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Updated March 26, 2004, 11:23 a.m. ET

Jury seated in trial of mother accused of stoning sons to death

TYLER, Texas (AP) — A jury of eight men and four women was selected Thursday for the murder trial of a woman accused of stoning her two young sons and severely injuring another.

Deanna LaJune Laney is charged with the bludgeoning deaths of Joshua, 8, and Luke, 6, on Mother's Day last year in the family's back yard near Tyler, about 100 miles east of Dallas.

Laney faces a charge of injury to a child for head injuries to her son, Aaron, now 2.

The trial is set to begin Monday and is expected to last one to two weeks.

Defense lawyers plan to ask jurors to find Laney not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutor Matt Bingham said he would not seek the death penalty because of psychiatric conclusions that Laney was legally insane.

Laney sat quietly during much of the two-day jury selection process. She closed her eyes tightly and occasionally winced and breathed heavily as prospective jurors were questioned, The Dallas Morning News reported in its Friday editions.



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