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Yates Requests No Photos

For anyone that is a parent, there is one universal fact- photos of our children bring back heartwarming memories, whether the photos are a day old, or thirty years old. We can flip through the photo albums, recalling how the bruise happened, what party they where at, or why there is that silly look on there face.


Andrea Yates can look at her children's photos and tell you how they came to be the lifeless bodies laying side by side on the bed. But her defense doesn't want her too. In fact, her defense doesn't want anyone to see those photos now.

Yates' attorney filed 30 pretrial motions, which were made public Monday, including one requesting "any and all photographs" of her children not be shown to jurors during the trial set to begin March 20.

George Parnham claims the photos could cause jurors to be unfairly prejudiced or confuse them, although prosecutors claim the images are evidence of Yates' crime.

"It is not unusual for us in a murder case to introduce photographs of the victims," said Prosecutor Alan Curry. "They are unpleasant to look at because we are involved in a murder case."

During Yates' original trial, the judge allowed jurors to see photographs of the children and a crime scene video taken by police investigators. A hearing is scheduled for Friday.


Not having the papers that where filed sitting in front of me, I am stumped on the part about the " "any and all photographs" of her children not be shown to jurors " part of the news story. It doesn't seem to be just the images of murdered children, but they don't want any images of the children.

In most cases, in fact every murder case that comes to mind, photos of the victims are shown to put a human face to the crime. To show the jury that there is a criminal case going on that involves real people. To remind us that there was a victim, and to help us see just a bit of what that person was in their life. Hiding photos of the victims only detracts from the connection that the jury has to the victim. It is easier to ignore the life, and the death, of someone who you've never really seen. They become more like the characters in a book, than real people.

Yates didn't cruelly murder fictional characters in a novel, she killed real flesh and blood people, she killed her kids. The jury has the right to see who she selfishly stole from the world- who's life she decided to play God with.

Yates Lawyer Wants to Ban Photos of Kids - Yahoo! News

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Comments

Anonymous said…
I live in Texas but this case certainly makes me claim Minnesota as my home.

Andrea Yates deserves to get the DP IMO, she handed out that same sentence five times to each of her children. I hope the defense attorney's motion fails.

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