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CNN Live At Daybreak

Morning Coffey

Aired January 21, 2003 - 06:24   ET

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

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for coffee talk with our favorite legal analyst, Kendall Coffey.
He joins us live from New York this morning.

Kendall, hi.

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the sniper case out of Washington, D.C. I guess prosecutors are going to take the case of John Lee Malvo to a grand jury?

COFFEY: Yes, Carol, and with the decision last week by a Virginia judge that he can be tried as an adult, it's a virtual certainty that the grand jury is going to return an indictment for capital murder. Even though the judge found there were no eyewitnesses placing Malvo on the scenes of the crime, he found the circumstantial case was quite strong, and as we know, circumstantial evidence can place someone on death row.

COSTELLO: Yes, so this should be a fairly quick process, I might imagine.

COFFEY: It's, the outcome is very clear.

COSTELLO: OK, let's talk about this case in Houston, Texas, where a woman ran over her husband with her Mercedes and it was all caught on videotape. The case is going to go to trial. How will her defense attorneys try this case?

COFFEY: Well, they've been calling it an accident, but she ran him over three times. It looks like the defense lawyer is going to more and more try to argue a jealous, uncontrollable rage. Let's see how that works. It's the same defense lawyer who represented Andrea Yates, who tried a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity when her children were drowned.

COSTELLO: And you think that might work?

COFFEY: I think it's very, very uphill and it's not going to get easier when the videotape and some of the other evidence comes in.

COSTELLO: No. I would imagine it's very grizzly.

Kendall Coffey, thanks for your insight this morning.

We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 21, 2003 - 06:24   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for coffee talk with our favorite legal analyst, Kendall Coffey.
He joins us live from New York this morning.

Kendall, hi.

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the sniper case out of Washington, D.C. I guess prosecutors are going to take the case of John Lee Malvo to a grand jury?

COFFEY: Yes, Carol, and with the decision last week by a Virginia judge that he can be tried as an adult, it's a virtual certainty that the grand jury is going to return an indictment for capital murder. Even though the judge found there were no eyewitnesses placing Malvo on the scenes of the crime, he found the circumstantial case was quite strong, and as we know, circumstantial evidence can place someone on death row.

COSTELLO: Yes, so this should be a fairly quick process, I might imagine.

COFFEY: It's, the outcome is very clear.

COSTELLO: OK, let's talk about this case in Houston, Texas, where a woman ran over her husband with her Mercedes and it was all caught on videotape. The case is going to go to trial. How will her defense attorneys try this case?

COFFEY: Well, they've been calling it an accident, but she ran him over three times. It looks like the defense lawyer is going to more and more try to argue a jealous, uncontrollable rage. Let's see how that works. It's the same defense lawyer who represented Andrea Yates, who tried a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity when her children were drowned.

COSTELLO: And you think that might work?

COFFEY: I think it's very, very uphill and it's not going to get easier when the videotape and some of the other evidence comes in.

COSTELLO: No. I would imagine it's very grizzly.

Kendall Coffey, thanks for your insight this morning.

We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com