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Interview With Karen Russell

Aired December 03, 2003 - 14:29   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.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: You might feel as if you need a score card to keep track of all the high-profile court cases, but to help us all boil it down a little bit, trial attorney Karen Russell is joining us this afternoon from Seattle. Karen, thanks again for being here.
KAREN RUSSELL, ATTORNEY: Always my pleasure.

COLLINS: We want to, I think, begin in Chesapeake, Virginia. What do you make of the judge's ruling that the jury will not be able to see this letter? Spell that out for us.

RUSSELL: I think this is a really devastating blow for Lee Malvo. This was his best chance at a defense that it's really not my fault. I had a horrible childhood and this evil mastermind made me do it.

And I think that this is probably his best hope at saving his life, so this is a huge setback for his defense team.

COLLINS: What about that taped confession a while back? We know that Malvo had laughed on that confession. Is that going to make it difficult for the defense team to show him as this victim, as they probably would have been able to do better with that letter?

RUSSELL: That's precisely why this is so devastating. In both these trials, there was just a huge, huge mountain of evidence. And I don't think that anyone ever thought these guys would ever be found not guilty.

But it is a matter of saving their lives and it is really hard to mitigate when you have this kid giggling about these murders, to sort of put any sort of spin on that. This was their hope at doing that. And it's tough without this evidence to make a credible argument that he wasn't enjoying this and was, you know, sane.

COLLINS: What about John Allen Muhammad's ex-wife? She testified about a letter in which Malvo sought help out of this situation. I'm assuming this is the same letter that we were just speaking about.

What are they going to do now? This letter is not going to be able to be seen. What's the next step?

RUSSELL: I think the next step -- I mean, I think they have to, you know, in their closing re-emphasize what the wife had to say, you know. But her testimony is also mitigated because it's her ex-husband and so that makes her testimony, you know, suspect. So it's going to be tough.

But I think to his advantage, you have to remember he just needs one juror to want to spare his life to escape the death penalty. And so I think defense lawyers are hoping they can just convince one person based on the ex-wife's testimony that this kid was in over his head and really under the control of John Muhammad.

COLLINS: All right, let's move on if we could, Karen, to the Peterson case today. If there is blood found in Scott Peterson's truck -- we know that truck will actually go back to Scott Peterson Now. He's been saying it was difficult, I'm sure, to get around without that vehicle. Could that be the silver bullet, if you will, for the prosecution in this?

RUSSELL: You know, I think that the American public, most of the public, thinks that Scott Peterson is guilty and sort of really forgets that the prosecution has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

And I don't think this really adds that much to their case. I mean, it's his truck. He is a fertilizer salesman. He talks about getting cut and his blood is in it.

I mean if her blood was in it it might be more damaging, but this case is really weak on physical evidence. They have this one, maybe two hairs. And they have a lot of circumstantial evidence. And I think they're going to have to rely on the jury to sort of connect those circumstantial dots.

But that's a really big challenge. So I think the people who think this is a slam dunk against Scott Peterson are kidding themselves. This is going to be a tough, tough case.

COLLINS: You say the evidence is weak, and yet the defense is trying to get a change of venue. Why?

RUSSELL: Well, I think they have a really strong argument for a change of venue. I don't know that they'll be successful.

It's because Modesto has really had -- been so saturated with this story. I mean, it is such a compelling story. It happened around the holidays. They've been living with it for a year. The local media has been reporting on the story every day.

And so I think the defense can mount an argument saying that we need to go to a different media market. Whether that might be trucking in jurors, which is one way to do it. It's called bringing in a foreign jury. Or going to San Diego or San Francisco or L.A.

I mean we saw that with the San Francisco dog mauling trial. There was so much hometown press they decided to move south.

COLLINS: Right, and expect it to go on for quite some time as we were hearing today from Rusty Dornin, our correspondent on the scene.

Karen Russell, thanks so much. We do not have time to talk about Congressman Bill Janklow. We'll try to do that on another day. Thanks again.

RUSSELL: My pleasure.

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 December 3, 2003 - 14:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: You might feel as if you need a score card to keep track of all the high-profile court cases, but to help us all boil it down a little bit, trial attorney Karen Russell is joining us this afternoon from Seattle. Karen, thanks again for being here.
KAREN RUSSELL, ATTORNEY: Always my pleasure.

COLLINS: We want to, I think, begin in Chesapeake, Virginia. What do you make of the judge's ruling that the jury will not be able to see this letter? Spell that out for us.

RUSSELL: I think this is a really devastating blow for Lee Malvo. This was his best chance at a defense that it's really not my fault. I had a horrible childhood and this evil mastermind made me do it.

And I think that this is probably his best hope at saving his life, so this is a huge setback for his defense team.

COLLINS: What about that taped confession a while back? We know that Malvo had laughed on that confession. Is that going to make it difficult for the defense team to show him as this victim, as they probably would have been able to do better with that letter?

RUSSELL: That's precisely why this is so devastating. In both these trials, there was just a huge, huge mountain of evidence. And I don't think that anyone ever thought these guys would ever be found not guilty.

But it is a matter of saving their lives and it is really hard to mitigate when you have this kid giggling about these murders, to sort of put any sort of spin on that. This was their hope at doing that. And it's tough without this evidence to make a credible argument that he wasn't enjoying this and was, you know, sane.

COLLINS: What about John Allen Muhammad's ex-wife? She testified about a letter in which Malvo sought help out of this situation. I'm assuming this is the same letter that we were just speaking about.

What are they going to do now? This letter is not going to be able to be seen. What's the next step?

RUSSELL: I think the next step -- I mean, I think they have to, you know, in their closing re-emphasize what the wife had to say, you know. But her testimony is also mitigated because it's her ex-husband and so that makes her testimony, you know, suspect. So it's going to be tough.

But I think to his advantage, you have to remember he just needs one juror to want to spare his life to escape the death penalty. And so I think defense lawyers are hoping they can just convince one person based on the ex-wife's testimony that this kid was in over his head and really under the control of John Muhammad.

COLLINS: All right, let's move on if we could, Karen, to the Peterson case today. If there is blood found in Scott Peterson's truck -- we know that truck will actually go back to Scott Peterson Now. He's been saying it was difficult, I'm sure, to get around without that vehicle. Could that be the silver bullet, if you will, for the prosecution in this?

RUSSELL: You know, I think that the American public, most of the public, thinks that Scott Peterson is guilty and sort of really forgets that the prosecution has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

And I don't think this really adds that much to their case. I mean, it's his truck. He is a fertilizer salesman. He talks about getting cut and his blood is in it.

I mean if her blood was in it it might be more damaging, but this case is really weak on physical evidence. They have this one, maybe two hairs. And they have a lot of circumstantial evidence. And I think they're going to have to rely on the jury to sort of connect those circumstantial dots.

But that's a really big challenge. So I think the people who think this is a slam dunk against Scott Peterson are kidding themselves. This is going to be a tough, tough case.

COLLINS: You say the evidence is weak, and yet the defense is trying to get a change of venue. Why?

RUSSELL: Well, I think they have a really strong argument for a change of venue. I don't know that they'll be successful.

It's because Modesto has really had -- been so saturated with this story. I mean, it is such a compelling story. It happened around the holidays. They've been living with it for a year. The local media has been reporting on the story every day.

And so I think the defense can mount an argument saying that we need to go to a different media market. Whether that might be trucking in jurors, which is one way to do it. It's called bringing in a foreign jury. Or going to San Diego or San Francisco or L.A.

I mean we saw that with the San Francisco dog mauling trial. There was so much hometown press they decided to move south.

COLLINS: Right, and expect it to go on for quite some time as we were hearing today from Rusty Dornin, our correspondent on the scene.

Karen Russell, thanks so much. We do not have time to talk about Congressman Bill Janklow. We'll try to do that on another day. Thanks again.

RUSSELL: My pleasure.

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