U.S.

Houston Mom Charged With Murder

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 25, 2001 / 10:26 AM EDT / CBS

A woman accused of drowning her five children has been indicted by a grand jury on capital murder charges.

Andrea Yates, 37, was indicted on one count of capital murder for the deaths of her sons Noah, 7, and John, 5, and on another count for the death of her 6-month-old daughter Mary.

Yates has remained in jail since police were called to her southeast Houston home June 20. When police arrived they found the bodies of four children still wet under a sheet on a bed. Noah was found in the bathtub.

Russell Yates has said he believed his wife was suffering from "psychotic side effects" of postpartum depression at the time of the killings.

Last month her lawyer said an insanity defense was likely for Yates. He would not say what evidence indicated she was insane when she allegedly killed the children.

George Dix, a law professor at the University of Texas, said insanity defenses are rarely used and rarely succeed when they are. To be found innocent by reason of insanity, Yates would have to show that she was so mentally impaired that she couldn't see circumstances for what they were.

For example, if she "believed her children to be devils, she's entitled to acquittal," Dix told The Dallas Morning News.

Michelle Oberman, a law professor at DePaul University in Chicago and author of the upcoming book "Mothers Who Kill Their Children," said postpartum depression has been a defense element since the mid-1980s.

"The best chance she has, if she's got any good chance, lies in hoping the jury understands the circumstances under which she was operating and to understand the reality of postpartum depression," Oberman told the Dallas newspaper.

About 10 percent to 20 percent of mothers face some level of postpartum depression. Most cases are mild, and can be treated with counseling and medicine, but some cause psychosis or delusions.