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CNN Live At Daybreak
Coffey Talk: Peterson Murder Case
Aired April 21, 2003 - 06:16 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: Authorities in Modesto, California say Scott Peterson will have his first court appearance today. He's accused of killing his pregnant wife and their unborn child.
Prosecutors call the case against Peterson compelling, but his parents tell a vastly different story. "TIME" magazine interviewed Scott Peterson's parents, Lee and Jackie. Quoting Lee Peterson now, "Our family is just devastated," he says, "and we feel an equal amount of pain for the Rocha family, Sharon and Ron and the whole family, but our son is innocent. We know that. We've known that from day one."
And this from Scott's mother, Jackie Peterson. She tells "TIME," "You have a district attorney calling this a slam dunk before there's even an arraignment. I'm feeling like I'm living in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union."
And the father, Lee Peterson added, "It's another smear on him that he was going to run into Mexico. How ridiculous. The kid lives here. They ran him out of Modesto. He can't use his home. They've got his car. Where's he supposed to go? He came to us and he was not running." That from Scott Peterson's father.
OK, let's get some legal perspective on this case. Just what are Scott Peterson and his attorney facing as well as the prosecution in this case? For that we turn to our legal analyst Kendall Coffey. He joins us live by phone from Miami, good morning.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: First of all, tell us what's going to happen in this arraignment. Will anything dramatic come out of this?
COFFEY: Almost assuredly not, although everything about the case, even non-events, have a dimension of drama. Essentially the arraignment is going to explain the charges to Scott Peterson. He'll enter a plea of not guilty. They'll deal with the issue of appointment of council, if he does not already have an attorney on the case.
COSTELLO: Is it wise for his parents to go on the offensive like this at this point?
COFFEY: Well there's nothing to lose because the perception out there is no negative. And consider some of the defense themes that they're putting out. First of all, they're reminding us that Scott Peterson was a solid guy with a solid family background, not the profile of a despicable killer to commit such an awful crime. And additionally, they're beginning on what's a theme that we're going to hear a lot about that the police never had an open mind, slanted the case against Scott Peterson from the beginning instead of properly investigating the thousands of leads they received to find out who the real killer was.
COSTELLO: The rush to judgement, we've all heard about that defense many times. Hey, do you think that prosecutors will play out the case in a preliminary hearing, ala the Robert Blake case, or will they do it before a grand jury?
COFFEY: So far they've held a lot of their cards pretty close, notwithstanding the remark about slam dunk. Remember that they had impounded early the boat of Scott Peterson and his Ford pickup truck. We don't know what they found, if anything, in terms of forensic or DNA testing from that, nor about the 50 bags of materials they took from the home in mid-February. Hard to say, but the normal percentage thing for prosecutors to do is show no more cards than they have to.
COSTELLO: Got you. And do you think that this will be a death penalty case?
COFFEY: Absolutely, not a question.
COSTELLO: Not a question. And a change of venue, I mean can Scott Peterson go anywhere to get a jury who hasn't heard about this case?
COFFEY: Well we've heard about it in Miami and there's probably feelings here. But I wouldn't be surprised if some kind of transfer of venue is appropriate. Remember when Scott Peterson was transferred to Modesto jail, there was a crowd of several hundred hostile people waiting for him. So local feelings are very, very high on and very negative on this man.
COSTELLO: Yes, 200 people, some with cameras, some with signs reading murderer, so I don't know.
Kendall Coffey, thanks for your insight this morning, we appreciate it.
COFFEY: Thank you, Carol.
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 April 21, 2003 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities in Modesto, California say Scott Peterson will have his first court appearance today. He's accused of killing his pregnant wife and their unborn child.
Prosecutors call the case against Peterson compelling, but his parents tell a vastly different story. "TIME" magazine interviewed Scott Peterson's parents, Lee and Jackie. Quoting Lee Peterson now, "Our family is just devastated," he says, "and we feel an equal amount of pain for the Rocha family, Sharon and Ron and the whole family, but our son is innocent. We know that. We've known that from day one."
And this from Scott's mother, Jackie Peterson. She tells "TIME," "You have a district attorney calling this a slam dunk before there's even an arraignment. I'm feeling like I'm living in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union."
And the father, Lee Peterson added, "It's another smear on him that he was going to run into Mexico. How ridiculous. The kid lives here. They ran him out of Modesto. He can't use his home. They've got his car. Where's he supposed to go? He came to us and he was not running." That from Scott Peterson's father.
OK, let's get some legal perspective on this case. Just what are Scott Peterson and his attorney facing as well as the prosecution in this case? For that we turn to our legal analyst Kendall Coffey. He joins us live by phone from Miami, good morning.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning -- Carol.
COSTELLO: First of all, tell us what's going to happen in this arraignment. Will anything dramatic come out of this?
COFFEY: Almost assuredly not, although everything about the case, even non-events, have a dimension of drama. Essentially the arraignment is going to explain the charges to Scott Peterson. He'll enter a plea of not guilty. They'll deal with the issue of appointment of council, if he does not already have an attorney on the case.
COSTELLO: Is it wise for his parents to go on the offensive like this at this point?
COFFEY: Well there's nothing to lose because the perception out there is no negative. And consider some of the defense themes that they're putting out. First of all, they're reminding us that Scott Peterson was a solid guy with a solid family background, not the profile of a despicable killer to commit such an awful crime. And additionally, they're beginning on what's a theme that we're going to hear a lot about that the police never had an open mind, slanted the case against Scott Peterson from the beginning instead of properly investigating the thousands of leads they received to find out who the real killer was.
COSTELLO: The rush to judgement, we've all heard about that defense many times. Hey, do you think that prosecutors will play out the case in a preliminary hearing, ala the Robert Blake case, or will they do it before a grand jury?
COFFEY: So far they've held a lot of their cards pretty close, notwithstanding the remark about slam dunk. Remember that they had impounded early the boat of Scott Peterson and his Ford pickup truck. We don't know what they found, if anything, in terms of forensic or DNA testing from that, nor about the 50 bags of materials they took from the home in mid-February. Hard to say, but the normal percentage thing for prosecutors to do is show no more cards than they have to.
COSTELLO: Got you. And do you think that this will be a death penalty case?
COFFEY: Absolutely, not a question.
COSTELLO: Not a question. And a change of venue, I mean can Scott Peterson go anywhere to get a jury who hasn't heard about this case?
COFFEY: Well we've heard about it in Miami and there's probably feelings here. But I wouldn't be surprised if some kind of transfer of venue is appropriate. Remember when Scott Peterson was transferred to Modesto jail, there was a crowd of several hundred hostile people waiting for him. So local feelings are very, very high on and very negative on this man.
COSTELLO: Yes, 200 people, some with cameras, some with signs reading murderer, so I don't know.
Kendall Coffey, thanks for your insight this morning, we appreciate it.
COFFEY: Thank you, Carol.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
