Yates' Fate Decided

A jury spared Andrea Yates' life Friday after prosecutors stopped short of demanding the death penalty for the tormented mother who drowned her five children one by one in the bathtub.

Yates, 37, was sentenced to life in prison and will have to serve at least 40 years before she is eligible for parole.

The jury took just 40 minutes to bring an end to the case that had angered family members, women's groups and others who said prosecutors had shown no mercy in bringing a capital murder case against a mentally ill woman overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood.

Yates stood while the verdict was read, her attorney's arm around her. Her attorneys smiled, but there was no apparent reaction from her.

Yates' husband, Russell, had no reaction in the courtroom. His brother, Randy Yates, nodded affirmatively. Andrea Yates' sister, sitting across the courtroom, wiped tears from her eyes as she leaned forward.

"It would have been worse if she'd been given the death penalty, but not that much worse," Russell Yates said outside the courthouse afterwards. He said he and his family are disappointed in the guilty verdict and, "most of us are offended that she was even prosecuted."

As Andrea Yates was led from the courtroom by officers, she looked back toward her mother and siblings.

The same jury that took less than four hours to reject her claim of insanity and convict her of capital murder Tuesday returned the sentence with similar swiftness.

CBS News Correspondent Maureen Maher reports prosecutors had pushed relentlessly for the death penalty, but scaled back in the final hour.

Afterward, prosecutor Joe Owmby said that he didn't think "the facts and the evidence warranted me recommending a death sentence in this case."

In her closing argument, prosecutor Kaylynn Williford told jurors that Yates' children "never had a chance and you need to think about those children." But she also said: "Whatever decision you make, the state will accept."

Defense lawyers, meanwhile, pleaded with jurors who convicted her earlier this week to choose life in prison for Yates.

Attorney Wendell Odom said there were mitigating factors that needed to be taken into account in the Yates case.

He said there was "reams and reams" of evidence that show how mentally ill Yates was.

"She is not a danger to society," Odom said. "She does not have a criminal's mind, not an inherently evil person."

Defense attorneys had called Yates' family, friends and a psychiatrist Thursday in an attempt to save her life.

"I'm here pleading for her life," Andrea Yates' 73-year-old mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy told jurors as she cried.

The case stirred new debate over the legal standard for mental illness and whether postpartum depression is properly recognized and taken seriously. Women's groups had harshly criticized prosecutors for pushing for the death penalty.

Terry O'Neil of the National Organization for Women said she was relieved that Yates was spared the death penalty. But she says the response by Texas authorities to the killings is completely inappropriate.

O'Neil says it's clear that Yates is mentally ill, and officials in Texas instead adopted what she calls the "kill Andrea" approach.

Friday's closing arguments came after State District Judge Belinda Hill denied a motion from defense attorneys for a mistrial. Testimony earlier from a prosecution psychiatrist, Dr. Park Dietz, indicated Yates might have come up with the idea for drowning her children from an episode of the television program "Law & Order." He said it told the story of a mentally ill woman who drowned her children and was found innocent by reason of insanity.

But the defense said Friday that the episode never existed. Neil Schubert, "Law & Order" spokesman, said Friday that the show has had story lines in its 12-year history involving mothers who kill but no episodes about a mother drowning her children.

To impose the death penalty, the jury had to decide unanimously that Yates poses a continuing danger and that there were no mitigating circumstances against executing her. The jury answered no to the first question and therefore did not have to consider the second.

Afterward, at the hotel where they had been sequestered for four weeks, jurors refused to speak with reporters.

The sentence ended a case that began last June 20, when a wet and bedraggled Yates called police to her home and showed them the bodies of her children: Noah, 7, John, 5, Paul, 3, Luke, 2, and 6-month-old Mary.

She had called the youngsters into the bathroom and drowned them in the bathtub, even chasing down Noah when he tried to run away.

Outside the courthouse, Russell Yates said his children "loved their mommy. I know they don't hold this against her."

"I'll always support Andrea. I believe in Andrea," he said. "She's the victim here not only of the medical community but also the justice system."