Mother's fate hinges on testimony about her sanity before and after children's' deaths

HOUSTON - The trial of a woman accused of drowning her five children in the family bathtub will hinge on testimony from doctors who talked to her before and after the deaths. <br> <br> Last week, a psychiatrist told jurors that Andrea Yates thought she had been marked by Satan and left with only one way to save her children from the fires and torment of hell: to kill them. <br> <br> Yates believed the state would destroy Satan when it punished her for her children&#39;s deaths, the Harris County jail psychiatrist, Dr. Melissa Ferguson, testified Friday as Yates&#39; defense got under way. <br> <br> Prosecutors were expected to cross-examine Ferguson when the trial enters its second week on Monday. <br> <br> Testimony this week is expected to include doctors who treated Yates before the killings June 20. <br> <br> Defense attorneys say the former nurse turned stay-at-home mother is innocent by reason of insanity in the drowning deaths of three of her five children. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. <br> <br> In Texas, a person is presumed sane and it is up to the defense to prove a defendant is insane. <br> <br> &#34;`My children weren&#39;t righteous,&#34;&#39; Ferguson said Yates told her the day after the children died. &#34;`They stumbled because I was evil.&#34;&#39; <br> <br> &#34;`I deserve to be punished. I am guilty,&#34;&#39; she quoted Yates as saying. <br> <br> Defense attorneys have said that Yates&#39; self-defeating attitude was a symptom of her severe mental illness, which left her unable to know if drowning her children was right or wrong. <br> <br> Prosecutors spent most of last week laying out their criminal case, and later will get the chance to respond to Yates&#39; insanity claims. <br> <br> During opening statements, prosecutors said Yates knew what she was doing was a sin and, therefore, that it was wrong. <br> <br> They showed jurors pictures taken at the family&#39;s home. One showed 7-year-old Noah&#39;s body floating face down in the tub, where each of his siblings was drowned. Another showed the four youngest children lying on a wet bed. <br> <br> Yates medical records from 1999 detail two suicide attempts following Luke&#39;s birth and a doctor&#39;s warning that she should think twice before having additional children. <br> <br> They also include a mention that Yates had her first homicidal thought following Noah&#39;s birth. <br> <br> Ferguson testified Friday that Yates thought cartoon characters were telling her that she was a bad mother and that she heard a human voice telling her to get a knife. Yates also said she saw Satanic teddy bears and ducks in the jail&#39;s walls. <br> <br> Ferguson said that when she determined Yates was suffering from psychotic delusions and hallucinations, she told Yates that her mind was playing tricks on her. <br> <br> Yates responded that she wasn&#39;t mentally ill and didn&#39;t need medication. Ferguson said she further inquired about Yates previous bouts of depression and suicide attempts, to which Yates replied: &#34;It&#39;s not depression. I never cried.&#34; <br> <br> If jurors determine Yates was insane, a separate hearing will be held to determine if she will be released or involuntarily committed. <br> <br> <br>

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