Yates confessed to drowning her five children in a bathtub and was convicted on two counts of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. Yates confessed to drowning her five children in a bathtub and was ... more Photo: Handout Doctors say Andrea Yates ready for group outings 1 / 1 Back to Gallery 
 
 Doctors for Andrea Yates, the Clear Lake mother who killed her five children in 2001, have recommended that she be granted permission to attend group outings with other patients at the state psychiatric hospital where she has been institutionalized since a 2006 retrial found her innocent by reason of insanity, according to her attorney. A teleconference call between a judge, Parnham and staff at Kerrville State Hospital had been scheduled for Friday, but it was canceled because Parnham was unable to participate.
– A Texas mother who drowned her five children in a bathtub in 2001 is ready to leave the state psychiatric hospital for picnics and other outings with fellow patients, her doctors say. Andrea Yates, 49, has been institutionalized since 2006, when a second trial found her not guilty by reason of insanity of the murders of Noah, 7; John, 5; Paul, 3; Luke 2; and Mary, 6 months, reports the Houston Chronicle. She had initially been convicted of capital murder, but medical experts testified that she had suffered from extreme postpartum depression. Yates, who was denied permission to attend church services outside the hospital in 2012, is the only patient at the facility who has never received a group-outing pass, sources tell KTRH. Her lawyer says she has been involved with arts and crafts at the minimum-security hospital, sending the proceeds from anonymous sales of greeting cards and aprons to a charity that works to improve the mental health of new mothers. "She wants to help build a legacy for those children to help prevent future tragedies like hers," he says. "Every kid deserves to be raised by a mother free of mental illness."