Conviction overturned
A Texas appeals court in early 2005 reversed the capital murder convictions of Andrea Yates, the woman who drowned her five children in a bathtub, citing the false testimony of a prosecution witness. Jurors in 2002 sentenced Yates to life in prison in the 2001 deaths of three of her children: Noah, 7, John, 5, and Mary, 6 months. She was not tried in the deaths of the other two, Luke, 3, and Paul, 2. Jurors deliberated for three hours and 40 minutes before finding Yates guilty of murder on March 13, 2002. Her attorneys argued that Yates was insane when she drowned the children but prosecutors said Yates knew what she was doing was wrong.
