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American Morning

Martha Stewart Retrial?

Aired April 01, 2004 - 09:08   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Martha Stewart's lawyer says a juror lied about his criminal record, and because of that, they claim Stewart deserves a new trial. Will it fly in court though?
Our legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, back with us here to talk about this.

Good morning. Her attorneys say what about this guy?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: They say that he lied under oath during the jury selection process, during voir dire, and as a result got on to the jury at a false pretense -- under false pretense, and thus she deserves a new trial. That's their argument.

HEMMER: Criminal record pertaining to what?

TOOBIN: Criminal record that he had domestic violence history, and also a history of unpaid debts, as well as possibly stealing from the little league that he helped run in the Bronx, which is a particularly heinous crime, I think. But, seriously, it's awful.

HEMMER: Listen, this juror number eight -- we just saw some videotape -- he was the guy who really held court with all those reporters after the verdict was read.

TOOBIN: Right. As people who were watching after the verdict remember, only one juror came out and held a press conference. And he gave this very kind of outspoken press conference about how this was a victory for the little guy.

Interestingly, I interviewed most of the jurors, or many of the jurors. And his views were very different from other jurors. He saw this...

HEMMER: Really? How so?

TOOBIN: Well, he saw this as kind of a political statement, victory for the little guy. And all the other jurors said to me, look, we were just looking at the evidence, this was just a case about one person. So he was kind of an (UNINTELLIGIBLE), I thought, and he did seem to be trying to get some attention for himself. Now he's getting attention he doesn't like.

HEMMER: You're probably right about that. A quick clip from part of what he said with reporters a couple weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHAPPELL HARTRIDGE, SERVED AS JUROR IN MARTHA STEWART CASE: What message does this send to investors? Maybe to the middle investor, they may feel a little bit more comfortable that they can invest in the market and not worry about these type of scams where they can lose their 401ks or just lose money on any plain stocks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: I heard somebody say he was a media darling, so composed and so articulate. But the quote you just used is very true: "A victory for the little guy." The question at the heart of this, though, do her attorneys have a case here?

TOOBIN: Well, it's a tough road. Most of the time, judges are very reluctant to give new trials. Especially in something that's sort of tangentially related to the case. What they have to prove, both that he was dishonest and that he was partial.

Dishonest they may be able to prove. But partiality is going to be tougher to prove. The idea that he somehow had an axe to grind against Martha Stewart and wanted to get on the jury to convict her, that's a little different. And I think that's what's going -- that is going to be what makes this difficult for the defense to win.

HEMMER: Any track record here? Have you seen cases where jurors have come out and said, hey, we got this now?

TOOBIN: There have been cases. Mostly, though, they have to do with jury tampering, where one side or another has actually gone and reached a juror.

You know, in Mafia cases in particular there's been a history of that. But this is pretty unusual. And I think it's a long shot for the defense. But it's very appropriate that they raised it, and the judge, I'm sure, is going to take it seriously.

And he may be looking at criminal charges for lying under oath. I mean, this voir dire was under oath. And if he flat out lied, I wouldn't be surprised to see him prosecuted.

HEMMER: Or to give an OK sign to defense attorneys?

TOOBIN: Well, Tyco jury is still out, day 10. We'll see what happens today.

HEMMER: Thank you much. Talk to you later.

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 1, 2004 - 09:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Martha Stewart's lawyer says a juror lied about his criminal record, and because of that, they claim Stewart deserves a new trial. Will it fly in court though?
Our legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, back with us here to talk about this.

Good morning. Her attorneys say what about this guy?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: They say that he lied under oath during the jury selection process, during voir dire, and as a result got on to the jury at a false pretense -- under false pretense, and thus she deserves a new trial. That's their argument.

HEMMER: Criminal record pertaining to what?

TOOBIN: Criminal record that he had domestic violence history, and also a history of unpaid debts, as well as possibly stealing from the little league that he helped run in the Bronx, which is a particularly heinous crime, I think. But, seriously, it's awful.

HEMMER: Listen, this juror number eight -- we just saw some videotape -- he was the guy who really held court with all those reporters after the verdict was read.

TOOBIN: Right. As people who were watching after the verdict remember, only one juror came out and held a press conference. And he gave this very kind of outspoken press conference about how this was a victory for the little guy.

Interestingly, I interviewed most of the jurors, or many of the jurors. And his views were very different from other jurors. He saw this...

HEMMER: Really? How so?

TOOBIN: Well, he saw this as kind of a political statement, victory for the little guy. And all the other jurors said to me, look, we were just looking at the evidence, this was just a case about one person. So he was kind of an (UNINTELLIGIBLE), I thought, and he did seem to be trying to get some attention for himself. Now he's getting attention he doesn't like.

HEMMER: You're probably right about that. A quick clip from part of what he said with reporters a couple weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHAPPELL HARTRIDGE, SERVED AS JUROR IN MARTHA STEWART CASE: What message does this send to investors? Maybe to the middle investor, they may feel a little bit more comfortable that they can invest in the market and not worry about these type of scams where they can lose their 401ks or just lose money on any plain stocks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: I heard somebody say he was a media darling, so composed and so articulate. But the quote you just used is very true: "A victory for the little guy." The question at the heart of this, though, do her attorneys have a case here?

TOOBIN: Well, it's a tough road. Most of the time, judges are very reluctant to give new trials. Especially in something that's sort of tangentially related to the case. What they have to prove, both that he was dishonest and that he was partial.

Dishonest they may be able to prove. But partiality is going to be tougher to prove. The idea that he somehow had an axe to grind against Martha Stewart and wanted to get on the jury to convict her, that's a little different. And I think that's what's going -- that is going to be what makes this difficult for the defense to win.

HEMMER: Any track record here? Have you seen cases where jurors have come out and said, hey, we got this now?

TOOBIN: There have been cases. Mostly, though, they have to do with jury tampering, where one side or another has actually gone and reached a juror.

You know, in Mafia cases in particular there's been a history of that. But this is pretty unusual. And I think it's a long shot for the defense. But it's very appropriate that they raised it, and the judge, I'm sure, is going to take it seriously.

And he may be looking at criminal charges for lying under oath. I mean, this voir dire was under oath. And if he flat out lied, I wouldn't be surprised to see him prosecuted.

HEMMER: Or to give an OK sign to defense attorneys?

TOOBIN: Well, Tyco jury is still out, day 10. We'll see what happens today.

HEMMER: Thank you much. Talk to you later.

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