HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) — Andrea Yates was formally sentenced Monday to life in prison for the drowning deaths of three of her five children.

She will be eligible for parole in 40 years.

Yates, 37, was convicted last week on two counts of murder for the drownings of her 6 month-old daughter Mary, and her sons Noah, 7, and John, 5. The charges did not cover the deaths of her two other sons, Paul, 3, and Luke, 2.

The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for 35 minutes Friday before recommending the life sentence. She could have been sentenced to death.

After the sentencing, defense attorney Wendell Odom said an appeal will be filed.

Yates' attorneys argued that she was severely mentally ill and suffering from a psychosis when she drowned her children in the family bathtub.

Prosecutors said she was mentally ill, but still knew that her actions were wrong.

Under Texas law, defendants can be declared not guilty by reason of insanity only if it is determined they did not know right from wrong at the time of the crime.

Yates' husband, Russell, accused the court system of victimizing his wife after the medical community had mistreated her by not recognizing how sick she was and not giving her the right treatment.

Russell Yates and several of Andrea Yates' relatives appeared on several national talk shows Monday, as did several jurors in the case. Some members of Yates' family accused husband Russell Yates of not doing enough to assess the Houston woman's mental illness.

According to a report by The Associated Press, the comments came in a group interview with Houston television station KTRK that was also aired on ABC's "Good Morning, America," on Monday.

Brian Kennedy, a brother of Andrea Yates, called Russell Yates an "unemotional" husband inattentive to his sister's needs.

Andrea Yates' mother, Jutta Karin Kennedy, said her son-in-law told her after the birth of their fourth child that he had never changed a diaper.

Asked about criticism of his role, Russell Yates told NBC's "Today" show Monday that some people "don't understand the biochemical nature of Andrea's illness ... so they'll say there must have been something else going on in that household, or there must have been this or that and it's all false," according to the AP report.

Russell Yates told "The Early Show" that "I think I have to" sue those responsible for her medical care, according to the AP. He contends that she was wrongly taken off antipsychotic medication before the killings despite lapsing into severe mental illness following the births of her last two children.

"She was never diagnosed, she was never treated and they didn't protect our family," he said.

Last week, Andrea Yates' attorneys contended that Dr. Park Dietz, a UCLA psychiatrist who has consulted on several high-profile cases, lied when he testified that Yates may have been inspired to kill her children by an episode of the NBC television show "Law and Order" in which a mother drowns her children and is acquitted on an insanity defense. Dietz has worked as a consultant on the show.

The defense attorneys said they had contacted the show's producers and learned that an episode such as the one described by Dietz never aired.

Last week's sentencing capped a month of emotional testimony and arguments by attorneys, prosecutors and nearly 40 witnesses.

The case stirred new debate over the legal standard for mental illness and whether postpartum depression is properly recognized and taken seriously. Women's groups had harshly criticized prosecutors for pushing for the death penalty.