LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jargon_john)

Yates not guilty by reason of insanity

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday in the bathtub drownings of her young children.

The 42-year-old will be committed to a state mental hospital, with periodic hearings before a judge to determine whether she should be released.

If convicted of murder, she would have faced life in prison.

Yates' attorneys never disputed that she drowned 6-month-old Mary, 2-year-old Luke, 3-year-old Paul, 5-year-old John and 7-year-old Noah in their Houston-area home in June 2001. But they said she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her and was trying to save them from hell.

Yates stared wide-eyed as the verdict was read. She then bowed her head and wept quietly.

The jury, split evenly men to women, had deliberated for about 12 hours over three days before finding Yates not guilty by reason of insanity.

The jurors had not been told that she would be committed to a mental institution for treatment if found not guilty.

Prosecutors had maintained that Yates failed to meet the state's definition of insanity: that a severe mental illness prevents someone who is committing a crime from knowing that it is wrong.

An earlier jury had found Yates guilty of murder in her children's deaths, but that verdict was overturned on appeal because erroneous testimony. Prosecutors retried her on the same three counts of murder.