Andrea Yates’ conviction thrown out
Coverage of Clear Lake drownings
In a victory for homicidal mothers everywhere, a Texas appeals court today set aside the conviction of Andrea Yates. Mrs. Yates, who for a short time teamed with Clara Harris to make the Clear Lake area the percieved capitol of homicidal matriarchal nutcases, drowned her five children in the bathtub of the home she shared with her then-husband, Russell Yates. Mr. Yates is not exactly the model of reason and gender equity, but that’s a story for another time.
The Texas First Court of Appeals reversed today the capital murder conviction of Clear Lake mom Andrea Yates, who’s serving a life sentence for drowning her children in a bathtub.
The three-member appeals court granted Yatesí motion to have her conviction reversed because, among other things, the stateís expert psychiatric witness testified that Yates had patterned her actions after a Law & Order television episode that never existed. In ordering a new trial, the appellate court said the trial judge erred in not granting a mistrial once it was learned that testimony of Dr. Park Dietz was false.
OK, don’t get me wrong; I understand the issue in play here. The question I have, though, is quite simple…did Dietz’ testimony have any adverse effect on the jury’s determination of Mrs. Yates’ guilt? Not by a long shot. So why is the State of Texas now being forced to waste yet more money on retrying Mrs. Yates?
The bottom line here is that the circus is not over. There is a much greater likelihood than not that Andrea Yates is as crazy as a march hare. A new trial will hardly change this reality. The only real impact that a new trial will have is to burn yet more tax dollars. Of course, if we’re going to do this, we might as well do it correctly, no?
