Retrial of United States woman accused of drowning children set to start

A woman accused of drowning her children in a bathtub goes on trial a second time starting Monday.

Photo: Retrial of United States woman accused of drowning children set to start

Andrea Yates was convicted of murder in 2002, but the conviction was overturned because a forensic psychiatrist gave false testimony. Based on the appeals court ruling that overturned her conviction, prosecutors will be unable to seek the death penalty against her.

Yates, 41, who faces two capital murder charges, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity, as she did in her first trial. Jurors in her trial rejected her insanity defense and sentenced her to life in prison. The five children who drowned in 2001 ranged in age from 6 months to 7 years.

Doctors monitored Yates' mental state after she learned her ex-husband remarried over the weekend, her attorney said.

"I spoke with the doctors yesterday when I saw the photographs in the paper," George Parnham told CBS's "The Early Show" on Monday. "They took the proper measures to make certain that she would not decompensate."

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

Yates' former husband, Rusty Yates, divorced her in March 2005.

Parnham said his client is "the best that I've ever seen her" due to "excellent care" in the state prison system and the state mental health system, reports the AP.

D.M.