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American Morning

Scott Peterson's Preliminary Trials Begins Today

Aired October 29, 2003 - 07:46   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's show time for prosecutors in the murder case against Scott Peterson. His preliminary hearing begins today in Modesto, California. Over the next week, we'll learn for the first time just how the state plans to link Peterson to the deaths of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn child.
A little bit earlier this morning, I spoke with CNN's legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, and I asked him if the goal of the prosecution is to lay everything on the table or just the opposite today in court.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: In an ordinary case, it would clearly be the latter. Just, you know, a morning's testimony, get the judge to say there's probable cause and move on. But here, both sides are so much playing to the jury pool that I think both sides are going to lay out far more of their case than would ordinarily be the case in a preliminary hearing. So, we should know a lot about the evidence by the end of this hearing.

O'BRIEN: Don't you feel like you already know a lot about the evidence? Are there any surprises left? Or are there always surprised that we don't know about?

TOOBIN: Well, I mean, what's sort of remarkable about the Peterson case is for all of the attention, a lot of the evidence is really unknown. We know when she disappeared. We know when her body was recovered and where, which is the place he said he was on the day that she disappeared -- obviously a very incriminating fact.

But there is a lot we don't know. There were many search warrants done of the house where they lived. What was found there? We don't know. He was wiretapped a great deal. What did he say on those taps? We don't know. Amber Frey, who is the other woman in this case, she has said somewhat what her relationship was with Scott and what she knew about the state of their marriage.

O'BRIEN: It should be spelled out in this hearing, or it could be.

O'BRIEN: She is expected to testify at the hearing. So, all those things, major bits of evidence will be disclosed for the first time.

O'BRIEN: Do you think the defense will take a page out of the Kobe Bryant book of that trial, and come out swinging, come out strong, which I think everybody was very surprised by in the preliminary hearing in that case?

TOOBIN: Mark Geragos has said that he's going to call witnesses at a preliminary hearing, which is extremely unusual for a defense. So, yes, I do think that they are really planning on using this as the major PR offensive to say to the public -- which is, I think, fairly substantially aligned against Scott Peterson -- to say, look, there is another side of this story. There are other possible killers out there. Let's see if he has the goods to deliver, but he seems to be promising that he will.

O'BRIEN: PR offensive, meaning that you still think this is a preliminary hearing that will determine whether this case is going to go to trial at all. The PR offensive, meaning it will go to trial but just the PR battle is what's being fought today.

TOOBIN: Absolutely. I think the result is a foregone conclusion that the case goes to trial. But what we know about it and what prospective jurors know about it I think will change dramatically over the course of the week.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Our legal analyst, Jeff Toobin, this morning, as he -- right before he actually headed off to that hearing, which is taking place in Modesto, California, today.

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 October 29, 2003 - 07:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's show time for prosecutors in the murder case against Scott Peterson. His preliminary hearing begins today in Modesto, California. Over the next week, we'll learn for the first time just how the state plans to link Peterson to the deaths of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn child.
A little bit earlier this morning, I spoke with CNN's legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, and I asked him if the goal of the prosecution is to lay everything on the table or just the opposite today in court.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: In an ordinary case, it would clearly be the latter. Just, you know, a morning's testimony, get the judge to say there's probable cause and move on. But here, both sides are so much playing to the jury pool that I think both sides are going to lay out far more of their case than would ordinarily be the case in a preliminary hearing. So, we should know a lot about the evidence by the end of this hearing.

O'BRIEN: Don't you feel like you already know a lot about the evidence? Are there any surprises left? Or are there always surprised that we don't know about?

TOOBIN: Well, I mean, what's sort of remarkable about the Peterson case is for all of the attention, a lot of the evidence is really unknown. We know when she disappeared. We know when her body was recovered and where, which is the place he said he was on the day that she disappeared -- obviously a very incriminating fact.

But there is a lot we don't know. There were many search warrants done of the house where they lived. What was found there? We don't know. He was wiretapped a great deal. What did he say on those taps? We don't know. Amber Frey, who is the other woman in this case, she has said somewhat what her relationship was with Scott and what she knew about the state of their marriage.

O'BRIEN: It should be spelled out in this hearing, or it could be.

O'BRIEN: She is expected to testify at the hearing. So, all those things, major bits of evidence will be disclosed for the first time.

O'BRIEN: Do you think the defense will take a page out of the Kobe Bryant book of that trial, and come out swinging, come out strong, which I think everybody was very surprised by in the preliminary hearing in that case?

TOOBIN: Mark Geragos has said that he's going to call witnesses at a preliminary hearing, which is extremely unusual for a defense. So, yes, I do think that they are really planning on using this as the major PR offensive to say to the public -- which is, I think, fairly substantially aligned against Scott Peterson -- to say, look, there is another side of this story. There are other possible killers out there. Let's see if he has the goods to deliver, but he seems to be promising that he will.

O'BRIEN: PR offensive, meaning that you still think this is a preliminary hearing that will determine whether this case is going to go to trial at all. The PR offensive, meaning it will go to trial but just the PR battle is what's being fought today.

TOOBIN: Absolutely. I think the result is a foregone conclusion that the case goes to trial. But what we know about it and what prospective jurors know about it I think will change dramatically over the course of the week.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Our legal analyst, Jeff Toobin, this morning, as he -- right before he actually headed off to that hearing, which is taking place in Modesto, California, today.

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