In a twelve page opinion signed by court Justice Sam Nuchia, the First Court of Appeals in Houston, Texas has ordered a new trial for Texas mother Andrea Yates. Citing 19 errors that were made during her trial in 2002, the three-judge panel essentially overturned the guilty verdict imposed by the jury.
Yates has been in prison, serving a life sentence for drowning one of her three children. She was not tried for the deaths of the other two. All along, her attorneys argued that she was innocent by reason of insanity. Yates claimed the Satan had told her to kill her children.
This case drew national attention to post-partum depression, from which Yates is said to have suffered. Psychiatrists testified that Yates suffered from both schizophrenia as well.
Much of the appeal was centered on the testimony of expert witnesses who claimed the Yates had gotten the idea of drowning her kids and then claiming insanity from watching an episode of Law and Order. However, no such episode was aired during the time period in question.
