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Peterson Defense Requests Access to Info in Murder of Another Pregnant Woman

Aired July 09, 2003 - 11:26   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning to Laci Peterson's murder case. A couple of important motions will be heard almost any minute now in a Modesto, California courtroom. And what happens in that courtroom today could dramatically effect the case. And perhaps the most intriguing involves the killing of another pregnant woman whose body was also found in San Francisco Bay.
Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us now. He is in New York and we'll talk about what's going on with these motions in California. Good morning, Jeff. Good to see you.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, Leon.

HARRIS: All right, lay it out for us this morning. What is going on in the courtroom this morning?

TOOBIN: This is a fairly standard collection of pretrial matters that in a fairly slow-moving case a judge has to resolve. And as you say the most intriguing of them is the defense request for information about this Hernandez case in San Francisco that bears some, not many, but some similarities to the -- to the disappearance of Laci Peterson.

HARRIS: Well the way this works out, as a totally objective observer on the outside watching, it looks to me like Mark Geragos, the defense attorney here, is looking for anything that might be able to dissuade or perhaps confuse a jury here, just find out any kind of a case that might be similar, throw it up on the wall and see what sticks. Is that what you see happening here?

TOOBIN: Well I think another way of looking at it is he's doing a conscientious job, trying to look...

HARRIS: I hear you.

TOOBIN: ... examine every avenue that might possibly give an alternative scenario for the disappearance of Laci Peterson.

You know I think by the time -- these -- the standard of relevance for discovery, for this period is really very low. It's really up to the judge whether Mark Geragos can go on this fishing expedition. And that's what discovery really is. It's a time for fishing expeditions.

The standard for evidence for admissibility before a jury in an actual trial is much higher. What makes this interesting is that here we are dealing in such a high-profile context, just by you and I discussing the fact that there is this potentially similar murder in San Francisco, we may be doing Mark Geragos's work for him by getting the story in circulation. But when you cover a story that's the risk you take.

HARRIS: And you of course would have to admire the lawyer's handiwork in that case.

TOOBIN: And what makes it even more interesting is that remember the gag order said you can't have people speculating, you can' have people -- but what this was a totally legal appropriate court filing about the Hernandez case that the defense made.

So instead of leaking it, it is put in circulation through a court filing and we wind up talking about it any way.

HARRIS: Exactly. And modern media being what we all are.

All right, let's talk about something else here. The wiretaps. Now there's talk now about newly discovered wiretaps that police actually had. What do you think is happening with that? Could this hurt the prosecution for the news to get out that there may have been more information that had been withheld in this case earlier?

TOOBIN: See, this is why this is good that this -- still a relatively early stage of the proceeding. It is peculiar that the police took a good deal of time to discover all these wiretaps. It is odd they didn't realize they had them.

However it seems clear if Scott's voice is on the wiretaps they will be turned over to the defense, there's plenty of time for the defense to listen to them. So I don't think it's at all going to jeopardize the case unless of course there's something on the tapes that is extremely exculpatory. Seems unlikely.

But certainly there's plenty of time for the defense to listen to them and it's unlikely that there will be penalty for the prosecution not for having turned them over right away.

HARRIS: Yes, but it's not just the defense that wants that wiretap info, it's also the media. The press out there is asking to get access to any calls they may have been on as well. Couldn't that go ahead and open up the Pandora's box there?

TOOBIN: You know, Leon, this is a murder case and we have to remember that couldn't be more serious. But there is something very funny going on here about the media, because, you know, what the tapes are is Scott's cell phone was wiretapped.

The media was calling him constantly, please give us an interview. Those apparently are the tapes that are at issue here. It's the tapes where reporters voices are on the tape. You know it's going to be extremely embarrassing to some of these reporters to hear their begging and pleading of Scott Peterson if it comes out.

So, I have to admit, perversely since I never called Scott Peterson, I'm sort of hoping they do come out because there could be some very entertaining phone calls.

HARRIS: Yes, there could be. Well have to wait to see how that plays out. Thanks, Jeff.

TOOBIN: OK, Leon.

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




Another Pregnant Woman>


Aired July 9, 2003 - 11:26   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning to Laci Peterson's murder case. A couple of important motions will be heard almost any minute now in a Modesto, California courtroom. And what happens in that courtroom today could dramatically effect the case. And perhaps the most intriguing involves the killing of another pregnant woman whose body was also found in San Francisco Bay.
Our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us now. He is in New York and we'll talk about what's going on with these motions in California. Good morning, Jeff. Good to see you.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi, Leon.

HARRIS: All right, lay it out for us this morning. What is going on in the courtroom this morning?

TOOBIN: This is a fairly standard collection of pretrial matters that in a fairly slow-moving case a judge has to resolve. And as you say the most intriguing of them is the defense request for information about this Hernandez case in San Francisco that bears some, not many, but some similarities to the -- to the disappearance of Laci Peterson.

HARRIS: Well the way this works out, as a totally objective observer on the outside watching, it looks to me like Mark Geragos, the defense attorney here, is looking for anything that might be able to dissuade or perhaps confuse a jury here, just find out any kind of a case that might be similar, throw it up on the wall and see what sticks. Is that what you see happening here?

TOOBIN: Well I think another way of looking at it is he's doing a conscientious job, trying to look...

HARRIS: I hear you.

TOOBIN: ... examine every avenue that might possibly give an alternative scenario for the disappearance of Laci Peterson.

You know I think by the time -- these -- the standard of relevance for discovery, for this period is really very low. It's really up to the judge whether Mark Geragos can go on this fishing expedition. And that's what discovery really is. It's a time for fishing expeditions.

The standard for evidence for admissibility before a jury in an actual trial is much higher. What makes this interesting is that here we are dealing in such a high-profile context, just by you and I discussing the fact that there is this potentially similar murder in San Francisco, we may be doing Mark Geragos's work for him by getting the story in circulation. But when you cover a story that's the risk you take.

HARRIS: And you of course would have to admire the lawyer's handiwork in that case.

TOOBIN: And what makes it even more interesting is that remember the gag order said you can't have people speculating, you can' have people -- but what this was a totally legal appropriate court filing about the Hernandez case that the defense made.

So instead of leaking it, it is put in circulation through a court filing and we wind up talking about it any way.

HARRIS: Exactly. And modern media being what we all are.

All right, let's talk about something else here. The wiretaps. Now there's talk now about newly discovered wiretaps that police actually had. What do you think is happening with that? Could this hurt the prosecution for the news to get out that there may have been more information that had been withheld in this case earlier?

TOOBIN: See, this is why this is good that this -- still a relatively early stage of the proceeding. It is peculiar that the police took a good deal of time to discover all these wiretaps. It is odd they didn't realize they had them.

However it seems clear if Scott's voice is on the wiretaps they will be turned over to the defense, there's plenty of time for the defense to listen to them. So I don't think it's at all going to jeopardize the case unless of course there's something on the tapes that is extremely exculpatory. Seems unlikely.

But certainly there's plenty of time for the defense to listen to them and it's unlikely that there will be penalty for the prosecution not for having turned them over right away.

HARRIS: Yes, but it's not just the defense that wants that wiretap info, it's also the media. The press out there is asking to get access to any calls they may have been on as well. Couldn't that go ahead and open up the Pandora's box there?

TOOBIN: You know, Leon, this is a murder case and we have to remember that couldn't be more serious. But there is something very funny going on here about the media, because, you know, what the tapes are is Scott's cell phone was wiretapped.

The media was calling him constantly, please give us an interview. Those apparently are the tapes that are at issue here. It's the tapes where reporters voices are on the tape. You know it's going to be extremely embarrassing to some of these reporters to hear their begging and pleading of Scott Peterson if it comes out.

So, I have to admit, perversely since I never called Scott Peterson, I'm sort of hoping they do come out because there could be some very entertaining phone calls.

HARRIS: Yes, there could be. Well have to wait to see how that plays out. Thanks, Jeff.

TOOBIN: OK, Leon.

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




Another Pregnant Woman>