Texas won't seek death penalty if Houston mom accepts responsibility for drownings
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Posted 5:22PM on Tuesday, January 8, 2002
HOUSTON - The state is willing to forgo the death penalty for Andrea Yates if she accepts responsibility for drowning her five children in the bathtub, a prosecutor said Tuesday as jury selection got under way.<br>
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Yates, 37, confessed to police that on June 20 she drowned her children, ranging in age from 6 months to 7 years, but she has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. Her attorneys say she suffers from a severe form of postpartum depression.<br>
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Jury selection is expected to take four to five weeks. Testimony is not expected to begin until mid-February.<br>
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The district attorney's office is seeking the death penalty. But in court on Tuesday, prosecutor Joe Owmby disclosed that the district attorney's office was willing to offer a life sentence "if Yates was willing to accept responsibility for her criminal acts."<br>
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Neither side commented on Owmby's offer; state District Judge Belinda Hill has imposed a gag order.<br>
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