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American Morning

The Peterson Case

Aired May 28, 2003 - 09:07   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: So will Mark Geragos be looking for a smoking gun in those police wiretaps? Our legal analysts Jeffrey Toobin is with us once again to offer his perspective.
Hi, Jeffrey.

And you say, you don't think this is a very big deal?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I really don't think this is an especially big deal. Every time there's a wiretap, the police are obliged to listen and make sure that they are not recording any attorney/client conversations. Here apparently there were a few attorney/client conversations which the police say they didn't listen to, didn't record. If that's the case, this is no big deal. And even if they did record something, but then didn't pass it along to the prosecutors, again, no big deal. I think this is likely to be a tempest in a very small teapot.

COLLINS: But a larger teapot would be change of venue, which did not come up.

TOOBIN: Which did not come up. And there are a lot of legal issues in this case that have not come up yet, change of venue being the most important. Remember, change of venue is an issue that only really is relevant when you start picking a jury, because it relates to whether the jury pool has been so tainted by pretrial publicity that the defendant can't get a fair trial. We are nowhere near the stage of jury selection.

COLLINS: Right.

TOOBIN: The next step is a preliminary hearing schedule for July. Again, no jury involved there. So that could take place in Modesto. But certainly, the change of venue issue will start to come up, at least when the preliminary hearing does.

COLLINS: And maybe the change of face issue as well. David Mattingly was just showing us comparisons of the appearance of Scott Peterson, all of the different appearances we have seen.

TOOBIN: The celebrated makeover of Scott Peterson, yes. The orange highlights, or whatever they were, blond highlights, are gone. You can't get highlights in prison.

As you can see on the screen, his appearance does seem remarkably different. Some people just look different every time they put on a beard or take off one. I think giving the grooming options available in prison, this is likely to be it for the duration, because you don't get a lot of choices.

COLLINS: Right. But you did say, even though it's a little bit early, if this case much later goes to a jury, what sort of implications will his appearance have on the jury?

TOOBIN: Well, I think, you know, what you see with mark Geragos, every time he appears in public he's with Scott's mother and father. He wears a suit to court. He looks like a respectable young businessman. The -- clearly, the message he's trying to send is, though this I clearly an inhuman crime, the accused is a human being, too. He has parents who love him. He looks look a normal person. He doesn't seem especially threatening. That's the message he's trying to send. I wouldn't overstate its importance. Ultimately, what's going to matter in the case is what the evidence is.

COLLINS: Similar to getting him out of the orange prison suit and the handcuffs and all of that in the very beginning?

TOOBIN: Those kind of things are important to defense attorneys. It's a small thing, frankly, I think. The evidence is always more important. But you know, it's part of an image Mark Geragos is trying to portray.

COLLINS: We will be following all of it.

TOOBIN: I bet we will. I have a feeling we will.

COLLINS: Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much this morning. Thanks.

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 May 28, 2003 - 09:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: So will Mark Geragos be looking for a smoking gun in those police wiretaps? Our legal analysts Jeffrey Toobin is with us once again to offer his perspective.
Hi, Jeffrey.

And you say, you don't think this is a very big deal?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I really don't think this is an especially big deal. Every time there's a wiretap, the police are obliged to listen and make sure that they are not recording any attorney/client conversations. Here apparently there were a few attorney/client conversations which the police say they didn't listen to, didn't record. If that's the case, this is no big deal. And even if they did record something, but then didn't pass it along to the prosecutors, again, no big deal. I think this is likely to be a tempest in a very small teapot.

COLLINS: But a larger teapot would be change of venue, which did not come up.

TOOBIN: Which did not come up. And there are a lot of legal issues in this case that have not come up yet, change of venue being the most important. Remember, change of venue is an issue that only really is relevant when you start picking a jury, because it relates to whether the jury pool has been so tainted by pretrial publicity that the defendant can't get a fair trial. We are nowhere near the stage of jury selection.

COLLINS: Right.

TOOBIN: The next step is a preliminary hearing schedule for July. Again, no jury involved there. So that could take place in Modesto. But certainly, the change of venue issue will start to come up, at least when the preliminary hearing does.

COLLINS: And maybe the change of face issue as well. David Mattingly was just showing us comparisons of the appearance of Scott Peterson, all of the different appearances we have seen.

TOOBIN: The celebrated makeover of Scott Peterson, yes. The orange highlights, or whatever they were, blond highlights, are gone. You can't get highlights in prison.

As you can see on the screen, his appearance does seem remarkably different. Some people just look different every time they put on a beard or take off one. I think giving the grooming options available in prison, this is likely to be it for the duration, because you don't get a lot of choices.

COLLINS: Right. But you did say, even though it's a little bit early, if this case much later goes to a jury, what sort of implications will his appearance have on the jury?

TOOBIN: Well, I think, you know, what you see with mark Geragos, every time he appears in public he's with Scott's mother and father. He wears a suit to court. He looks like a respectable young businessman. The -- clearly, the message he's trying to send is, though this I clearly an inhuman crime, the accused is a human being, too. He has parents who love him. He looks look a normal person. He doesn't seem especially threatening. That's the message he's trying to send. I wouldn't overstate its importance. Ultimately, what's going to matter in the case is what the evidence is.

COLLINS: Similar to getting him out of the orange prison suit and the handcuffs and all of that in the very beginning?

TOOBIN: Those kind of things are important to defense attorneys. It's a small thing, frankly, I think. The evidence is always more important. But you know, it's part of an image Mark Geragos is trying to portray.

COLLINS: We will be following all of it.

TOOBIN: I bet we will. I have a feeling we will.

COLLINS: Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much this morning. Thanks.

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