Insanity plea for drowning accused

The American woman accused of killing her five young children by systematically drowning them in their bathtub will likely plead innocent by reason of insanity, her lawyer said.

Andrea Yates, 36, has been with capital murder.

Lawyer George Parnham said he had talked with psychiatrists who had examined her in jail. "I've accumulated evidence that strongly suggests that the mental status of my client will be the issue, which means entering a not guilty plea by reason of insanity."

George Dix, a law professor at the University of Texas, said insanity defences are rarely used and rarely succeed.

Michelle Oberman, a law professor at DePaul University in Chicago, said postnatal depression had been a defence element in cases of mothers killing children since the mid-1980s.