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In Arraignment, Andrea Yates' Attorney Enters Insanity Plea on Yates' Behalf

Aired August 08, 2001 - 10:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's stay in Texas, but shift from Waco back to Houston now, to that courtroom. The pictures that we were bringing in from that courtroom. And we see now -- now, we do see the image of Andrea Yates in the courtroom, and our Ed Lavandera is back with us again.

Ed, we do finally have the picture. Can you describe exactly what it was like when she did walk in there?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Andrea Yates, very quiet, very withdrawn. She kind of just walked straight to the corner of the table where she was sitting inside of the courtroom. And Russell Yates was looking at her, but as a mentioned a few moments ago, Andrea Yates never once made eye contact. She just sat there, always looking straight ahead, and just you know, I don't want to start guessing into what she was thinking, because of course I have no idea. But enough to say that she was just looking straight ahead and never made eye contact with Russell Yates. When she left, she kind of got up and did the same.

I did notice that before the hearing started that Russell Yates passed an envelope, a small envelope with a letter inside of it to one of her attorneys, and that was later passed along to Mrs. Yates -- Leon.

HARRIS: Did you ever hear her voice, Ed?

LAVANDERA: No, she never spoke in this hearing at all. And as I mentioned as well, George Parnum, when the judge asked Andrea Yates how do you plead in this case, her attorney is the one who spoke up and said that Mrs. Yates pleads guilty by reason of insanity, and she did that -- the attorney did that -- excuse me -- for both indictments that were read aloud. Both capital indictments were read aloud by the prosecuting attorney, and then the defense attorney, George Parnum is the one who responded to both indictments.

Leon, I should mention one of the things that could come up in the next couple of weeks in regard to the competency hearing is the testimony that was given to grand jury, and in the state of Texas, the grand jury evidence is secret, and not even defense attorneys usually -- don't always have access to it. The defense attorneys have requested access to information from a doctor at a local hospital. Apparently Andrea Yates was under the supervision of a doctor here in the days leading up to the deaths of her five children. Defense attorneys are asking that his testimony -- and we don't know what that is at this point -- be turned over so they can review it. Perhaps, a technical issue and perhaps an indication of exactly what routes, and defense attorneys and prosecutors are -- will be looking at in the weeks to come.

Like I have mentioned, this is a case that will boil down to the quality of experts, medical experts, that have been meeting with Andrea Yates over the last several weeks.

HARRIS: Great. Thank you very much, Ed Lavandera reporting live from Houston, Texas, and with him reporting over the first pictures that we have seen of Andrea Yates in months.

Thank you very much, Ed.

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