Jury Seated in Yates Trial, Starts Monday

In a file photo Andrea Yates is seen in court March 20, 2006, in Houston. Attorneys on Thursday, June 22, 2006, are to begin jury selection in the retrial of Andrea Yates, whose 2002 conviction in the death of her five children was overturned on appeal last year because of erroneous testimony. (AP Photo/Brett Coomer, Pool) (Brett Coomer - AP)

HOUSTON -- A jury was seated Thursday to hear the second trial of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who claims she was insane when she drowned her five young children in a bathtub in 2001.

Opening statements in the case were scheduled to begin Monday.

Yates, 41, stood as her defense team was introduced to the jury pool. She smiled slightly and quietly said, "Good morning," before returning to her seat.

During jury selection, several of the potential jurors questioned the legal issue at the heart of the case, saying they disagreed with the state's definition of insanity.

The definition requires a finding that defendants did not know their conduct was wrong because of severe mental problems. Some of the potential jurors asked for legal definitions of "severe" and "wrong," but the judge said she could offer none.

The county summoned twice as many potential jurors as usual, a common procedure for high-profile cases.

About 20 potential jurors said they had already decided Yates was legally insane without hearing any evidence. Three dozen others said they could not be impartial because of what they had already heard about the case.

"I think you'd have to be living in a cave not to have heard about this case," said Wendell Odom, one of Yates' attorneys.

Prosecutors declined to comment after the jury was selected.

Yates' attorney, George Parnham, has described his client as "scared to death" and has said that her mental condition deteriorates around the anniversary of the June 20, 2001, drownings.

As in her first trial, Yates has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. Parnham has argued that Yates is mentally ill and that severe postpartum psychosis prevented her from knowing that drowning her children was wrong.

Prosecutors maintain that Yates does not fit the insanity definition. They plan to present much of the same evidence from her first trial involving how Yates killed the children after her husband left for work, then called 911 to report the crime.

Yates' earlier conviction had been thrown out because a key prosecution witness had mistakenly testified about an episode of the "Law & Order" television series depicting a woman who drowned her children in a bathtub _ and was acquitted by reason of insanity.

The witness, a psychiatrist and consultant on the show, said the episode aired before the Yates children were killed, but attorneys later learned that no such episode existed.

In both trials, Yates was charged only in the deaths of 6-month-old Mary, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah. Her sons Luke, 2, and Paul, 3, were also drowned in the family's bathtub that day.

If convicted of murder, Yates will be sentenced to life in prison. The first jury rejected the death penalty, and prosecutors cannot seek death again because they did not find new evidence.