Defence lawyers today launched efforts to save Andrea Yates from execution after she was convicted of murder for drowning her five children in the bath.

Andrea Yates, the 37-year-old housewife who admitted she drowned her five children, has been convicted of murder by a US jury that rejected her claim of insanity.

Andrea Yates and her husband sobbed and mouthed words of encouragement to each other in court while a video-tape was played of their children.

A US woman who drowned her five children in a bathtub was legally insane at the time of the killings, according to a psychiatrist who testified at her trial yesterday.

Andrea Yates, the mother who drowned her five children while her husband was at work, considered stabbing them but decided it was too bloody.