Park Dietz, Whose ‘Law & Order’ Testimony Led to the Court Action, Insists Yates Was Sane

Jan. 7, 2005 — The psychiatrist whose testimony helped convict Andrea Yates in the slayings of three of her children — and was the basis for an appeals court’s decision to overturn the convictions — says he made a mistake, but still believes the Texas mother was sane when she killed her children.

“I don’t think there’s any question about that [Yates' sanity],” Dietz said in an interview on “Good Morning America” today. “The evidence that she knew right from wrong is what she said. She says in recorded statements, including my interviews, that as she killed her children, she knew that it was wrong to do it. She knew God would disapprove. And she knew society would disapprove. That’s the evidence. With that kind of smoking gun evidence that she knew it was wrong, it would be silly to make up something else.”
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On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the First Court of Appeals in Houston overturned Yates’ capital murder convictions for the 2001 slayings of three of her five children and ordered a new trial. (Yates had confessed and pleaded guilty to killing her other two children.) In its ruling, the panel cited the false testimony by Dietz.
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Dietz said he based his conclusion that Yates was sane in part on Yates’ belief that Satan, not God, had ordered the murders. But Dietz incorrectly testified that an episode of “Law & Order” dealing with postpartum depression aired just before the killings, inferring that Yates was inspired by the show. Dietz, a consultant for “Law & Order” at the time, told jurors the episode portrayed a woman who drowned her children and was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.

An Honest Mistake

Producers from “Law & Order” called Yates’ attorney and said such an episode didn’t exist. Yates’ attorney called for a mistrial but his petition was denied and Yates was convicted. Prosecutors admitted the “Law & Order” mistake, saying it was unintentional, and a grand jury later cleared Dietz of perjury allegations.
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Today, Dietz said he made an honest mistake when he referred to the nonexistent “Law & Order” episode and tried to correct his error immediately.

“I made an honest mistake about the television show during cross-examination, and a week later I learned that I might be mistaken,” Dietz said. “I immediately researched it and that same day offered to fly back to Houston during the trial and correct the error. I was told just to put it in writing, and I wrote a detailed letter, sent it to the prosecution. They gave it to the defense, and unfortunately it wasn’t put into the record. So the three-judge panel didn’t have access to the full story.”
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