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CNN Live Saturday

This Week In Court

Aired February 21, 2004 - 14:43   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY: Martha Stewart's defense is ready, Scott Peterson's lawyer is livid and Governor Schwarzenegger is warning San Francisco. Lots to talk about from the courthouse in our Saturday edition of the legal roundtable. Avery Friedman is a civil rights attorney and law professor and he joins us from Cleveland. And in Florida, defense attorney Richard Herman. All right good to see you gentlemen.
AVERY FRIEDMAN, LAW PROFESSOR: Good morning Fredricka.

RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nice to see you again Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, well great, thanks. Let's talk about the same-sex marriage case in California first. We have a lot of things to try and cover. There are suits there are counter suits. You know Avery; how good of a chance does a municipality have to continue to challenge state law?

FRIEDMAN: Well, I love this. It's a constitutional blockbuster. This is my world. And when you put the emotions of the political and everything else aside what this is, is very simple, city fights the state, they say the state law is violating a higher law, the constitution.

And they are relying on one Supreme Court decision that invalidated the state case in Virginia, a state law that barred interracial marriages. They are saying that's the same thing. And ironically the name of that case is Loving versus Virginia. So we are headed for a constitution showdown and nobody knows the answer.

WHITFIELD: And Richard, now the Bush White House is saying it's time for some government intervention. In what way could this take place and is it feasible to keep it non political?

HERMAN: This mayor in San Francisco is not going to provoke national amendment a marriage amendment to the constitution. All these states that have been working hard and going through the proper channels to get this, will now all their hard work will be laid to waste this is absolutely outrageous in California.

The citizens of California had the right to vote on this exact issue, they did overwhelmingly. They did not want same-sex marriages in California. He is out of control in San Francisco and he's acting above the law. And he is not above the law.

WHITFIELD: All right, on now to the East Coast, the Martha Stewart case. Pretty damaging testimony from a good friend, of 20 years of Martha Stewart saying she thinks she heard her say something and then doubling back saying, oops, maybe I didn't get that right. Maybe it's not what she said. Maybe I was thinking it. Avery how in the world will the jury now digest this kind of testimony?

FRIEDMAN: The government ended their case with a bang with Mariana Pasternak. And in fact she essentially said that Martha said I did have inside information from my broker. She backed off during the cross-examination. The government put her on to have an explosion at the end. Here are two issues, number one, the prop up case that is the securities fraud not so strong. But you know what Fredricka, the obstruction of justice case, they dusted up Doug Faneuil, but that case is strong. The defense has its work cut out for it.

WHITFIELD: Wow, and so Richard, now the issue is credibility, it has always been at the root of this case and Martha Stewart's credibility first and for most. Does this mean that her attorneys need to really seriously consider putting her on the stand to try to undo some damage done by Dan Faneuil as well as her good friend?

HERMAN: Fredricka not only Faneuil but Armstrong and Pasternak destroyed Martha Stewart. The securities fraud count will most likely be dismissed this week. The obstruction of justice count is nailed down to the wall. They have her on that, there's nothing she can do about that. The conspiracy count also had its legs taken out when the judge precluded any speculation about phone log records after the sale of stock.

WHITFIELD: OK.

HERMAN: This is damage control now Fredricka. They should never put Martha Stewart on the stand. She has this mystique about her, she gets on the stand she will be like every one of us and she will get destroyed on cross-examination and then get convicted.

WHITFIELD: All right.

HERMAN: If she just gets convicted on that one count she will not go to prison.

WHITFIELD: All right, we are running out of time. Real quick I do want to get in the Scott Peterson case. The court said OK it's fine to have this GPS tracking document admissible in court. So Avery how damaging is this for the defense? They don't want it.

FRIEDMAN: Well, Geragos said that the system showed he was going 38,000 miles an hour. There are defects in it, but you know what the judge is right, that positioning tracking system is going to be a powerful piece of evidence. And it's going to be an important piece in getting this conviction.

WHITFIELD: All right, Richard all right go-ahead real quick, Richard.

HERMAN: I'm sorry; I'm just saying that they will show all the visits going to a mile or two to where the body washed up. And it is all on the tracking device and somehow they are going to try to argue or to explain that away because it's pretty devastating.

WHITFIELD: All right thanks very much gentleman. Appreciate it; most appreciated it when we try to cover so much in so little time. Richard Herman and Avery Friedman, we will try it again next weekend.

HERMAN: Thanks Fredricka.

FRIEDMAN: Thanks Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot. Our Web site is your legal link to the high-profile cases making headlines. Logon to CNN.com/law for the latest developments as well as legal opinions and analysis.

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 February 21, 2004 - 14:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY: Martha Stewart's defense is ready, Scott Peterson's lawyer is livid and Governor Schwarzenegger is warning San Francisco. Lots to talk about from the courthouse in our Saturday edition of the legal roundtable. Avery Friedman is a civil rights attorney and law professor and he joins us from Cleveland. And in Florida, defense attorney Richard Herman. All right good to see you gentlemen.
AVERY FRIEDMAN, LAW PROFESSOR: Good morning Fredricka.

RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nice to see you again Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, well great, thanks. Let's talk about the same-sex marriage case in California first. We have a lot of things to try and cover. There are suits there are counter suits. You know Avery; how good of a chance does a municipality have to continue to challenge state law?

FRIEDMAN: Well, I love this. It's a constitutional blockbuster. This is my world. And when you put the emotions of the political and everything else aside what this is, is very simple, city fights the state, they say the state law is violating a higher law, the constitution.

And they are relying on one Supreme Court decision that invalidated the state case in Virginia, a state law that barred interracial marriages. They are saying that's the same thing. And ironically the name of that case is Loving versus Virginia. So we are headed for a constitution showdown and nobody knows the answer.

WHITFIELD: And Richard, now the Bush White House is saying it's time for some government intervention. In what way could this take place and is it feasible to keep it non political?

HERMAN: This mayor in San Francisco is not going to provoke national amendment a marriage amendment to the constitution. All these states that have been working hard and going through the proper channels to get this, will now all their hard work will be laid to waste this is absolutely outrageous in California.

The citizens of California had the right to vote on this exact issue, they did overwhelmingly. They did not want same-sex marriages in California. He is out of control in San Francisco and he's acting above the law. And he is not above the law.

WHITFIELD: All right, on now to the East Coast, the Martha Stewart case. Pretty damaging testimony from a good friend, of 20 years of Martha Stewart saying she thinks she heard her say something and then doubling back saying, oops, maybe I didn't get that right. Maybe it's not what she said. Maybe I was thinking it. Avery how in the world will the jury now digest this kind of testimony?

FRIEDMAN: The government ended their case with a bang with Mariana Pasternak. And in fact she essentially said that Martha said I did have inside information from my broker. She backed off during the cross-examination. The government put her on to have an explosion at the end. Here are two issues, number one, the prop up case that is the securities fraud not so strong. But you know what Fredricka, the obstruction of justice case, they dusted up Doug Faneuil, but that case is strong. The defense has its work cut out for it.

WHITFIELD: Wow, and so Richard, now the issue is credibility, it has always been at the root of this case and Martha Stewart's credibility first and for most. Does this mean that her attorneys need to really seriously consider putting her on the stand to try to undo some damage done by Dan Faneuil as well as her good friend?

HERMAN: Fredricka not only Faneuil but Armstrong and Pasternak destroyed Martha Stewart. The securities fraud count will most likely be dismissed this week. The obstruction of justice count is nailed down to the wall. They have her on that, there's nothing she can do about that. The conspiracy count also had its legs taken out when the judge precluded any speculation about phone log records after the sale of stock.

WHITFIELD: OK.

HERMAN: This is damage control now Fredricka. They should never put Martha Stewart on the stand. She has this mystique about her, she gets on the stand she will be like every one of us and she will get destroyed on cross-examination and then get convicted.

WHITFIELD: All right.

HERMAN: If she just gets convicted on that one count she will not go to prison.

WHITFIELD: All right, we are running out of time. Real quick I do want to get in the Scott Peterson case. The court said OK it's fine to have this GPS tracking document admissible in court. So Avery how damaging is this for the defense? They don't want it.

FRIEDMAN: Well, Geragos said that the system showed he was going 38,000 miles an hour. There are defects in it, but you know what the judge is right, that positioning tracking system is going to be a powerful piece of evidence. And it's going to be an important piece in getting this conviction.

WHITFIELD: All right, Richard all right go-ahead real quick, Richard.

HERMAN: I'm sorry; I'm just saying that they will show all the visits going to a mile or two to where the body washed up. And it is all on the tracking device and somehow they are going to try to argue or to explain that away because it's pretty devastating.

WHITFIELD: All right thanks very much gentleman. Appreciate it; most appreciated it when we try to cover so much in so little time. Richard Herman and Avery Friedman, we will try it again next weekend.

HERMAN: Thanks Fredricka.

FRIEDMAN: Thanks Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot. Our Web site is your legal link to the high-profile cases making headlines. Logon to CNN.com/law for the latest developments as well as legal opinions and analysis.

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