HOUSTON, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Andrea Yates has rejected a plea agreement in Texas that would have given her a 35-year prison term for drowning her five children, a report said.
However, prosecutors said the offer in which the 41-year-old former nurse would either plead guilty or no contest to a charge of capital murder would remain on the table until March 10.
Attorney George Parnham said Yates rejected the plea because it might put her in the general prison system rather than a mental health facility.
"A woman with this notoriety, with this type of offense charged, would be at risk," Parnham told the Houston Chronicle. "I have grave, grave concerns."
An appeals court overturned Yates' original 2002 conviction, saying mistaken prosecution testimony may have influenced the jury. A forensic psychiatrist mistakenly testified that "Law & Order" aired a show about a woman committing a similar act days before the June 2001 deaths.
Houston Judge Belinda Hill rejected defense arguments that prosecutorial misconduct and double jeopardy should bar Yates' retrial, which is set for March 20.
