Convicted child killer's husband sues to keep crime-scene video under wraps
By The Associated Press
06.30.02
HOUSTON — Convicted child killer Andrea Yates' husband has sued the Texas Attorney General's office in an attempt to prevent the release of a police video showing the dead bodies of the couple's five children.
"These images could not be more personal or intimate in nature to (Russell) Yates," attorney George Parnham argues in the lawsuit.
"Indeed, it is a father's memory of his five deceased children and the sanctity of the home in which he lives which are at issue in this case," the lawsuit states. "Surely nothing could be more intimate or private."
Jurors who sentenced Andrea Yates, 37, to life in prison for drowning her children last June viewed the video during her capital murder trial in March. Two television stations requested the video and other evidence within days of jurors finding Yates guilty.
Texas Attorney General John Cornyn ruled on May 30 that the Harris County District Attorney's office must release the video and other evidence made public during the case to news media outlets and others who have requested it in accordance with the state's open-records laws.
"Information filed with a court is generally a matter of public record and may not be withheld from disclosure," Assistant Attorney General Yen-Ha Le informed the district attorney's office in May. "The D.A.'s office must release any documents filed with a court and those portions of the videotapes that have been shown to the jury."
Taped jailhouse interviews, conducted by psychiatrists with Yates shortly after the murders, were released earlier this month by the district attorney's office. However, the crime-scene video was not released.
The video shows a police walkthrough of the Yates' home that includes images of the dead children. One of those images shows the oldest of the five, 7-year-old Noah, floating face down in a tub of murky water with his arms outstretched.
Russell Yates wants to make sure the video isn't seen by anyone who wasn't present in the Harris County courtroom when it was shown to jurors during his wife's trial. Russell Yates says to release the video publicly violates his right to privacy.
"The only legitimate public interest in the contents of the videotape was served when it was played for the jury at the criminal trial," Parnham said in the lawsuit, filed in Austin on June 26. "To now disseminate that video for commercial, public broadcast can only serve the improper purpose of supporting sensationalism and pandering to voyeuristic interests."
Russell Yates said he is trying to protect his children's memory.
"A description of how they were found would do," he told the Associated Press. "No one needs pictures."
Cornyn, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate, said June 27 he had not seen the lawsuit but said his office would evaluate it and decide how to proceed. As the state's attorney general, Cornyn's office handles thousands of open-records requests each year.
"This is one involving very tragic circumstances, but one we will handle in accordance with the law and our usual procedures," Cornyn said.