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American Morning

Interview With Attorney Jayne Weintraub

Aired June 03, 2003 - 07:32   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: To the Scott Peterson matter now. At a hearing today, a judge will consider whether or not to unseal search warrants obtained before Peterson's arrest. A prosecution request to make the autopsy reports on Laci Peterson and her unborn son public will be heard Friday in Modesto. Two critical moments in court this week.
For more on the legal maneuvering in this case, criminal defense attorney Jayne Weintraub was there yesterday, in Miami, Florida.

Jayne, welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you.

JAYNE WEINTRAUB, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good morning.

HEMMER: What do you think is going to come today?

WEINTRAUB: Well, today they're going to talk about the unsealing of the affidavits. And, remember, the prejudice to the defense in having these unsealed is that it's going to give another one-sided, one-two punch of everything that the police and the prosecutors had hoped to find.

The bad part for Mark Geragos is that it's untested waters. It's all hearsay, these affidavits, but it's bad stuff put out there by the police on prosecution's side.

HEMMER: Jayne, you're a defense attorney, right?

WEINTRAUB: Yes, I am.

HEMMER: Right? This is what you specialize in. You believe Scott is innocent, right, just for the record?

WEINTRAUB: For the record, I don't believe that the state will be able to prove him guilty, and there's a difference.

HEMMER: OK, now, and within that difference itself, break down the evidence for me about what we know right now that leads you to conclude, even though he admitted he was fishing in that bay in San Francisco back on Christmas Eve and that is where the bodies were discovered last month, why is it, then, that you believe there is no evidence at this point that's come forward publicly?

WEINTRAUB: Bill, you shift it and the question is in this country you're presumed innocent until proven guilty. What makes you think, without seeing one iota of evidence...

HEMMER: Well, I'm not suggesting he's guilty.

WEINTRAUB: ... that he is guilty?

HEMMER: I'm just trying to get your understanding as a defense attorney to shed some light right now about what you're seeing on the outside based on the evidence that has been leaked and a lot of it that has not yet so far.

WEINTRAUB: I haven't seen any evidence that's been leaked that he is guilty. I don't see any evidence whatsoever of any premeditation or first degree murder in the case at all. As a matter of fact, I see to the contrary. They're not going to have a cause of death. They don't have an admission by this person. They don't have him talking to his girlfriend on tape admitting anything. They don't have any forensic evidence tying him to the murder. And so for me, as a lawyer, I don't see any evidence or how they're going to possibly prove premeditation.

Normally with a cause of death in a homicide case, you have a bullet wound, you have a stabbing of a knife, you have some forensic tools to tie this to premeditation. In this particular case, because the body was dismembered through the waters and the body decomposed so badly after three months, you're not going to have any of that premeditation.

So I don't know where the State of California is going with this, but I certainly don't see them going for first degree murder.

HEMMER: When we get to court on Friday and these autopsy reports, there's -- we expect possibly a decision on Friday whether to go public or not. Do you believe that helps or hurts one side or the other?

WEINTRAUB: I think, at this point I think everything public is going to hurt the defense only because remember, it's one-sided, but nobody's out there saying hey, don't just look at this. It's, you know, we have seen so many medical examiners on these news shows, including yours, in the past few weeks and reasonable experts differ as to what's going on.

So the fact that the autopsy report will be released on Friday, it is a one-sided document by the medical examiner that works for the county where the homicide took place. They work hand in hand with the prosecutor every day.

It's going to have to be released eventually so that the defense will have the opportunity to challenge these documents and what's contained therein and a court of law.

HEMMER: Got it. Got it.

Jayne, quickly here, do you believe a gag order is the best order right now for this case, knowing the amount of national publicity it's getting? WEINTRAUB: I'm shocked that a gag order wasn't issued long ago. No, I don't think it's the best thing now because now if a gag order is issued, everybody is just going to breach it and it'll all be undisclosed sources say. And there won't be any way to identify who breached the gag order.

But I don't think a gag order will stop the leaks.

HEMMER: Thanks, Jayne.

WEINTRAUB: Thank you, Bill.

HEMMER: Jayne Weintraub in Miami.

Come on back, we'll talk about it again down the road, OK?

It's going to be with us for a while.

Much appreciated.

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 June 3, 2003 - 07:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: To the Scott Peterson matter now. At a hearing today, a judge will consider whether or not to unseal search warrants obtained before Peterson's arrest. A prosecution request to make the autopsy reports on Laci Peterson and her unborn son public will be heard Friday in Modesto. Two critical moments in court this week.
For more on the legal maneuvering in this case, criminal defense attorney Jayne Weintraub was there yesterday, in Miami, Florida.

Jayne, welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you.

JAYNE WEINTRAUB, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Good morning.

HEMMER: What do you think is going to come today?

WEINTRAUB: Well, today they're going to talk about the unsealing of the affidavits. And, remember, the prejudice to the defense in having these unsealed is that it's going to give another one-sided, one-two punch of everything that the police and the prosecutors had hoped to find.

The bad part for Mark Geragos is that it's untested waters. It's all hearsay, these affidavits, but it's bad stuff put out there by the police on prosecution's side.

HEMMER: Jayne, you're a defense attorney, right?

WEINTRAUB: Yes, I am.

HEMMER: Right? This is what you specialize in. You believe Scott is innocent, right, just for the record?

WEINTRAUB: For the record, I don't believe that the state will be able to prove him guilty, and there's a difference.

HEMMER: OK, now, and within that difference itself, break down the evidence for me about what we know right now that leads you to conclude, even though he admitted he was fishing in that bay in San Francisco back on Christmas Eve and that is where the bodies were discovered last month, why is it, then, that you believe there is no evidence at this point that's come forward publicly?

WEINTRAUB: Bill, you shift it and the question is in this country you're presumed innocent until proven guilty. What makes you think, without seeing one iota of evidence...

HEMMER: Well, I'm not suggesting he's guilty.

WEINTRAUB: ... that he is guilty?

HEMMER: I'm just trying to get your understanding as a defense attorney to shed some light right now about what you're seeing on the outside based on the evidence that has been leaked and a lot of it that has not yet so far.

WEINTRAUB: I haven't seen any evidence that's been leaked that he is guilty. I don't see any evidence whatsoever of any premeditation or first degree murder in the case at all. As a matter of fact, I see to the contrary. They're not going to have a cause of death. They don't have an admission by this person. They don't have him talking to his girlfriend on tape admitting anything. They don't have any forensic evidence tying him to the murder. And so for me, as a lawyer, I don't see any evidence or how they're going to possibly prove premeditation.

Normally with a cause of death in a homicide case, you have a bullet wound, you have a stabbing of a knife, you have some forensic tools to tie this to premeditation. In this particular case, because the body was dismembered through the waters and the body decomposed so badly after three months, you're not going to have any of that premeditation.

So I don't know where the State of California is going with this, but I certainly don't see them going for first degree murder.

HEMMER: When we get to court on Friday and these autopsy reports, there's -- we expect possibly a decision on Friday whether to go public or not. Do you believe that helps or hurts one side or the other?

WEINTRAUB: I think, at this point I think everything public is going to hurt the defense only because remember, it's one-sided, but nobody's out there saying hey, don't just look at this. It's, you know, we have seen so many medical examiners on these news shows, including yours, in the past few weeks and reasonable experts differ as to what's going on.

So the fact that the autopsy report will be released on Friday, it is a one-sided document by the medical examiner that works for the county where the homicide took place. They work hand in hand with the prosecutor every day.

It's going to have to be released eventually so that the defense will have the opportunity to challenge these documents and what's contained therein and a court of law.

HEMMER: Got it. Got it.

Jayne, quickly here, do you believe a gag order is the best order right now for this case, knowing the amount of national publicity it's getting? WEINTRAUB: I'm shocked that a gag order wasn't issued long ago. No, I don't think it's the best thing now because now if a gag order is issued, everybody is just going to breach it and it'll all be undisclosed sources say. And there won't be any way to identify who breached the gag order.

But I don't think a gag order will stop the leaks.

HEMMER: Thanks, Jayne.

WEINTRAUB: Thank you, Bill.

HEMMER: Jayne Weintraub in Miami.

Come on back, we'll talk about it again down the road, OK?

It's going to be with us for a while.

Much appreciated.

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