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CNN Live At Daybreak

Coffey Talk: Laci Peterson Case

Aired April 22, 2003 - 06:40   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: It's been four months since Laci Peterson disappeared. Her body and that of her child washed ashore last week on San Francisco Bay.
So what is next for Scott Peterson? Let's talk about that.

Our legal analyst is with us this morning for some serious "Coffey Talk." Kendall Coffey joins us live from Miami -- good morning.

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So there's a bail hearing scheduled for May 6. Is it possible that he'll be granted bail?

COFFEY: No possibility. The big issue now is going to be where the trial is to be held. It's obviously going to be a capital murder case. The prosecution is going to try to keep it in Modesto. The defense is going to say Scott Peterson can't possibly get a fair trial in that community.

COSTELLO: And because of the emotional press conferences that went on yesterday, will that have an effect on a possible change of venue?

COFFEY: I think it well might. Certainly every community in America had tears last night, everyone feels this case. But Modesto's loss and its anger towards Scott Peterson are especially powerful, not just because he killed their beloved Laci, but because he's going to be seen by some as having masqueraded as a grieving husband, leading the entire community in a search for Laci Peterson when it was all a lie, the most heartless and cruel kind of lie.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about that alleged masquerade. He changed his hair color, he appears in court yesterday and his goatee is suddenly gone. A lot of people say he's changed his appearance again so he can look like the all-American guy.

COFFEY: Everything that -- about Scott Peterson now is going to be dissected. And there is going to be a view of each cup of information as being half full or half empty. Did he in fact move out of Modesto because he was trying to be closer to Mexico or was it because he couldn't bear the grief of having lost Laci and being, he says, falsely persecuted by members of the public and by the media? So bit by bit, every bit of circumstantial evidence is going to be argued one way or the other by the prosecution and the defense. COSTELLO: Yes, he says he can't afford a lawyer so the court will appoint him one. But you have to wonder how the lawyer will fight this case when Peterson is arrested with a changed appearance, $10,000 cash. He admits he was having an affair. He sold his wife's car for a much-wanted pickup truck and he had a $250,000 life insurance policy on Laci Peterson -- tough case.

COFFEY: It's a very -- it's a very strong circumstantial case, Carol, and it needs an exhaustive and frankly, very expensive defense. One of the things the defense would want to be doing is combing through the literally 10,000 leads that the police had trying to say, in effect, to refer to the movie "The Fugitive," that somewhere out there was a one-armed man who really killed Laci Peterson that the police failed to find. That's what the defense needs to develop, but it's a massive undertaking to go through all that information.

COSTELLO: Well do you have a sense that he'll have to stick with a court appointed attorney or will some defense attorney out there who sort of wants the limelight, will he take the case on or she?

COFFEY: I think the parents of Scott Peterson, rather than attacking the prosecution, need to be begging and borrowing every dime they can to try to help in any way they can with the defense for Scott Peterson. He is facing a very, very tough wall of evidence, circumstantial and otherwise.

COSTELLO: Kendall Coffey, many thanks, live from Miami this morning.

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 22, 2003 - 06:40   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's been four months since Laci Peterson disappeared. Her body and that of her child washed ashore last week on San Francisco Bay.
So what is next for Scott Peterson? Let's talk about that.

Our legal analyst is with us this morning for some serious "Coffey Talk." Kendall Coffey joins us live from Miami -- good morning.

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So there's a bail hearing scheduled for May 6. Is it possible that he'll be granted bail?

COFFEY: No possibility. The big issue now is going to be where the trial is to be held. It's obviously going to be a capital murder case. The prosecution is going to try to keep it in Modesto. The defense is going to say Scott Peterson can't possibly get a fair trial in that community.

COSTELLO: And because of the emotional press conferences that went on yesterday, will that have an effect on a possible change of venue?

COFFEY: I think it well might. Certainly every community in America had tears last night, everyone feels this case. But Modesto's loss and its anger towards Scott Peterson are especially powerful, not just because he killed their beloved Laci, but because he's going to be seen by some as having masqueraded as a grieving husband, leading the entire community in a search for Laci Peterson when it was all a lie, the most heartless and cruel kind of lie.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about that alleged masquerade. He changed his hair color, he appears in court yesterday and his goatee is suddenly gone. A lot of people say he's changed his appearance again so he can look like the all-American guy.

COFFEY: Everything that -- about Scott Peterson now is going to be dissected. And there is going to be a view of each cup of information as being half full or half empty. Did he in fact move out of Modesto because he was trying to be closer to Mexico or was it because he couldn't bear the grief of having lost Laci and being, he says, falsely persecuted by members of the public and by the media? So bit by bit, every bit of circumstantial evidence is going to be argued one way or the other by the prosecution and the defense. COSTELLO: Yes, he says he can't afford a lawyer so the court will appoint him one. But you have to wonder how the lawyer will fight this case when Peterson is arrested with a changed appearance, $10,000 cash. He admits he was having an affair. He sold his wife's car for a much-wanted pickup truck and he had a $250,000 life insurance policy on Laci Peterson -- tough case.

COFFEY: It's a very -- it's a very strong circumstantial case, Carol, and it needs an exhaustive and frankly, very expensive defense. One of the things the defense would want to be doing is combing through the literally 10,000 leads that the police had trying to say, in effect, to refer to the movie "The Fugitive," that somewhere out there was a one-armed man who really killed Laci Peterson that the police failed to find. That's what the defense needs to develop, but it's a massive undertaking to go through all that information.

COSTELLO: Well do you have a sense that he'll have to stick with a court appointed attorney or will some defense attorney out there who sort of wants the limelight, will he take the case on or she?

COFFEY: I think the parents of Scott Peterson, rather than attacking the prosecution, need to be begging and borrowing every dime they can to try to help in any way they can with the defense for Scott Peterson. He is facing a very, very tough wall of evidence, circumstantial and otherwise.

COSTELLO: Kendall Coffey, many thanks, live from Miami this morning.

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