Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Andrew Sheldon

Aired January 06, 2002 - 09:23   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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Tomorrow Andrea Yates will be in court. She is the Texas woman accused of drowning her five young children in a bathtub. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Her trial is in Houston, and jury selection may be a problem.

For more on this, Andrew Sheldon is with us this morning, and he is a veteran jury consultant, and he's with Shelton Associates. Thank you sir for joining us this morning.

ANDREW SHELDON, SHELTON ASSOCIATES: Good morning. Thanks.

SAVIDGE: I remember this case very well, at least as far as the initial homicide. I went down there and covered it, and as a parent it still gives me nightmares.

How does this case compare, let's say, with other capital murder trials?

SHELDON: Well, from the very outset we're not concerned with whether she did it or not.

SAVIDGE: That's a given. We know she confessed to her...

SHELDON: She confessed. The confession will be entered into evidence, and it will be talked about. So that makes it among a small number of cases. Even more unique though is the fact that she's pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.

SAVIDGE: And how does that work in the State of Texas? I know it varies sometimes from state to state.

SHELDON: Well, it's very different from declaring whether she is competent to stand trial or not, which a jury's already found that to be the case. Eleven women and one man found her competent to stand trial. In this case in Texas, they're trying to find out if she -- or going to determine if she can tell the difference between right and wrong, if she could tell the difference at the time that she committed the acts.

SAVIDGE: How do you go about finding a jury, especially an impartial jury for a case like this that has had so much notoriety?

SHELDON: Well, you have three opportunities to get information. One might be, for example, through a community attitude survey of the local community that's going to provide the jurors. Without getting into the jury panel itself, you ask about attitudes for example toward mental illness, mental health, toward parents and children, toward violence.

You find out what the community feels about that, and then you apply what you learn to a supplemental juror questionnaire, which you then give to people who are actually called. From that information, you then sit with each juror individually and question them, ask them how they feel about the death penalty, what their attitudes are about whatever it is you want to discover.

SAVIDGE: Well, she was on "60 Minutes" obviously a widely viewed television program.

SHELDON: Right.

SAVIDGE: And the attorneys for her probably knew that. I mean do you think that there was any strategy involved in putting her on television? There was a gag order, I believe. The judge was not in favor of that.

SHELDON: I don't know about the strategy. I mean we're now feeding into Houston. We are part of the news, and I think that's uppermost. I think it's important that people be informed. Whether or not they were attempting to get her case before those very same people who might then come onto the jury panel, is something that could be attempted to question about.

When they have a juror in front of them, then can say did you see this? Did you read this? Have you been involved in this case in any way? Have you talked about it, and if so, can you make a fair decision?

SAVIDGE: If you were a member of her defense team, what sort of jurors would you want? Who would you look for? What would you grab at?

SHELDON: I think it's over broad to say we want women. I think it's over broad to say we want mothers, but I think we can start to look to people who understand mental illness and its effect on human behavior.

We can look to people who have had some experience with violence. We can look to people who have had children, and who understand the bond between parents and children, and who might be likely to say, what was going on in this family before this? What was going on with her before this?

SAVIDGE: And the defense teams is not trying to get her off, or are they trying to get her off?

SHELDON: Well I assume that they are trying to, that they would like to have an acquittal, that they would like to have a not guilty by reason of insanity, because otherwise she faces the death penalty.

SAVIDGE: And in Texas, you would go into an asylum? How would that work?

SHELDON: The jury will not know what's going to happen to her, which is indicated. According to a motion that's been filed, as I understand it in the case, and under Texas law they will not know. They will know they simply have a choice between guilt or acquittal, not guilty by reason of insanity. The judge may then, however, commit her and will probably be forced to commit her to a mental institution.

SAVIDGE: Until what, she's deemed sane for trial?

SHELDON: Until she's -- well, until she's then once again reevaluated. They have only indicted her on three of the deaths. They have not indicted her on the other two, which means that they can come back at some point and prosecute those, because as you know, there's no statute of limitations on Murder.

SAVIDGE: No. Andrew Sheldon, thank you very much for coming in this morning.

SHELDON: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Jury consultant, talking about the Yates case, a case that will haunt a lot of parents for a long time. Thank you.

SHELDON: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com