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American Morning
Peterson Preliminary Hearing
Aired November 05, 2003 - 07:39 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: Let's turn now to a court case that we've all been following very closely. From Modesto, California, day six of Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing. Courtroom observers are all on full Amber alert. They're waiting to see if and when Peterson's former mistress, Amber Frey, will testify. In court yesterday, the focus shifted from DNA to a police detective.
CNN's legal analyst Jeff Toobin now with analysis -- good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I'm still drawing -- Amber alert. I hadn't thought of that.
O'BRIEN: Yes, clever, huh?
TOOBIN: That's, you know, CNN, I'm telling you.
O'BRIEN: I have to say kudos to our writers.
TOOBIN: To the writers, you know, it doesn't get any better than that. That's fabulous.
O'BRIEN: I had nothing to do with that. Yes, it's very clever. Amber, she is expected to testify at some point, right?
TOOBIN: We don't know when exactly. Yes, she is the other woman in the marriage of Scott and Laci Peterson. She's the prosecution's argument, the motive for this crime, and she'll testify probably some time later this week.
O'BRIEN: What do they expect to hear from her? Because she's going to say probably yes, I had an affair with Scott Peterson, something we all pretty much know at this point. What are the crucial details that she could add?
TOOBIN: The details that she will add will be in the days leading up to the murder, what kind of communication they were in, whether there was something building, some tension building within the marriage that would lead Scott Peterson to snap. One of the peculiarities about the preliminary hearing so far is that, you know, in those days leading up to the murder, we've heard testimony from Laci's mother, Laci's sister, there is, doesn't seem to be anything specifically that might have precipitated Scott to do something so horrendous.
Amber Frey may tell the court something specific that may have happened that led Scott to snap in this way. O'BRIEN: There were some reports that said initially when the two of them were starting to have a relationship that he would say his wife was dead.
TOOBIN: Right.
O'BRIEN: Does that carry any weight or is this sort of the mountains of sort of testimony that carries emotional weight, but no real legal weight?
TOOBIN: I think certainly at this stage, it probably doesn't matter that much. What matters more is sort of the specific testimony about the days, about what actually went on in the days that she disappeared. And that was the focus yesterday.
O'BRIEN: The focus moved, really, from DNA -- we were talking about that one little hair -- onto, I guess it seemed like the defense was trying to focusing potentially on incompetence, if that's a word I could use, on behalf of the investigators, sort of making it seem like maybe they planted evidence, maybe they didn't see certain things. Tell me a little bit about that.
TOOBIN: Well, yesterday, the testimony was Scott -- one of the first detectives on the scene was cross-examined by the defense and the phrase that you're going to start to hear a lot in this case was rush to judgment, that the prosecution and the police focused on Scott Peterson to the exclusion of all other suspects immediately, and that was the point that the defense was trying to get to yesterday.
Interesting, they were saying that -- well, one accusation is that Scott Peterson, you know, used bleach to clean up the house. This detective said he didn't smell any bleach in the house. That kind of thing. I know one of your favorite facts in the case is that Scott Peterson told the initial detectives that he didn't know what he was fishing for.
O'BRIEN: Didn't know the bait -- didn't know the fish he was looking for.
TOOBIN: Didn't know what kind of...
O'BRIEN: Which most -- not my favorite fact, but many of the fishermen in the area...
TOOBIN: That's right. The fishermen's favorite fact.
O'BRIEN: ... in California said that's kind of odd.
TOOBIN: Well, I think it is odd that, you know, a day later you can't remember what kind of fish you were fishing for, what kind of bait you were using. That is something that the defense was trying to challenge, not very successfully. It's a bad, bad fact for the defense.
O'BRIEN: And we're still in the preliminary hearing. We have not gotten into the trial yet. TOOBIN: A long way from the trial. Months away from the trial.
O'BRIEN: It's going to be OK.
TOOBIN: Yes, that's right.
O'BRIEN: You always say that, a long way.
TOOBIN: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jeff, as always.
TOOBIN: All right.
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 November 5, 2003 - 07:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn now to a court case that we've all been following very closely. From Modesto, California, day six of Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing. Courtroom observers are all on full Amber alert. They're waiting to see if and when Peterson's former mistress, Amber Frey, will testify. In court yesterday, the focus shifted from DNA to a police detective.
CNN's legal analyst Jeff Toobin now with analysis -- good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I'm still drawing -- Amber alert. I hadn't thought of that.
O'BRIEN: Yes, clever, huh?
TOOBIN: That's, you know, CNN, I'm telling you.
O'BRIEN: I have to say kudos to our writers.
TOOBIN: To the writers, you know, it doesn't get any better than that. That's fabulous.
O'BRIEN: I had nothing to do with that. Yes, it's very clever. Amber, she is expected to testify at some point, right?
TOOBIN: We don't know when exactly. Yes, she is the other woman in the marriage of Scott and Laci Peterson. She's the prosecution's argument, the motive for this crime, and she'll testify probably some time later this week.
O'BRIEN: What do they expect to hear from her? Because she's going to say probably yes, I had an affair with Scott Peterson, something we all pretty much know at this point. What are the crucial details that she could add?
TOOBIN: The details that she will add will be in the days leading up to the murder, what kind of communication they were in, whether there was something building, some tension building within the marriage that would lead Scott Peterson to snap. One of the peculiarities about the preliminary hearing so far is that, you know, in those days leading up to the murder, we've heard testimony from Laci's mother, Laci's sister, there is, doesn't seem to be anything specifically that might have precipitated Scott to do something so horrendous.
Amber Frey may tell the court something specific that may have happened that led Scott to snap in this way. O'BRIEN: There were some reports that said initially when the two of them were starting to have a relationship that he would say his wife was dead.
TOOBIN: Right.
O'BRIEN: Does that carry any weight or is this sort of the mountains of sort of testimony that carries emotional weight, but no real legal weight?
TOOBIN: I think certainly at this stage, it probably doesn't matter that much. What matters more is sort of the specific testimony about the days, about what actually went on in the days that she disappeared. And that was the focus yesterday.
O'BRIEN: The focus moved, really, from DNA -- we were talking about that one little hair -- onto, I guess it seemed like the defense was trying to focusing potentially on incompetence, if that's a word I could use, on behalf of the investigators, sort of making it seem like maybe they planted evidence, maybe they didn't see certain things. Tell me a little bit about that.
TOOBIN: Well, yesterday, the testimony was Scott -- one of the first detectives on the scene was cross-examined by the defense and the phrase that you're going to start to hear a lot in this case was rush to judgment, that the prosecution and the police focused on Scott Peterson to the exclusion of all other suspects immediately, and that was the point that the defense was trying to get to yesterday.
Interesting, they were saying that -- well, one accusation is that Scott Peterson, you know, used bleach to clean up the house. This detective said he didn't smell any bleach in the house. That kind of thing. I know one of your favorite facts in the case is that Scott Peterson told the initial detectives that he didn't know what he was fishing for.
O'BRIEN: Didn't know the bait -- didn't know the fish he was looking for.
TOOBIN: Didn't know what kind of...
O'BRIEN: Which most -- not my favorite fact, but many of the fishermen in the area...
TOOBIN: That's right. The fishermen's favorite fact.
O'BRIEN: ... in California said that's kind of odd.
TOOBIN: Well, I think it is odd that, you know, a day later you can't remember what kind of fish you were fishing for, what kind of bait you were using. That is something that the defense was trying to challenge, not very successfully. It's a bad, bad fact for the defense.
O'BRIEN: And we're still in the preliminary hearing. We have not gotten into the trial yet. TOOBIN: A long way from the trial. Months away from the trial.
O'BRIEN: It's going to be OK.
TOOBIN: Yes, that's right.
O'BRIEN: You always say that, a long way.
TOOBIN: That's right.
O'BRIEN: Thanks, Jeff, as always.
TOOBIN: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
