Chapter 1. Honoring the Legacy of the Andrea Yates Case

Yet this day was quite different. There was discernible chatter about the mother on the third floor who had killed her children. Ms. Yates’s family was in the crowded lobby. I thought how important it would be for the family to show a united front in supporting her. Securing that unity would likely prove to be tough. However, meeting with the defendant was the priority. The family also was there to visit with Ms. Yates, except for her husband, Rusty Yates (a telltale sign of possible disruption in the family). They were ushered upstairs by the deputies to a deserted third floor of the jail, with me in tow. The other inmates from that floor were shuttered in their cells, their visitors long ago dismissed. Mr. Yates appeared at last, and when all was secure, the steel jail door opened, breaking the silence.

I caught a glimpse of a frail figure in an orange jumpsuit. Andrea Yates appeared on the opposite side of the plexiglass window. The space behind her was darkened, giving her a shadowy appearance that added to the macabre scene and heightened my nerves. I focused first on meeting the family. As I talked with Andrea’s oldest brother, I watched out of the corner of my eye as Rusty talked to his wife. His words were muffled and indiscernible but were obviously words of comfort. His wife, my new client, pressed her head against the plexiglass and stared silently ahead. At the end of our conversation, her brother whispered, “Andrea told me she was Satan.”

When the family visit ended, I spoke briefly with Dr. Melissa Ferguson, the psychiatrist who had been on duty when Andrea was arrested. Dr. Ferguson informed me of her initial assessment. I did not comprehend much of what she said, but I knew enough to know that Andrea Yates was severely mentally ill. After my discussion with the psychiatrist, it was my turn to meet with Andrea. I sat in the attorney/client booth, no longer surrounded by her family or the deputies. Andrea appeared as the door to the prisoner’s side opened. I saw her unkempt hair, clenched cheeks, and dark and sunken eyes—darkened, with no discernible pupils. My initial thought was that she had eyes like a shark. Soon after, I recognized that those vacant eyes were symptomatic of psychosis.

Two days later, on June 22, at 7:30 A.M., I again met with Andrea, who remained the buzz of rumor and speculation. I had with me a medical history request form that required her signature. Completing it meant I could query her past mental and physical health records, which is always procured in these cases. I gave the consent form to the jail worker to pass on to her, and as Andrea’s eyes scanned the paper, I realized she had no idea what she was looking at or being asked to do. It would be futile to explain the importance of signing the form; it was clearly beyond her capability to sign, at least on that day.

I told Andrea I would return the next day, thinking she might sign after a night’s reflection. As I turned to leave, I realized that the pen in her hand could be used to hurt herself. I wondered why the jail attendant would leave a pen with her when she was on suicide watch. I brought this to the guard’s attention, and he soon retrieved the pen, much to my relief. I reflected that many people would not want this mother to end her life and thus be absolved of her wrongdoings, but I, on the other hand, was genuinely concerned for her welfare.

As I stood to leave, Andrea hunched forward, laying her forehead against the plexiglass and mumbling inaudibly. I leaned forward, my right ear pressed firmly against the plexiglass, and heard her barely audible whisper, “Please don’t leave me alone.” In that moment, I realized how alone she felt and that the isolation in her world, both physically and within her psychotic mind, must have been excruciating. My seminarian past and lawyer present dovetailed. Without a moment’s hesitation, and although intensely perspiring from the heat and my serious focus on her, I dropped all plans to leave. I spoke to Andrea, expecting nothing in return. Nothing else mattered. She was my client, and she needed me to stay with her. From that moment on, I knew I would not leave her; I would always be there for her in her defense and in the defense of other mothers with maternal mental illness. I ended my visit with a promise to return the next day. I headed back to the lobby of the jail, and while I was talking with family members, the strangest thing happened. Rusty came up from behind and tapped me on the shoulder. He shook my hand with a smile and said, “Well, I guess it’s welcome to the team.” I had been retained and accepted to defend Andrea Yates. I was a legal team of one and sorely in need of teammates.

I immediately contacted my office mate, Wendell Odom. Wendell’s easygoing nature and calm demeanor disguised an extremely brilliant mind able to cut through complex legal layers. He agreed to join me, knowing as I did that it was going to be the most publicized case of our lives. We also welcomed his sister, Molly, to our team. With no road map to guide us except common-sense experience, our knowledge of the law, and our bootstrap determination, we took on the case. We had no idea how much more was to come in learning about maternal infanticide and filicide offenses.

Pending her appeal to the First Court of Appeals of Texas, Andrea was placed at the Skyview Unit in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a facility for mentally ill individuals within the penitentiary system. Andrea was incarcerated at Skyview for more than 3 years while her appeal was pending. The court of appeals granted oral arguments in the case as requested in our brief. Regarding a particular “point of error” in the defense’s appellate brief and taking almost 1 year after arguments to make their decision, the court agreed with the defense that the State’s expert witness, Dr. Park Dietz, had been untruthful during his testimony. He had testified under oath that an episode of Law and Order, for which he was a consultant, had involved a woman who killed her children, pled not guilty, and was acquitted. He testified further that the show had aired in the Houston area shortly before Andrea killed her children. The jury already was aware that Rusty and Andrea regularly watched Law and Order. Yet Dr. Dietz’s testimony was false, and the defense argued that the perjured testimony had been used in the cross-examination of a defense witness and again during the State’s closing arguments. Defense also argued that this testimony had been weighed heavily during jury deliberations and had helped the jury reach its verdict of guilty. Ultimately, the First Court of Appeals agreed and reversed the guilty verdict, sending the case back to the trial court for a retrial—basically starting from “square one.”

Andrea was returned to the Harris County Jail to await retrial. The State was precluded from again seeking the death penalty in the second trial because the issue of future dangerousness (needed to sentence someone to death) had already been decided by the first jury and was not in dispute on appeal. Pending retrial, a bond was placed, and the defense arranged as a condition of bond that Andrea be sent to a state mental health facility at Rusk State Hospital in Rusk, Texas, where she was voluntarily committed as a mental health patient awaiting retrial.

The challenge as a defense attorney was to educate the jury about the unreal world of the person on trial, who had been experiencing a psychotic delusion on the day of the offense. A person who is delusional has a different mindset and decision-making process than one who is not delusional. However, the delusional individual may be able to perform certain tasks and make certain decisions that indicate an awareness of the nonpsychotic reality. For instance, Andrea had planned to drown her children well in advance, had waited until her husband and mother-in-law were absent from the home, had called 911 and asked for the police to come, had confessed to the homicide sergeant, and had admitted that she knew her actions were wrong. At the same time, Andrea had believed unequivocally that ending her children’s lives was the right thing for them. By taking their lives at a tender age, she was saving their souls from eternal damnation. Andrea had known that the criminal justice system would punish her, and therefore had known that it was legally wrong (a wrongful act) to do what she did. She had wished to be executed so the Governor of the State of Texas would be the one to “slay Satan,” who singularly lived within her. Through her own execution, she had believed that she would save the world from Satan.

Another challenge as a defense attorney is in raising awareness in the minds of jurors, who decide the fate of mothers such as Andrea, about the general, as well as specific, experiences of the mother–child relationship in order to counterbalance the bizarre nature of a mother taking the lives of her children. Normally—although there are exceptions—the nature of the mother–child bond embodies protection and love, which, in fact, is often quite evident in the relationship of the mother to her children prior to the filicide event. If anything, that knowledge embodies the distinction between the unreal reality of what occurred and the true nature of the mother and child relationship, which can be helpful for jurors to have as a barometer for just how much Andrea was not in her right state of mind.

On July 26, 2006, a non-death qualified jury, after 2.5 days of deliberation, adjudged Andrea Yates as not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI). She was sent to a state mental health hospital in Vernon, Texas, which is the initial facility for assessment once a defendant is found NGRI in Texas. She was assessed semiannually to determine whether she constituted a danger to herself or others. This assessment includes evaluation regarding self-harming, homicidal, or suicidal ideations. After her first assessment, Andrea was able to be moved to a less secure facility and remains there today. She also remains under the jurisdiction of the court and comes up for annual reviews.