Posted 1/06/2005 05:25:00 PM by Douglas

So you want to be a lawyer. You study (albeit not very hard) for that history, spend a fortune getting ready for the LSAT, wait a million tables putting yourself through law school, and send a color copy of your bar association card to your mom when you get finished. Then, after a few years of practicing as a defense attorney, you spend two plus years tirelessly researching and writing motions trying to overturn the conviction of a mother that drowned five of her own children. Way to go, George Parnham, you're an inspiration to aspiring bottom-feeding sludge suckers everywhere.

Andrea Yates' murder conviction for drowning her children in the bathtub was overturned by an appeals court Thursday because a psychiatrist for the prosecution gave erroneous testimony that suggested the Texas mother got the idea from an episode of "Law & Order."

Yates, 40, is more than two years into a life sentence after a trial that stirred national debate over mothers who kill, postpartum depression and the legal definition of insanity.

The appeals court ruling turned on the testimony of Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who consulted for "Law & Order" and helped prosecutors land a conviction in 2002. Dietz testified at the trial that shortly before Yates' crime occurred, "Law & Order" ran an episode about a woman who drowned her children and was found innocent by reason of insanity.

This is really baffling. First off, you know she's not going to walk, so the only motivation from this motion was to improve her sentence. She didn't get the death penalty (which clearly fell within the statute of a capital offense), so why bother? Are they pinging on the "Law&Order" witness trying to get shot at being a guest star?