In New Orleans, three Bourbon Street bouncers face charges in the death of a college student. Amateur video shows the men restrained the victim, 25-year-old Lavon Jones (ph). A coroner ruled Jones' death as most likely accidental suffocation. Jones' family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming race was a factor in the struggle.
And the Bush administration reportedly paid a prominent black journalist $240,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind law. TV commentator Armstrong Williams telling "USA Today" critics might find the arrangement unethical. But he says he did it because the White House education plan is something he believes in. Congressman George Miller, the top Democratic on the Education Committee, is calling for an investigation. And we will speak with Williams coming up in the next hour.
HEMMER: It's going to get some attention today, isn't it?
COLLINS: It sure is.
HEMMER: We will find out what Armstrong has to say then.
COLLINS: Right.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: A Texas mother convicted of drowning her five young children may be getting a new trial. In a stunning move yesterday, an appeals court overturned Andrea Yates' murder conviction.
More now from CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Andrea Yates was described as surprised as she sat in the warden's office of an East Texas prison. That's where she learned her capital murder conviction had been overturned.
Her husband, speaking to CNN's Larry King, said he expects this decision to help Andrea.
RUSSELL YATES, ANDREA YATES' HUSBAND: I'd like to see them drop the charges against her, and I'd like to see her go to a state mental hospital until she is well and safe.
LAVANDERA: Yates' conviction was overturned because of false testimony from the prosecution's star witness, Dr. Park Dietz. He said Andrea Yates was not legally insane at the time she drowned her five children and that she might have been influenced by an episode of "Law & Order," where a woman drowned her children and was then found not guilty by a reason of insanity.
Prosecutors used that statement in closing arguments.
JOE OWENS, PROSECUTOR: These thoughts came to her. She watches "Law & Order" regularly. She sees this program. There is a way out. She tells that to Dr. Dietz. A way out.
LAVANDERA: Dietz was a consultant for "Law & Order," but no such show ever aired. Attorneys didn't find out until after Yates was convicted.
OWENS: I did not know it was false. And obviously, if I knew it was false at the time I made the closing arguments, I wouldn't have been bringing it up. It would have been an entirely different situation. LAVANDERA: Andrea Yates has been in a psychiatric prison for almost three years, working in the garden and as a janitor, but also struggling through periods of severe psychotic depression.
Her attorney says Yates will remain where she is for now.
GEORGE PARNHAM, ANDREA YATES' ATTORNEY: And I want to be very clear that we are not going to seek her immediate release from where she is. She is in the very best possible place, all things considered.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Prosecutors say they will appeal this decision, but if the conviction remains overturned, then prosecutors will have to decide whether to bring Andrea Yates back to trial.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And George Parnham is Andrea Yates' lead attorney. Earlier, I asked him how she reacted to the news.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PARNHAM: I talked with Andrea at 1:00 yesterday afternoon. She was with her psychiatrist, the warden, her psychotherapist, and this was a telephone conversation that the warden graciously permitted me to have with her.
She had lots of questions. I could see the anticipation visually, at least in my mind, that she had to want to hear my responses to those questions. Unfortunately, I was unable to give her a lot of answers, because the next decision in this process will be up to the district attorney's office. And once that decision is made, then I'll be able to respond. And I obviously intend to get up and see her as quickly as I possibly can.
COLLINS: Did she seem excited?
PARNHAM: I don't know if the word "excitement" is proper. I think that she was apprehensive. She -- I heard a tinge of wanting to get on with what the next chapter in her life holds. But, you know, she just had lots of questions, and Andrea is that way. She likes to ask. And hopefully, in most instances, I'm able to give a good response.
COLLINS: Well, as you mentioned, she is currently receiving psychiatric care. But if there is a new trial and she is found not guilty by reason of insanity, what will change for her?
PARNHAM: She will go to a state mental facility. Contrary to public opinion, a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict does not mean that an individual walks out of the courtroom and rides down the elevator with the jury. That individual is placed in a long-term commitment facility. And the court in the state of Texas has jurisdiction over that individual for the rest of that person's natural life. That means that the court will make a determination at some point in time whether or not she has reached a level that she no longer presents a danger to herself or others.
Also, we are in the process of changing the aftercare procedures that are presently in place to make certain that individuals that are found not guilty by reason of insanity are properly monitored to make certain that medications are taken once they are released. And this change is taking place as we speak through the legislature at a particular committee at the state legislature in Austin.
COLLINS: And there are so many mental health issues in all of this, of course, now.
PARNHAM: Absolutely.
COLLINS: Let's talk for a minute, if we could, about Dr. Dietz' testimony.
PARNHAM: Yes.
COLLINS: How critical do you think it was to the jury's decision here?
PARNHAM: I have always maintained from the very day that it was determined that Dr. Dietz had testified falsely that this would be the keystone of an appeal in the appellate process. The court of appeals answered that question for me with that decision yesterday. They determined without considering the other 18 points of error that were raised on her behalf in the appellate process that his testimony was crucial. The state considered his testimony to be crucial, because they used that false testimony to cross-examine Dr. Lucy Currier (ph), one of our expert witnesses...
COLLINS: OK.
PARNHAM: ... that testified that Andrea was insane and argued it to the jury.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And George Parnham there.
The false testimony revelation could affect other cases now. Dr. Dietz's expertise was also a factor in the cases of serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Susan Smith, who was convicted of killing her two children -- Bill.
HEMMER: It's just about 20 minutes before the hour, Heidi. It is Friday morning. And in this morning's extra effort segment, we return to the tragedy now in Southeast Asia. We'll meet a family this morning donating property in their homeland that's been in their family for generations. They hope it helps the children.
Here is Alina Cho.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When Indira and Dula Amarasinghe travel to their native Sri Lanka, they do so with the eye of a tourist. This trip was in the summer of 2003, the last time Dula saw his homeland like this.
DULA AMARASINGHE, DONATING LAND FOR ORPHANAGE: A beautiful sunset.
CHO: When a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami two weeks ago, Amarasinghe's hometown, the coastal city of Galle, was devastated.
D. AMARASINGHE: It was a shock and never happened before. I thought it was the end of the world. This is the death toll.
CHO: More than 46,000 dead in Sri Lanka. Many of those left behind are children.
D. AMARASINGHE: When I saw those children, no parents, I was thinking when I was a child. Now these children have no place to go.
CHO: Which is why Dula and wife, Indira, who lost a cousin in the tsunami, decided to help.
INDIRA AMARASINGHE, DONATING LAND FOR ORPHANAGE: We have things here, which, you know, we want to give to the people who need it.
CHO: But instead of sending money, the Amarasinghe's are donating land.
(on camera): This is beautiful.
I. AMARASINGHE: Yes.
CHO (voice over): Twelve acres of prime real estate less than a half-mile from Indira's mother's home in Galle, land that has been in Dula's family for 80 years. On it, the Amarasinghe's hope to build an orphanage.
D. AMARASINGHE: We can have a playground, learning facilities. And if these kids are bright, you know, someday they can come to the United States for education.
CHO: Dula believes the orphanage will cost $3 million. He has set up a fund for donations and hopes to get help from the local Buddhist temple that already is sending aid.
D. AMARASINGHE: Saving the children is the most important thing and the most noble thing you can do.
CHO: Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: And coverage from Southeast Asia continues throughout the day and the evening here on CNN. Primetime coverage "Turning the Tide" comes your way later tonight, 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 on the West Coast, only here on CNN.
COLLINS: Where are the markets headed this morning? Well, all of it may hinge on a big report coming out later today. So Any is "Minding Your Business" on that.
HEMMER: Also, "Alexander" gets an extreme makeover on DVD. Oliver Stone directed it. Find out why he thinks the movie was a flop. "90-Second Pop" after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) looks pretty good. Jack Cafferty is with us now with the "Question of the Day."
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Heidi.
A study released this week titled "What Do Americans Do on the Internet" found that the average person spends three hours a day online. For every hour spent using the Internet, the amount of time spent watching television is lowered by 10 minutes, sleep is shortened by eight and a half minutes, face-to-face contact with people is reduced by 23 and a half minutes.
We are all connected. But are we losing personal contact with the people around us?
Here is the question: How has the Internet affected your life? And here are the answers.
Susan in California: "The Internet has given me red-burning eyes, bad posture, improved one-finger typing, lack of sleep, and I have completely lost the ability to compose a letter by hand."
Dean in New York: "Internet? What's an Internet? What kind of lame question is this?"
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Yes, touche.
CAFFERTY: He's my kind of guy. Hey, Dean, we'll become pen pals, you and me.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Snail mail.
CAFFERTY: What's an Internet?
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: Ann in Chicago: "The Internet has put me in contact with long-lost friends, people I've managed to find and who have managed to find me. I am a senior. I have limited mobility. And it's given me more contact with people, not less."
Greg in Nova Scotia: "Dear, Jack, the Internet obviously gives me instant access to the most informative and knowledgeable news media network on the planet." See, Greg understands how to get his letter read on AMERICAN MORNING. "Now if I can only find a way to fax myself to my favorite bar in Boston."
And Wes in Richmond, Virginia: "On the subject of yesterday's challenge to the presidential election results, I watched a couple hours of the House and Senate last night. Barbara Boxer and Stephanie Tubbs Jones effectively held up the certification of the election for over four hours in a fruitless debate. For the most part they just made themselves and the Democrats look even sillier."
HEMMER: Oh! Four hours, huh?
CAFFERTY: What's an Internet?
HEMMER: Yes, what's an Internet? Don't you find that people from your past have the ability to reach you now?
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: People you haven't talked to for the past 10, 20 or 30 years?
CAFFERTY: Not if you don't answer their inquiries.
SERWER: I was going to say...
HEMMER: Or if you don't have an Internet or a computer at home, right?
CAFFERTY: No, I have all of those, but I don't answer those, you know, are the Jack Cafferty that I used to know?
HEMMER: That's right.
CAFFERTY: I just pretend like I never got it.
SERWER: Keep them guessing.
HEMMER: No, I'm the Jack Cafferty you're going to know now.
CAFFERTY: You know, there's a reason that we're not in touch all these years. So leave me alone.
HEMMER: Nice.
Back to Andy now, and the jobs front continues to be a big issue for Wall Street, "Minding Your Business," back with this now.
What do we know?
SERWER: We're going to talk about the markets, first of all. And I'm awaiting word from the Rules Committee on this, because yesterday I said the market was going to go up. And it did. Two out of three indexes did at least.
OK. I don't get it? I'm not getting the call? Dow up 25 points. Nasdaq slipped a little bit. A big jobs report coming out at 8:34, the month of December, looking for 175,000 jobs added. We were disappointed in November. We'll have to see what happens this time around.
Let's move over to what really matters, and that's football. How did the anchors do? How did the anchors finish the regular season? Soledad O'Brien swept. She gets some help on these picks, I've got to tell you.
HEMMER: No. Soledad?
SERWER: Yes. She's over in Thailand right now working at the CNNsi Web site.
Bill Hemmer, Andy, Heidi and Jack, who stirs the pot.
Let's look at the playoff games here. I'm kind of laming out here picking a lot of home teams, but that's the way it is. Rams versus Seahawks. Sean stab-me-in-the-back Alexander. How are you going to do this week? I'm picking the Seahawks in this one.
HEMMER: Really?
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: I pick the Rams.
SERWER: OK. Well, there we go. That's what makes a market. Let's talk about the Jets and the Chargers. The Jets haven't won a big game all year. Why should they start now? Also, San Diego is classier.
Broncos and Colts. A very interesting reason why I'm picking the Colts here. They are a lot better. By 10 points they're going to win that game.
And how about this one? Heidi, I'm sorry, Minnesota against the Pack. The frozen tundra of Landry (ph) field. Remember when John -- didn't John Kerry say Landry (ph)? It's Lambo (ph) field, sir. Anyway, I'm going with the Packs. Final score 34-31, because that's what the score has been every time they've played this year, right, Heidi? Do you remember that?
COLLINS: Yes, I'm not even with the Vikings anymore.
SERWER: You're not? Oh, come on.
COLLINS: No, I'm sorry, I always admit fair-weather fan.
SERWER: Oh, all right.
HEMMER: She broke that ankle when she jumped off that bandwagon.
SERWER: I guess so.
COLLINS: It still hurts.
SERWER: There you go.
COLLINS: All right, Andy, thank you.
SERWER: You're welcome.
COLLINS: So why is Kid Rock ready to party with the Bush twins? Well, the rock-and-roll bad boy gets a special invite to Washington. The 90-second poppers explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: I got so excited I dropped all of my papers there. Hey, it's "90-Second Pop" for a Friday with our esteemed pop panel today. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. There she is.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
COLLINS: B.J. Sigesmund, staff editor for "US Weekly." And Crystal McCreary Anthony, author of "Gotham Diaries."
Good morning to you guys.
BERNARD: Good morning.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": Good morning.
CRYSTAL MCCREARY ANTHONY, AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": Good morning.
COLLINS: OK. So, let's talk Kid Rock. This is an event that the Bush twins are actually hosting, which is an interesting combination, isn't it? Now, do you think George Bush has ever heard a Kid Rock album? I'm sure he knows who he is. But do you think he...
ANTHONY: Well, strange but true, yes. Yes, Kid Rock is headlining the youth concert for the inauguration festivities. And, you know, it seems rather odd, but Kid Rock is, from what I understand, a Bush supporter. And whether you are a Bush supporter or not, or whether you find some of his lyrics offensive, I mean, considering his first album was dedicated to oral activity...
SIGESMUND: Nicely put.
BERNARD: That's right, yes.
ANTHONY: Well, it is a morning show.
COLLINS: Yes.
ANTHONY: And he is from Detroit, like me. He is a huge supporter of the men and women of the United States military. So, he has traveled, from what I understand, tirelessly to Kuwait, to Iraq, to perform and lift the spirits of, you know, the men and women of our armed forces.
COLLINS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on that.
BERNARD: People have really short memories or something, because last year's Super Bowl, obviously we all remember Janet Jackson's -- I don't know what you want to call that.
ANTHONY: It was a malfunction.
BERNARD: A malfunction, right.
ANTHONY: It was a malfunction.
BERNARD: But Kid Rock got a whole bunch of flack, too, because he was sort of wearing the American flag like a poncho that night.
COLLINS: Yes.
BERNARD: And everyone was saying that that was...
ANTHONY: To support.
SIGESMUND: I just don't understand how this slipped through, in my mind. The Republican Party is very organized and very controlling. How they would allow this guy who is obsessed with sex, who used to date Pamela Anderson to be up there? What's wrong with Britney Spears? Why don't we get her, too, to arrive up there? I mean, she's a supporter of the president.
COLLINS: Well, maybe they just see him as an entertainer. Who knows?
All right, Sarah, let's talk about "American Idol." I love this show.
BERNARD: It's so exciting.
COLLINS: But now they're talking about messing with it a bit.
BERNARD: Just little bit.
COLLINS: What's the scoop?
BERNARD: Well, you don't want to mess too much with such a successful formula. But they have tried to condense the boring parts. I mean, part of the show...
COLLINS: So you're still going to get an hour?
BERNARD: ... is the audition. Remember the audition parts?
COLLINS: Yes.
BERNARD: Well, that's where we met William Hung (ph) and all of those celebrities from last year. And then we sort of like to think of the finale, where there's a showdown between two or three people. But most of the show is actually those kind of boring semifinals.
So, what they are doing this year is cutting out the number of episodes of that section, the going-to-Hollywood section. But what they're going to do is air them three nights a week. There is going to be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday "American Idol" in February. And my only concern is that, even for me -- and I am an "Idol" junkie -- this might be too much "American Idol."
SIGESMUND: Yes.
COLLINS: Yes.
SIGESMUND: Well, remember ABC sort of drove "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" into the ground by running it three nights a week. And this could be a problem. There are a couple things that they are also changing that Sarah didn't mention. One is no more guest judges towards the end.
ANTHONY: Right.
SIGESMUND: Those people were lame. They only had really stupid positive things to say all the time.
BERNARD: It was really...
COLLINS: No hammering away at them.
BERNARD: But you would think, like, celebrities involved would just amp it up. But that's not really what works on that formula.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: It was all about the unknowns.
SIGESMUND: Right, right.
BERNARD: That's what people wanted to see.
SIGESMUND: And they also, they can't get rid of -- the phone system, which is so controversial, they can't change that. So, I would say this is a good time to learn how to text message.
COLLINS: Yes.
SIGESMUND: Because I was text messaging all the way through last season.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: But it just got pretty hard through there.
All right. B.J., let's also talk about Oliver Stone and this movie "Alexander." Alexander the Great, I don't know. He is going to make some changes now before it goes out on DVD.
SIGESMUND: Yes. COLLINS: He thinks it's going to sell more.
SIGESMUND: Well, two months after this $150 million mega-bomb came out and got some of the worst reviews of the year and only made $30 million, Oliver Stone is taking blame for some of the problems, but he's also pointing some fingers. First of all, he says that if he could do it again he would cut the lame narration from Anthony Hopkins. He would cut it down to a minimum of two and a half hours. Wow! That's great. And he would also tweak Angelina Jolie's weird Transylvanian accent.
But most controversially, he says that he will now -- he would have cut the gay stuff. He no idea that there was...
COLLINS: Completely?
SIGESMUND: ... as he calls it, a fundamentalism in this country that kept many people from even going to see the movie because of the two or three scenes of gay contact.
COLLINS: Do you buy that?
BERNARD: Yes. Don't you think that is just a cover-up for a movie that really wasn't good, that he's kind of blaming on that one issue?
SIGESMUND: Exactly.
ANTHONY: Well, I mean, the critics, I mean, they bombed. I mean, they totally...
BERNARD: It was a bad movie.
SIGESMUND: Yes. I mean, that's the bottom line.
COLLINS: Hey, and on that note, let's end on a bad note. Thanks so much for coming in, you guys. We appreciate it. Sarah, B.J. and Crystal, thanks again.
ANTHONY: Thank you.
COLLINS: Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Heidi. It's four minutes before the hour. In a moment, a CNN exclusive today, an interview with secretary of State Colin Powell on the ground in Sri Lanka after the tsunamis. What does he see as America's priority and responsibility? We'll hear it with John King in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired January 7, 2005 - 07:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. And good morning on a Friday morning. Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING. Nice to have you along with us today. Soledad continues reporting in Phuket, Thailand. Back to her again at the top of the hour in about 30 minutes from now.
Also, what happened in Texas to Andrea Yates and what happens now? Convicted of murdering her children, yesterday the whole case was thrown back up in the air. We'll talk to her attorney about the new defense now for her after a judge threw out her conviction, something that stunned a whole lot of people across this country yesterday.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It sure did.
HEMMER: How are you doing? Heidi Collins is with me again today. Good morning.
COLLINS: I'm all right. Thanks for asking. And happy Friday to you and to you, everybody.
"Now in the News" this morning.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell touring the devastated region of Sri Lanka. Speaking in Colombo about two hours ago, Powell said some $25 million have already been committed to the tsunami-hit country. This was Powell's last stop on a weeklong tour of Southern Asia. He heads next to Kenya. John King talked to Powell. We are going to have his exclusive interview coming up in just a little while.
And just hours from now, jury selection is set to begin in the trial of Specialist Charles Graner, the accused ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Graner faces 10 charges after Army prosecutors yesterday dropped four of the more serious counts against him. Testimony in the trial is expected to start on Monday.
In New Orleans, three Bourbon Street bouncers face charges in the death of a college student. Amateur video shows the men restrained the victim, 25-year-old Lavon Jones (ph). A coroner ruled Jones' death as most likely accidental suffocation. Jones' family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, claiming race was a factor in the struggle.
And the Bush administration reportedly paid a prominent black journalist $240,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind law. TV commentator Armstrong Williams telling "USA Today" critics might find the arrangement unethical. But he says he did it because the White House education plan is something he believes in. Congressman George Miller, the top Democratic on the Education Committee, is calling for an investigation. And we will speak with Williams coming up in the next hour.
HEMMER: It's going to get some attention today, isn't it?
COLLINS: It sure is.
HEMMER: We will find out what Armstrong has to say then.
COLLINS: Right.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: A Texas mother convicted of drowning her five young children may be getting a new trial. In a stunning move yesterday, an appeals court overturned Andrea Yates' murder conviction.
More now from CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Andrea Yates was described as surprised as she sat in the warden's office of an East Texas prison. That's where she learned her capital murder conviction had been overturned.
Her husband, speaking to CNN's Larry King, said he expects this decision to help Andrea.
RUSSELL YATES, ANDREA YATES' HUSBAND: I'd like to see them drop the charges against her, and I'd like to see her go to a state mental hospital until she is well and safe.
LAVANDERA: Yates' conviction was overturned because of false testimony from the prosecution's star witness, Dr. Park Dietz. He said Andrea Yates was not legally insane at the time she drowned her five children and that she might have been influenced by an episode of "Law & Order," where a woman drowned her children and was then found not guilty by a reason of insanity.
Prosecutors used that statement in closing arguments.
JOE OWENS, PROSECUTOR: These thoughts came to her. She watches "Law & Order" regularly. She sees this program. There is a way out. She tells that to Dr. Dietz. A way out.
LAVANDERA: Dietz was a consultant for "Law & Order," but no such show ever aired. Attorneys didn't find out until after Yates was convicted.
OWENS: I did not know it was false. And obviously, if I knew it was false at the time I made the closing arguments, I wouldn't have been bringing it up. It would have been an entirely different situation. LAVANDERA: Andrea Yates has been in a psychiatric prison for almost three years, working in the garden and as a janitor, but also struggling through periods of severe psychotic depression.
Her attorney says Yates will remain where she is for now.
GEORGE PARNHAM, ANDREA YATES' ATTORNEY: And I want to be very clear that we are not going to seek her immediate release from where she is. She is in the very best possible place, all things considered.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Prosecutors say they will appeal this decision, but if the conviction remains overturned, then prosecutors will have to decide whether to bring Andrea Yates back to trial.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And George Parnham is Andrea Yates' lead attorney. Earlier, I asked him how she reacted to the news.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PARNHAM: I talked with Andrea at 1:00 yesterday afternoon. She was with her psychiatrist, the warden, her psychotherapist, and this was a telephone conversation that the warden graciously permitted me to have with her.
She had lots of questions. I could see the anticipation visually, at least in my mind, that she had to want to hear my responses to those questions. Unfortunately, I was unable to give her a lot of answers, because the next decision in this process will be up to the district attorney's office. And once that decision is made, then I'll be able to respond. And I obviously intend to get up and see her as quickly as I possibly can.
COLLINS: Did she seem excited?
PARNHAM: I don't know if the word "excitement" is proper. I think that she was apprehensive. She -- I heard a tinge of wanting to get on with what the next chapter in her life holds. But, you know, she just had lots of questions, and Andrea is that way. She likes to ask. And hopefully, in most instances, I'm able to give a good response.
COLLINS: Well, as you mentioned, she is currently receiving psychiatric care. But if there is a new trial and she is found not guilty by reason of insanity, what will change for her?
PARNHAM: She will go to a state mental facility. Contrary to public opinion, a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict does not mean that an individual walks out of the courtroom and rides down the elevator with the jury. That individual is placed in a long-term commitment facility. And the court in the state of Texas has jurisdiction over that individual for the rest of that person's natural life. That means that the court will make a determination at some point in time whether or not she has reached a level that she no longer presents a danger to herself or others.
Also, we are in the process of changing the aftercare procedures that are presently in place to make certain that individuals that are found not guilty by reason of insanity are properly monitored to make certain that medications are taken once they are released. And this change is taking place as we speak through the legislature at a particular committee at the state legislature in Austin.
COLLINS: And there are so many mental health issues in all of this, of course, now.
PARNHAM: Absolutely.
COLLINS: Let's talk for a minute, if we could, about Dr. Dietz' testimony.
PARNHAM: Yes.
COLLINS: How critical do you think it was to the jury's decision here?
PARNHAM: I have always maintained from the very day that it was determined that Dr. Dietz had testified falsely that this would be the keystone of an appeal in the appellate process. The court of appeals answered that question for me with that decision yesterday. They determined without considering the other 18 points of error that were raised on her behalf in the appellate process that his testimony was crucial. The state considered his testimony to be crucial, because they used that false testimony to cross-examine Dr. Lucy Currier (ph), one of our expert witnesses...
COLLINS: OK.
PARNHAM: ... that testified that Andrea was insane and argued it to the jury.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And George Parnham there.
The false testimony revelation could affect other cases now. Dr. Dietz's expertise was also a factor in the cases of serial murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Susan Smith, who was convicted of killing her two children -- Bill.
HEMMER: It's just about 20 minutes before the hour, Heidi. It is Friday morning. And in this morning's extra effort segment, we return to the tragedy now in Southeast Asia. We'll meet a family this morning donating property in their homeland that's been in their family for generations. They hope it helps the children.
Here is Alina Cho.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When Indira and Dula Amarasinghe travel to their native Sri Lanka, they do so with the eye of a tourist. This trip was in the summer of 2003, the last time Dula saw his homeland like this.
DULA AMARASINGHE, DONATING LAND FOR ORPHANAGE: A beautiful sunset.
CHO: When a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami two weeks ago, Amarasinghe's hometown, the coastal city of Galle, was devastated.
D. AMARASINGHE: It was a shock and never happened before. I thought it was the end of the world. This is the death toll.
CHO: More than 46,000 dead in Sri Lanka. Many of those left behind are children.
D. AMARASINGHE: When I saw those children, no parents, I was thinking when I was a child. Now these children have no place to go.
CHO: Which is why Dula and wife, Indira, who lost a cousin in the tsunami, decided to help.
INDIRA AMARASINGHE, DONATING LAND FOR ORPHANAGE: We have things here, which, you know, we want to give to the people who need it.
CHO: But instead of sending money, the Amarasinghe's are donating land.
(on camera): This is beautiful.
I. AMARASINGHE: Yes.
CHO (voice over): Twelve acres of prime real estate less than a half-mile from Indira's mother's home in Galle, land that has been in Dula's family for 80 years. On it, the Amarasinghe's hope to build an orphanage.
D. AMARASINGHE: We can have a playground, learning facilities. And if these kids are bright, you know, someday they can come to the United States for education.
CHO: Dula believes the orphanage will cost $3 million. He has set up a fund for donations and hopes to get help from the local Buddhist temple that already is sending aid.
D. AMARASINGHE: Saving the children is the most important thing and the most noble thing you can do.
CHO: Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: And coverage from Southeast Asia continues throughout the day and the evening here on CNN. Primetime coverage "Turning the Tide" comes your way later tonight, 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 on the West Coast, only here on CNN.
COLLINS: Where are the markets headed this morning? Well, all of it may hinge on a big report coming out later today. So Any is "Minding Your Business" on that.
HEMMER: Also, "Alexander" gets an extreme makeover on DVD. Oliver Stone directed it. Find out why he thinks the movie was a flop. "90-Second Pop" after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) looks pretty good. Jack Cafferty is with us now with the "Question of the Day."
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Heidi.
A study released this week titled "What Do Americans Do on the Internet" found that the average person spends three hours a day online. For every hour spent using the Internet, the amount of time spent watching television is lowered by 10 minutes, sleep is shortened by eight and a half minutes, face-to-face contact with people is reduced by 23 and a half minutes.
We are all connected. But are we losing personal contact with the people around us?
Here is the question: How has the Internet affected your life? And here are the answers.
Susan in California: "The Internet has given me red-burning eyes, bad posture, improved one-finger typing, lack of sleep, and I have completely lost the ability to compose a letter by hand."
Dean in New York: "Internet? What's an Internet? What kind of lame question is this?"
(CROSSTALK)
HEMMER: Yes, touche.
CAFFERTY: He's my kind of guy. Hey, Dean, we'll become pen pals, you and me.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Snail mail.
CAFFERTY: What's an Internet?
SERWER: Yes.
CAFFERTY: Ann in Chicago: "The Internet has put me in contact with long-lost friends, people I've managed to find and who have managed to find me. I am a senior. I have limited mobility. And it's given me more contact with people, not less."
Greg in Nova Scotia: "Dear, Jack, the Internet obviously gives me instant access to the most informative and knowledgeable news media network on the planet." See, Greg understands how to get his letter read on AMERICAN MORNING. "Now if I can only find a way to fax myself to my favorite bar in Boston."
And Wes in Richmond, Virginia: "On the subject of yesterday's challenge to the presidential election results, I watched a couple hours of the House and Senate last night. Barbara Boxer and Stephanie Tubbs Jones effectively held up the certification of the election for over four hours in a fruitless debate. For the most part they just made themselves and the Democrats look even sillier."
HEMMER: Oh! Four hours, huh?
CAFFERTY: What's an Internet?
HEMMER: Yes, what's an Internet? Don't you find that people from your past have the ability to reach you now?
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: People you haven't talked to for the past 10, 20 or 30 years?
CAFFERTY: Not if you don't answer their inquiries.
SERWER: I was going to say...
HEMMER: Or if you don't have an Internet or a computer at home, right?
CAFFERTY: No, I have all of those, but I don't answer those, you know, are the Jack Cafferty that I used to know?
HEMMER: That's right.
CAFFERTY: I just pretend like I never got it.
SERWER: Keep them guessing.
HEMMER: No, I'm the Jack Cafferty you're going to know now.
CAFFERTY: You know, there's a reason that we're not in touch all these years. So leave me alone.
HEMMER: Nice.
Back to Andy now, and the jobs front continues to be a big issue for Wall Street, "Minding Your Business," back with this now.
What do we know?
SERWER: We're going to talk about the markets, first of all. And I'm awaiting word from the Rules Committee on this, because yesterday I said the market was going to go up. And it did. Two out of three indexes did at least.
OK. I don't get it? I'm not getting the call? Dow up 25 points. Nasdaq slipped a little bit. A big jobs report coming out at 8:34, the month of December, looking for 175,000 jobs added. We were disappointed in November. We'll have to see what happens this time around.
Let's move over to what really matters, and that's football. How did the anchors do? How did the anchors finish the regular season? Soledad O'Brien swept. She gets some help on these picks, I've got to tell you.
HEMMER: No. Soledad?
SERWER: Yes. She's over in Thailand right now working at the CNNsi Web site.
Bill Hemmer, Andy, Heidi and Jack, who stirs the pot.
Let's look at the playoff games here. I'm kind of laming out here picking a lot of home teams, but that's the way it is. Rams versus Seahawks. Sean stab-me-in-the-back Alexander. How are you going to do this week? I'm picking the Seahawks in this one.
HEMMER: Really?
SERWER: Yes.
HEMMER: I pick the Rams.
SERWER: OK. Well, there we go. That's what makes a market. Let's talk about the Jets and the Chargers. The Jets haven't won a big game all year. Why should they start now? Also, San Diego is classier.
Broncos and Colts. A very interesting reason why I'm picking the Colts here. They are a lot better. By 10 points they're going to win that game.
And how about this one? Heidi, I'm sorry, Minnesota against the Pack. The frozen tundra of Landry (ph) field. Remember when John -- didn't John Kerry say Landry (ph)? It's Lambo (ph) field, sir. Anyway, I'm going with the Packs. Final score 34-31, because that's what the score has been every time they've played this year, right, Heidi? Do you remember that?
COLLINS: Yes, I'm not even with the Vikings anymore.
SERWER: You're not? Oh, come on.
COLLINS: No, I'm sorry, I always admit fair-weather fan.
SERWER: Oh, all right.
HEMMER: She broke that ankle when she jumped off that bandwagon.
SERWER: I guess so.
COLLINS: It still hurts.
SERWER: There you go.
COLLINS: All right, Andy, thank you.
SERWER: You're welcome.
COLLINS: So why is Kid Rock ready to party with the Bush twins? Well, the rock-and-roll bad boy gets a special invite to Washington. The 90-second poppers explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: I got so excited I dropped all of my papers there. Hey, it's "90-Second Pop" for a Friday with our esteemed pop panel today. Sarah Bernard, contributing editor for "New York" magazine. There she is.
SARAH BERNARD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEW YORK" MAGAZINE: Good morning.
COLLINS: B.J. Sigesmund, staff editor for "US Weekly." And Crystal McCreary Anthony, author of "Gotham Diaries."
Good morning to you guys.
BERNARD: Good morning.
B.J. SIGESMUND, STAFF EDITOR, "US WEEKLY": Good morning.
CRYSTAL MCCREARY ANTHONY, AUTHOR, "GOTHAM DIARIES": Good morning.
COLLINS: OK. So, let's talk Kid Rock. This is an event that the Bush twins are actually hosting, which is an interesting combination, isn't it? Now, do you think George Bush has ever heard a Kid Rock album? I'm sure he knows who he is. But do you think he...
ANTHONY: Well, strange but true, yes. Yes, Kid Rock is headlining the youth concert for the inauguration festivities. And, you know, it seems rather odd, but Kid Rock is, from what I understand, a Bush supporter. And whether you are a Bush supporter or not, or whether you find some of his lyrics offensive, I mean, considering his first album was dedicated to oral activity...
SIGESMUND: Nicely put.
BERNARD: That's right, yes.
ANTHONY: Well, it is a morning show.
COLLINS: Yes.
ANTHONY: And he is from Detroit, like me. He is a huge supporter of the men and women of the United States military. So, he has traveled, from what I understand, tirelessly to Kuwait, to Iraq, to perform and lift the spirits of, you know, the men and women of our armed forces.
COLLINS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on that.
BERNARD: People have really short memories or something, because last year's Super Bowl, obviously we all remember Janet Jackson's -- I don't know what you want to call that.
ANTHONY: It was a malfunction.
BERNARD: A malfunction, right.
ANTHONY: It was a malfunction.
BERNARD: But Kid Rock got a whole bunch of flack, too, because he was sort of wearing the American flag like a poncho that night.
COLLINS: Yes.
BERNARD: And everyone was saying that that was...
ANTHONY: To support.
SIGESMUND: I just don't understand how this slipped through, in my mind. The Republican Party is very organized and very controlling. How they would allow this guy who is obsessed with sex, who used to date Pamela Anderson to be up there? What's wrong with Britney Spears? Why don't we get her, too, to arrive up there? I mean, she's a supporter of the president.
COLLINS: Well, maybe they just see him as an entertainer. Who knows?
All right, Sarah, let's talk about "American Idol." I love this show.
BERNARD: It's so exciting.
COLLINS: But now they're talking about messing with it a bit.
BERNARD: Just little bit.
COLLINS: What's the scoop?
BERNARD: Well, you don't want to mess too much with such a successful formula. But they have tried to condense the boring parts. I mean, part of the show...
COLLINS: So you're still going to get an hour?
BERNARD: ... is the audition. Remember the audition parts?
COLLINS: Yes.
BERNARD: Well, that's where we met William Hung (ph) and all of those celebrities from last year. And then we sort of like to think of the finale, where there's a showdown between two or three people. But most of the show is actually those kind of boring semifinals.
So, what they are doing this year is cutting out the number of episodes of that section, the going-to-Hollywood section. But what they're going to do is air them three nights a week. There is going to be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday "American Idol" in February. And my only concern is that, even for me -- and I am an "Idol" junkie -- this might be too much "American Idol."
SIGESMUND: Yes.
COLLINS: Yes.
SIGESMUND: Well, remember ABC sort of drove "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" into the ground by running it three nights a week. And this could be a problem. There are a couple things that they are also changing that Sarah didn't mention. One is no more guest judges towards the end.
ANTHONY: Right.
SIGESMUND: Those people were lame. They only had really stupid positive things to say all the time.
BERNARD: It was really...
COLLINS: No hammering away at them.
BERNARD: But you would think, like, celebrities involved would just amp it up. But that's not really what works on that formula.
SIGESMUND: Yes.
BERNARD: It was all about the unknowns.
SIGESMUND: Right, right.
BERNARD: That's what people wanted to see.
SIGESMUND: And they also, they can't get rid of -- the phone system, which is so controversial, they can't change that. So, I would say this is a good time to learn how to text message.
COLLINS: Yes.
SIGESMUND: Because I was text messaging all the way through last season.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: But it just got pretty hard through there.
All right. B.J., let's also talk about Oliver Stone and this movie "Alexander." Alexander the Great, I don't know. He is going to make some changes now before it goes out on DVD.
SIGESMUND: Yes. COLLINS: He thinks it's going to sell more.
SIGESMUND: Well, two months after this $150 million mega-bomb came out and got some of the worst reviews of the year and only made $30 million, Oliver Stone is taking blame for some of the problems, but he's also pointing some fingers. First of all, he says that if he could do it again he would cut the lame narration from Anthony Hopkins. He would cut it down to a minimum of two and a half hours. Wow! That's great. And he would also tweak Angelina Jolie's weird Transylvanian accent.
But most controversially, he says that he will now -- he would have cut the gay stuff. He no idea that there was...
COLLINS: Completely?
SIGESMUND: ... as he calls it, a fundamentalism in this country that kept many people from even going to see the movie because of the two or three scenes of gay contact.
COLLINS: Do you buy that?
BERNARD: Yes. Don't you think that is just a cover-up for a movie that really wasn't good, that he's kind of blaming on that one issue?
SIGESMUND: Exactly.
ANTHONY: Well, I mean, the critics, I mean, they bombed. I mean, they totally...
BERNARD: It was a bad movie.
SIGESMUND: Yes. I mean, that's the bottom line.
COLLINS: Hey, and on that note, let's end on a bad note. Thanks so much for coming in, you guys. We appreciate it. Sarah, B.J. and Crystal, thanks again.
ANTHONY: Thank you.
COLLINS: Bill.
HEMMER: All right, Heidi. It's four minutes before the hour. In a moment, a CNN exclusive today, an interview with secretary of State Colin Powell on the ground in Sri Lanka after the tsunamis. What does he see as America's priority and responsibility? We'll hear it with John King in a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.
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