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CNN Live Today

Deliberations Continue in Westerfield Trial

Aired September 16, 2002 - 12:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... deliberations resumed about a half hour ago after a very long five-day break. First, there was a sick juror who prevented the panel from getting together the beginning of last week, and then there was another juror who prevented the panel from getting together on Friday because of medical appointments.

But today, after five long days, they are back to business. Now the same 12 men and women who found David Westerfield guilty of kidnapping and murdering Danielle van Dam, are now deciding his fate -- whether he will be put to death by lethal injection or spend rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The jury requested quite a lot of information to go over. They asked to see all of the evidence that was presented in the penalty phase of this trial. The panel six men, six women, are all death qualified, and that means that when they were selected, each one indicated that they would be capable of imposing the death penalty, though not automatically.

Now, during closing arguments in the penalty phase, prosecution told jurors that Westerfield deserves the most severe penalty, which is death. But the defense argued that while there's no excuse for what he did, this is not the -- quote -- worst of the worst, that this is not Jeffrey Dahmer or Charles Manson. The defense argued this is a man with no violent criminal past. He's a doting father and a design engineer. But the prosecution says Westerfield has two sides to his personality: the trusting public side and a dark, evil side that was capable of kidnapping and murdering a little girl.

Now, just last week an appellate court had ruled that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) transcripts of closed hearings that were held in this trial will be released by the end of the month -- Kyra, back to you.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Thelma Gutierrez, thank you. We'll check in with you.

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