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American Morning

Jury Will Answer Two Questions To Decide Yates' Fate

Aired March 14, 2002 - 09:01   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: "Up Front" this morning, though, will Andrea Yates be heading to death row? After quickly rejecting the Texas mother's insanity defense earlier this week, the jury may decide sometime later today whether or not the woman convicted of drowned three of her children should be executed for her crimes.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has been following the trial from the start. He joins us now from Houston with a preview -- good morning, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. All indications are that today will be emotionally-packed testimony as Andrea Yates' family takes to the witness stand to plead to the jury, the eight women and four men that convicted Andrea Yates on Tuesday, to spare her life.

Now, the jury has several options at its fingertips, and what will happen is that they will have two questions that they will have to answer. The first question is whether or not Andrea Yates poses a future threat to society. If they answered "no" to that question, then -- they won't have to answer the second one, Andrea Yates will automatically be sent to life for prison.

If they answer "yes," and move on to the second question, the jury will have to determine whether there are mitigating circumstances, or any other reasons why Andrea Yates should be spared from the death penalty. If they answer "no," that means Andrea Yates will be sentenced to death. If they answer "yes" to this, then Andrea Yates will be sent to prison for life. And, of course, that means in Texas that she wouldn't be eligible for parole for at least 40 years.

Now, we're not exactly sure what the prosecution has planned for today, there has been a lot of speculation here in Houston from the legal community that the prosecution -- some have even suggested they might not call any witnesses today. So, we will see how that plays out at 10:30 Central time.

The defense will put on many family members of Andrea Yates, who will talk about the gentle, loving mother that they have already described so far in this trial, and hoping that this jury pays attention to that, and, of course, the defense attorneys are a little anxious. They expressed that anxiousness when they left the courtroom on Tuesday because this jury came back so quickly and convicted Andrea Yates in less than four hours, that they hope that doesn't mean that they are an angry jury and want to see Andrea Yates punished. So, they will put on that testimony, starting at 10:30 Central time -- Paula.

ZAHN: But Ed, no matter what happens, Andrea is going to spend time in prison. What kind of health care will be available for her?

LAVANDERA: Well, if you ask her attorneys, they say there is not enough health care in the prison units where Andrea Yates will be sent to. One of the units, if she is sent to prison for life, there is a unit about 150 miles southeast of Dallas, where she would be sent to that has a psychiatric unit. Prison officials say that she could be treated there.

She would receive psychiatric treatment no matter where she goes, but her defense attorneys say it is not enough. Women's death row is just outside of Waco here in Texas, and, of course, there she could as well receive some sort of psychiatric care, but, of course, her family has maintained all along where she needs to be is in a state mental hospital -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, thanks, Ed, for that report. We'll let you get settled so you can get ready for the case that's just, as Ed described, about ready to get started again.

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