HOUSTON -- Prosecutors announced late Wednesday that they will seek the death penalty against a Houston-area mother accused of drowning her five children.

Andrea Pia Yates pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday to charges of capital murder, but a court-appointed psychiatrist found otherwise.

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal sent an e-mail to the court announcing that he intends to ask for the death penalty against Yates, according to a KPRC TV report.

Rosenthal asked his prosecutors Wednesday to file the paperwork necessary to make the death penalty an option in the Yates case.

He told Hill that he decided Harris County residents deserved to pursue "the full range of punishment in this case, including the death penalty."

Hill has issued a gag order in the case, fearing that publicity could sway potential jurors, and therefore, Yates' attorney George Parnham would not comment on the prosecution's decision except to say, "We are determining how to address that issue and stay within the parameters of (the) gag order."

Yates, 37, appeared in a Harris County courthouse looking more alert than she has in previous appearances, but didn't speak during the half-hour proceeding.

Yates faces two counts of capital murder for the June 20 drowning deaths of her children. One count covers the deaths of her two oldest sons, Noah, 7; and John, 5. The other charge, which was handed down by a grand jury last week, covers the death of her 6-month-old daughter Mary.

Yates has also admitted to killing sons Paul, 3; and Luke, 2, authorities said.

Her husband, Russell Yates, was in the courtroom Wednesday, along with his mother, sitting in the front row. But Yates didn't acknowledge either of them.

Russell Yates has stood behind his wife and has said that he doesn't want to see her die. He's also said that she suffered from postpartum depression after their two youngest children were born, and he believes that the condition pushed her over the edge.

Police said that on June 20, Yates called them to her home in the southeast Houston suburb of Clear Lake. When officers arrived, they said that they found the wet bodies of the four younger children underneath a sheet on a bed. The oldest child, Noah, was found dead in the bathtub.

Yates has spent most of her time in the psychiatric ward of the Harris County Jail, but Wednesday morning she was brought to the courthouse, where she was officially charged with the murders of her children.

Hill also ordered a psychological evaluation of Yates. Parnham said in a court notice that two psychiatrists have determined that she was insane when her children died.

However, the findings of a court-appointed psychiatrist, who recently examined Yates, were made public for the first time in court. He said that Yates is mentally competent to stand trial.

The judge agreed to let a jury decide, saying that she will order a competency hearing sometime within the next few days.

Yates faces the death penalty or life in prison if she is convicted. However, prosecutors have not said if they will seek the death penalty.

Legal Experts Not Surprised

Houston attorney Rusty Hardin, a veteran defense attorney and former Harris County prosecutor, said that he wasn't surprised the prosecution is seeking the death penalty.

"I think you have to remember they have a different client," Hardin said. "Their client is the community at large. I know they want to do what's right. They believe they have an obligation to the community at large.

"I think what they decided is let a jury decide. They know that this will be unpopular with some people, and they know the death penalty in this case will be an uphill fight."

Hardin believes that the state has a good chance of getting a guilty verdict, but the defense has a good shot at not getting the death penalty because a jury has to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Yates is a continuing threat to society.

"I think that will be hard to show in this case," Hardin said.

He also said that the insanity defense doesn't work too often.

"The test will be, 'Did she know right from wrong?'" Hardin said. "If the jury finds or has a reasonable doubt that she was sane, then the defense works."

A South Texas College of Law professor said that she was not surprised by court-appointed psychiatrist's findings that Yates is competent to stand trial.

"The way in which (Yates) methodically killed her children one by one, they way in which she called the police, and then called her husband, it seems very clear to most people that she knew what she was doing when she killed the children," professor Shelby Moore said.

"Especially when her oldest son tried to get away and she grabbed him back in order to drown him, as she had done the others," she said.

Moore, who is also an attorney, said that the insanity defense is used in court more frequently than people realize.

Women and the Death Penalty

If past history is any indication, Andrea Yates has a good chance of avoiding death.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, only seven women have been executed nationwide compared to 688 men.

The most recent executions of women in Texas were Karla Faye Tucker in 1998 and Betty Lou Beets in February 2001.

There are currently 56 women on death row nationally.