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CNN Live Today

Andrea Yates Gets New Trial; Oil Company CEOs get Grilled Over Prices, Record Profits

Aired November 09, 2005 - 10:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go ahead and take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
Andrea Yates getting a new trial in the drowning death of her five children. A Texas appeals court today refusing to reconsider a lower court ruling that overturned Yates' capital murder conviction. A prosecutor says Yates will be retried or a plea bargain will also be considered.

Oil company executives get grilled on Capitol Hill. They're facing questions from a Senate committee about record profits at a time when consumers were hit with soaring gas prices. We'll have a live report just ahead and coverage throughout the hour.

In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger goes zero for four with the voters. And analysts say that could mean trouble for his reelection bid in '06. California voters defeating all four of the Republican governor's ballot measures designed to revamp state government.

Meanwhile, Democrats held their grip on governor seats in New Jersey and Virginia. We'll have a complete election wrap-up.

Republican congressional leaders are calling for an investigation into a possible leak of classified information. It concerns a report about secret U.S. prisons overseas for suspected terrorists. But one senator says his own colleagues may be to blame. Trent Lott says the story in "The Washington Post" was the same as information given to Republican senators in a closed-door briefing.

The Bush administration is defending a meeting today between former Iraqi exiled leader Ahmed Chalabi and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Chalabi is a one-time U.S. ally accused of passing secrets to Iran. He's also leaked to faulty intelligence leading up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Chalabi is currently an Iraqi deputy prime minister.

Residents of an Indiana mobile home park ravaged by a powerful tornado are expected to go back today. Officials say they'll have two hours to collect whatever belongings they can salvage. Eighteen of the people killed -- 18 people were killed when a tornado struck early Sunday lived in that mobile home park.

Good morning. Welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY, our second hour.

Checking the time around the world, just after 8:00 a.m. in Los Angeles; just after 11:00 a.m. in the nation's capital; and just after 5:00 p.m. in Paris, after 7:00 in Baghdad.

From CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Daryn Kagan.

First off this hour, big oil, big profits. Is it capitalism in its purest form, or is it merely purely greed? Bosses at the major oil companies are out of the executive suite this morning. They are on the hot seat. Congress wants to know why motorists shelled out $3 for a gallon of gas this summer at the same time oil companies were raking in billions of record profits.

Here is where things stand at the pump today.

In Ft. Lauderdale, you are paying the highest price for gas, about $2.74 a gallon. Nationally, the average is $2.38. Gas is a bargain in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at $2.05.

Prices have been on a roller coaster ride this year. They were around $2 a gallon last spring. They spiked at an average price of nearly $3 in late summer before falling back.

Let's get back to one of our top breaking stories from the last hour, and that is the story of Andrea Yates. We can lose the picture of the oil executives while we talk about this mother who caused so much controversy and the topic of postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, versus murdering one's own five children.

Our Ed Lavandera is on the phone right now. He covered that trial extensively when it took place.

What year was that?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That was in -- well, the actual...

KAGAN: The murders were in 2001.

LAVANDERA: Yes, exactly. June of 2000, a year after that when the trial started.

KAGAN: And here we have -- we have -- it's almost an administrative move that took place today. It's the top appeals court in Texas saying they're not going to overturn this lower court's ruling that threw out the capital murder offense that Andrea Yates faced.

LAVANDERA: Yes. And we first heard about this in December of last year when that appeal was made, so it's taken several months to get to this point.

And what I think will be very interesting in the months ahead as the -- as prosecutors and defense attorneys try to figure out what to do next, will be-- it's very important to consider, I think, that there have been other cases in the state of Texas of similar situations, mothers who have either caused great harm to their children or killed them in other situations. And the outcome in those cases have been far different from what happened to Andrea Yates. I don't know if it's fair to say completely at this point whether or not there has been a change in attitude toward what should happen to a mother in this situation. I can tell you that if that has happened, there are feelings just as strong -- I've spoken with people in the last couple weeks in Houston as we talked about what is going on with Andrea Yates who still say what -- the sentence that she received is extremely fair and exactly what should have happened to her.

So there are incredibly strong feelings and remain so to this day as to what should happen with her. But there has also been in the court system in other cases that we've seen come before juries where the outcome has been far different.

KAGAN: Not just Texas, but the part of Texas that this trial took place in, Ed, in Houston, Texas, that county, is that Harris County? It is Harris County.

LAVANDERA: Yes, it is. And a very conservative county. And in terms of -- I think, you know, there are always stats in terms of the number of, you know, people who get convicted and death penalty cases, and that sort of thing. I mea, this is a county, quite frankly, that loves its justice system and likes to hand up and hand down tough sentences.

KAGAN: So Andrea Yates now is in a federal psychiatric prison?

LAVANDERA: I believe so. Sometimes -- I apologize, but sometimes it's been kind of hard to keep up exactly with where she has moved to and from.

There have been cases she's gone in and out of -- you know, she gets better for a while and then seems to kind of slip back into intense periods of depression and other things that she's been dealing with. So it seems to have changed dramatically.

KAGAN: And we do know from talking to her attorney in the last hour, George Parnham, that she has received this news that she is going to get a new trial, and that this is really mixed news and tough news for her.

George Parnham insistent and dedicated to this woman, that he wants to get her into a facility that he says she'll get the kind of treatment that she needs, and that's a psychiatric facility. But the idea that she's going to go through a trial and face the deaths of her five children once again is daunting, indeed.

And as you said, there are people on the other side of the story that feel very strongly that they might feel for Andrea Yates, but at the end of the day, five innocent children did lose their lives at the hand of their mother.

Ed, thank you. We'll be getting back to you.

Once again, that's Ed Lavandera, who covered the Yates trial extensively when it took place a couple of years ago. Andrea Yates will be getting a new trial.

I want to go ahead and welcome in Kendall Coffey, one of our legal consultants that we talk with about big legal news from time to time.

Kendall, good morning.

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL CONSULTANT: Hey, good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: We're watching once again the legal system try to battle with the idea and figure out what's a crime and what's a mental illness.

COFFEY: And it's so hard. This case maybe illustrates as much as any.

The crime is unthinkable. It is pretty well conceded that she was mentally ill and had a mental defect at the time she committed the acts that she was accused of. But the law has such a narrow definition of what constitutes legal insanity.

Did she know that what she was doing is wrong, not whether she was in many ways a very, very troubled person. We talked before, Daryn, how in the wake of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and how his -- how the would-be assassin was found not guilty by reason of insanity, virtually every state in the country came up with very, very narrow definitions of legal insanity after that.

So, today in Texas, like most places, it's very, very hard to beat a charge on an insanity defense.

KAGAN: Well, and I want to go back to this point that you're making, Kendall, because this does come up again. The key in this trial was, at the time did she know what she was doing? Was she aware? Did she understand the difference between right and wrong? And did she know what she was doing was wrong?

And the other -- all the other information kind of became a moot point.

COFFEY: That's right. And the fact that a person has deep depression, the fact that a person acts irrationally, the fact that a person in many states even acts under a very powerful impulse is not enough if the mental state is sufficient to determine the difference between right and wrong.

And that's why insanity defenses, it's one of the most overrated things that people talk about, because they think, well, he or she is going to buy their way out of jail on insanity. It's less than one percent of the cases where an insanity defense is a successful get out of jail card, and even then, as you know, people are typically incarcerated in a mental institution rather than a jail.

So even when you "win on insanity," you're not winning your freedom in virtually every case. KAGAN: Well, and this isn't a situation where the state of Texas has had a change of heart. This was thrown out on a technicality on the false testimony of forensic psychiatrist.

COFFEY: Right. There's no allegation on the appellate level that Texas doesn't have a right to retry her, that they don't have a right to put her on trial for first-degree murder. That's what Texas is prepared to do.

On the other hand, they've already thrown out the possibility of a plea bargain. And if you've ever saw a case where a plea bargain is desperately called for, this is such a case. I think...

KAGAN: Well, I'm not hearing that, Kendall. I'm hearing that a plea bargain at this round might still be a possibility.

COFFEY: That's what I mean.

KAGAN: Yes.

COFFEY: This is a case that really calls out for a plea bargain, because what she had done is fundamentally very wrong. She should not be at the liberty, and yet it's also clear that this is somebody who, you know, was mentally diseased, and that there should be some reckoning for that.

So you could envision here, Daryn, a scenario where there are some conditions imposed that include significant time in incarceration, very substantial psychiatric treatment, but a possibility someday to be at liberty.

KAGAN: Kendall Coffey.

Kendall, you stay with us.

I want to welcome in our David Mattingly. He's on the phone with me as well, covering a different story.

Oh, actually, there live in person from Tennessee, covering the school shooting story.

But we wanted to get you up here, David, because you also covered the Andrea Yates trial a few years ago. Do you remember this particular testimony that has been called into question, the forensic psychiatrist, Park Dietz, and that his testimony is being considered false at this time?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I do, in some degree. There was a great deal of effort going on by the defense attorney for Andrea Yates to spread the blame, to cast doubt on the quality of care she was getting on the type of decisions that were made for the type of care that she had, not just from the doctor, but also from every hospital she went to, and from her husband as well. They were trying to show the court that everyone around her had no idea of the depth of her mental illness, and they were unsuccessful in convincing the jury to the level that they found that she was not guilty by reason of insanity.

Now, the most remarkable thing about testimony in that case that I remember was that under the letter of the law in Texas, just as it is in many other states, the prosecutor simply had to show the jury that Andrea Yates knew what she was doing was wrong. And they argued that they were able to do that on their very first day testimony.

That's when they had people take the stand testifying that Andrea Yates, after she killed her children, called the police department, reported it to 911, and said, "I killed my children," an admission that, according to their argument, that she knew what she was doing was wrong. And they believed they had that case wrapped up after that first day -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And what was it that Park Dietz testified to? Was it -- was it the case where he talked about a television episode that had never happened? Or why was he even brought in, in the first place?

MATTINGLY: I don't -- I'm a little bit fuzzy on that, so I don't want to indicate that I'm stating with any sort of authority at this moment that did come up. His credibility was called into question quite frequently by the defense attorney.

But again, it wasn't enough to sway the jury to the point where they felt that she was acting in a way that she didn't know what she was doing was wrong. And it all goes back to the law of the insanity defense.

As you heard from our expert, there was a huge sea change in this country after the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. And states like Texas made very clear that you have to know that what you're doing -- that you have to be very unclear in your own mind that what you're doing is wrong.

But again, prosecutors believed that Andrea Yates, by admitting to that 911 call that she killed her children, and by making that call, that she knew what she was doing was wrong, and was therefore not eligible to be not guilty by reason of insanity.

KAGAN: David Mattingly joining us live from Tennessee, talking about the news that's breaking out of Houston.

David, thank you.

Once again, Andrea Yates, according to a Texas -- the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, will indeed get a new trial if a plea bargain is not worked out with prosecutors.

More on that news out of Texas.

Also, those big oil hearings, let's take a look at all these pictures. The big oil hearings still going on, on Capitol Hill. Why are you paying so much for gas when there's so much profit going into the pockets of oil companies?

On the right part of your screen, a plane crash we're following out of Leesburg, Virginia. A small plane carrying two people crashes very near that airport.

And in the bottom of your screen, the deputy prime minister of Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, one of the most controversial figures to come out of that country, is in Washington, D.C., today. We'll tell you more about his visit just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Once again, we're following a number of live developing stories at the same time. These both in Washington, D.C.

The right part of your screen, that's the deputy prime minister of Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, a controversial figure having a controversial meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today. More on that visit in just a minute.

Right now, to the left part of your screen, big oil on the hot seat. Executives from the top five oil companies talking to a Senate committee today about record profits in the third quarter while we have been paying record prices for gasoline.

Our Ed Henry is on Capitol Hill following the hearings.

Ed, good morning.

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

You know, it's been relatively tame so far, but we just saw a little bit of a flash there where you see Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer. She has been excoriating these big oil executives for taking multimillion-dollar bonuses in the last couple of years, even as consumers have been paying the price at the pump, also getting ready for a tough home heating season as well with the winter upon us here.

And also, Boxer really laying into the executives for not standing up and actually raising their right hands -- we talked about this earlier -- to be sworn in. That's because Republican chairman Ted Stevens of the Commerce Committee earlier said he did not want to see those theatrics, he did not want to see these executives have to stand up and take the oath literally as the big tobacco executives infamously did several years ago.

Stevens explaining that basically, based on the law, these executives have to speak truthfully, and they're expected to give truthful testimony, no need to go through with that. Boxer still bringing that point up, Stevens and her sparring a bit there.

But this also is finally a chance for the big oil executives to face the music, answer the critics, all of the outrage that has been expressed on both sides of the aisle about those big profits we've heard so much about.

Take a listen to what Lee Raymond, the head of ExxonMobil, had to say a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LEE RAYMOND, CEO, EXXONMOBIL: The petroleum industry's earnings at are at historic highs today. But when you look at our earnings per dollar of revenue, a true apples to apples comparison, we are in line with the average of all U.S. industry. Our numbers are huge because the scale of our industry is huge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, Raymond and other executives also insisting they are not engaged in price gouging, but a lot of lawmakers in both parties noting the big profits that all these companies are taking. ExxonMobil, $24.9 billion so far year to date. Shell, $20.9 billion. BP, $18.7 billion. ConocoPhillips, $9.8 billion. And Chevron, $7.9 billion.

And as you noted earlier, Daryn, that's about $74,000 a minute for ExxonMobil -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Ed, you know, we've heard about a windfall tax profit idea in the past, but this time around we're hearing Republicans mention it.

HENRY: Yes, it's interesting. There have been some Republicans, like the Senate budget chairman, Judd Gregg, from New Hampshire, who has said maybe that's a good idea to tax those windfall profits of the oil industry and then give it back to states like his because of assistance needed for low -- low-income folks who need more money for their home heating bills, which, as I mentioned, will be skyrocketing this winter.

But there are obviously a lot of other Republicans saying that's bad policy. They feel that taxing these companies just because they're guilty of, what, profits? You know, basically they feel that's good for the economy overall, but obviously voters out there looking ahead to November 2006. They want to know why they're paying more at the pump, why they're paying more in home heating costs, and these executives, while they're doing well, why they're going home with these big bonuses, why the companies are going home with a lot of money -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Ed. Ed Henry. We've had a lot of Eds here today, Ed Lavandera, Ed Henry. It's the Ed hour.

Ed, thank you.

All right. Now, I want to get to a very different story.

Richard Quest is on a quest, a very interesting quest. Boeing trying to get into the record books today. One of its airliners taking off from Hong Kong, trying to break the record for the longest nonstop flight by a commercial jet.

They thought it would help if they had Richard Quest onboard. He is, and able to call us from onboard this plane.

Richard, hello. RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn, from Boeing 002.

I'm calling to you from the cockpit by satellite phone. We're at 33,000 feet north of Taiwan, just about to head up towards Japan and then out across the ocean.

But Daryn, I've only been in the air -- Captain, how long have we been in the air? We've been in the air just over, oh, nearly -- just short of two hours. And Daryn, I've got another 21 hours, 22 minutes to go!

KAGAN: But Richard, the thing I'm the most concerned about, they've let you in the cockpit? I thought they have locks on those doors to keep people like you out.

QUEST: Well, that's -- this is an experimental plane. We have full permission because of the nature of this flight.

The satellite phone is in the cockpit. The FAA are well aware this is what we are doing, and of course we are covering the fact that this is going -- by the time we land in London, we will have flown 13,423 miles. It will put us in the "Guinness Book of World Records," a record for Boeing that will now have flown further than any other commercial airliner.

KAGAN: And besides getting in the record books, the long-term purpose of doing this, Richard?

QUEST: The long-term purpose is to bring more cities together. For instance, with this plane, Chicago can match up with Sydney. New York can match up with Auckland. Los Angeles can match up with, for example, Dubai.

So today's flight, I mean, it's very exciting. There's only 35 of us onboard. We've got a whole 777 to ourselves.

Today's flight is a bit "Mine is bigger than yours. Mine can go further than yours." But in the long term, Daryn, it does mean more people will be flying further distances.

But I have to tell you, this prospect of this 22 hours ahead of me, well, it's enough to make you feel faint.

KAGAN: Well, I hope if nothing else, they packed some good snacks to bring along.

Richard Quest onboard that Boeing jet, trying to set a record as -- the record for the longest nonstop flight by a commercial jet.

I hope you get some good frequent flier miles out of that as well.

Richard, thank you.

A lot of jet (ph) A onboard that plane to keep it going. We're talking about gasoline and oil prices. Oil company executives under the microscope by U.S. senators today. Our coverage from the hearings on Capitol Hill continue after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Once again, we're following a number of developing stories right now, including Andrea Yates. Word out of Texas that she will get a new trial on the charges that she murdered her five children. Those crimes taking place back in 2001.

She was found guilty of those murders a couple years ago, but on a technicality that a psychiatrist gave false testimony about a television show. That was overturned. Her attorney now trying to find a deal where she could get put into a psychiatric facility, a civil psychiatric facility, instead of a federal penitentiary.

Also, big oil on the hot seat in Washington, D.C. Oil executives are facing questioning from U.S. senators about record profits in the third quarter at the same time that Americans were paying record gas prices.

And we're getting new pictures in from Leesburg, Virginia. This -- pictures from the ground. A plane crash in Leesburg, two people on board this plane when it crashed earlier this morning, crashing upon takeoff. Word is that both people aboard that small plane were killed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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