Dude, what are the odds of someone knowing a witness is lying during the trial? Slim and his good friend none, and none just left town. Lawyers are great and all, but not psychic.

I'm kind of shocked and appalled by some of the comments on this thread.

See also: KSigRC's post. Page 1. Post 13.

But see this.

Now that's internet hot!!

...your Broncos aren't though....bwahah

They're going to beat Indianapolis.

Oh man, even I can't say that without laughing for a second and then crying.

At least they get a chance to try!

My Chiefs can't even say that much, 7-9 bastages...

Go Patriots!

:(

I hate you and Matthew for turning me into a fan of a team that sucks.

Don't feel too bad...I'm a Dolphins fan. :(

What lawyers?

-Rudey

No. But I hear that there are quite a few arbitrators roaming GC on the Events forum.

-Rudey

Um hi, you should be a Bears fan.

Oh wait, that wouldn't change your situation at all, would it?

I'm a lawyer and I've only recently seen 2 or 3 episodes of Law and Order because of this. It's great that everyone loves the show, but real law is not what you see on TV. The only thing intelligent I learned from this thread is that she won't be re-tried with the death penalty, which is a shame to me.

RUgreek

Russell Yates finalizes divorce from Andrea Yates
 

By PAM EASTON
Associated Press Writer
March 17, 2005 - 2:49 p.m. CST


HOUSTON — Russell Yates finalized his divorce Thursday from his wife, Andrea, three years after she was sentenced to life in prison for drowning their children.

Under the decree, Andrea Yates will get her gliding rocking chair — generally used for nursing babies — and the right to be buried near the five children. Russell Yates will also give her $7,000 and a portion of his retirement benefits from his employment at NASA.

The house where the children were drowned in the bathtub in 2001 has been sold.

Andrea Yates, 40, was sentenced to life in prison for three of the 2001 drowning deaths, but the capital murder convictions were overturned in January. A panel of the First Court of Appeals in Houston sided with her lawyers, who contended false testimony from a prosecution expert witness influenced the jury. Andrea Yates claimed she was insane at the time of the drownings.

Prosecutors have asked the full appeals court to reconsider.

"She has come to terms with it and knows Rusty needs to go on with his life," Andrea Yates' attorney, John O'Sullivan, said. "She just wants to get it behind her. She doesn't like it. She wishes it didn't happen."

The divorce was also tough for Russell Yates, his attorney David Salinsky said. Russell Yates still cares for Andrea and continues to visit her in prison, he said.

The couple married on April 17, 1993 and stopped living together on June 20, 2001, the day the children were killed, according to the divorce petition.

The family had seven cemetery plots — five for the children and one each for Russell and Andrea Yates. Salinsky said it's unclear whether Russell Yates will be buried next to Andrea.

"Nobody ever knows what the future is going to hold," he said.


In the weeks leading to his divorce filing last summer, Russell Yates acknowledged uncertainty about the couple's marriage had contributed to Andrea Yates' brief stay at a prison hospital for refusing to eat.

"I always have and I always will support Andrea," Russell Yates said in July. "I do what I can to encourage her. When she is lucid, she is distraught. Then when she is not lucid, she is psychotic. It is a very, very difficult situation for all of us."

O'Sullivan said Andrea Yates put thought into what she wanted from the divorce.

Andrea Yates remains at a psychiatric prison in East Texas, where she works in the commissary three days a week and performs general housekeeping duties, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Mike Viesca.

O'Sullivan said Andrea Yates is mentally stable, but "her life is forever scarred."

"The important thing is, she is stable with her medicine and she is able to cope with things," he said. "She looks better than she has ever looked."

Yates, wet and bedraggled, called police to her home and led them to the bodies of her four youngest children: John, 5, Paul, 3, Luke, 2, and 6-month-old Mary. Police later found the oldest, Noah, 7, floating face down in the tub's murky brown water.

Yates called the four younger children into the bathroom and drowned them one by one. When Noah discovered what she was doing, he tried to flee, but Yates chased him down and drowned him as well.

According to trial testimony, Yates was overwhelmed by motherhood, considered herself a bad mother, attempted suicide and had been hospitalized for depression and psychotic episodes.
___

um....should what someone saw on a tv show be considered as evidence anyway?