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American Morning
Sniper Trial
Aired November 07, 2003 - 08:15 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 legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin -- good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: I want you to comment on a couple of cases that we've been covering.
TOOBIN: Okie-doke.
O'BRIEN: This trial, the sniper trial has really focused on the killing of Dean Meyers. So, yet you see so much evidence from other cases coming in.
How is that allowable?
TOOBIN: Well, because the crime here involves terrorism and that suggests a chain of activity. Also, in general, when you have a single criminal charge, if you can prove that it is part of a pattern, if there's a modus operandi, you can charge -- you can prove all the cases together.
But you can be sure on appeal one of the things they will argue is that there was too much prejudice from those other crimes -- from the other evidence.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the Scott Peterson case. And it's so complicated that I feel like we should start getting...
TOOBIN: That's why I brought my notes today...
O'BRIEN: We do. We need our...
TOOBIN: ... because there's so much happened yesterday, yes.
O'BRIEN: ... our literature. Please. OK, detectives were on the stand and they were talking about what Amber Frey told them. Peterson apparently told Amber Frey that his wife had died. This is two weeks before she's actually disappeared.
TOOBIN: Correct. On December 9, he told Amber Frey that this Christmas would be his first one without his wife, who died. It's bizarre, like a lot of things in the Peterson case so far. It's weird. It's suggestive of guilt, but it's not really proof that he killed his wife.
O'BRIEN: But is it supposed to be proof of premeditation? TOOBIN: Interesting. Hard to know. It's, I, that's one interpretation, although there isn't much evidence of real premeditation here. It's mostly just evidence of motive, of the fact that he was trying to be a widower, even if he wasn't one yet.
O'BRIEN: What kind of legal weight does that carry as opposed to, again, I mean there seems to be some -- a bulk of evidence of ooh, that is just creepy and weird and, in some cases, dishonest and just odd. But is it damaging legally?
TOOBIN: Well, it is circumstantial evidence n when this case goes before a jury, as it certainly will, it will be one thing the jurors can consider. It tends not to be something that alone tips the weight towards guilt. But it is something they consider.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's go through some of the physical evidence. Loaded gun taken out of Scott Peterson's glove compartment of his car.
TOOBIN: Why did he have a gun? Good question. Something the jury will ask.
O'BRIEN: He actually called the detectives back and expected that they were going to give it back.
TOOBIN: He was wondering, he wanted the gun back.
O'BRIEN: And they had to advise him that actually it's illegal.
TOOBIN: Evidence of a -- it's evidence in an investigation. Interestingly, he could argue the fact that he wanted his gun back is suggestive of -- that he didn't think he'd done anything wrong and he didn't think the gun was illegal.
O'BRIEN: A homemade anchor, what's the circumstances behind that?
TOOBIN: The homemade anchor has been kind of the holy grail evidence of this trial. There was a homemade anchor in the boat. Also it came out yesterday, in the warehouse where he kept things, there was evidence suggesting that he had made other anchors. Those other anchors, if they exist, have never been found. Police certainly have been searching the bottom of San Francisco Bay, the implication being that those anchors might have been used to dispose of his wife's body. But those have never been found. Again, suggestive evidence, but not proof of anything.
O'BRIEN: More suggestive comments in the sense that the detective said that Scott Peterson asked him about when was he going to start using cadaver dogs.
TOOBIN: This was before his wife's body had been found so...
O'BRIEN: Everyone was working under the presumption that she was still alive. TOOBIN: She was still alive. He said several peculiar things, including that he said that Laci was mopping the floor when he left on Christmas Eve. You recall earlier in the preliminary hearing the maid had testified that she had cleaned the house the day before. Why would a seven months pregnant woman be mopping after the maid had just come?
The theory of the prosecution is that he raised that possibility because wet mops were found on December 24. That means, you know, that possibly he was trying to hide something, dispose of something, and he was trying to come up with a story for why the mops were wet.
O'BRIEN: We're still waiting to see Amber Frey on the stand.
TOOBIN: Waiting for that Amber alert.
O'BRIEN: Yes. You know, some people have said not to call it Amber alert, because, of course, that's something for missing children. So I'm not calling it that anymore.
TOOBIN: OK, well, I will not do that anymore.
O'BRIEN: But we are waiting for Amber Frey.
TOOBIN: Yes, indeed.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jeff, as always, thanks a lot.
TOOBIN: OK.
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 7, 2003 - 08:15 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 legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin -- good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: I want you to comment on a couple of cases that we've been covering.
TOOBIN: Okie-doke.
O'BRIEN: This trial, the sniper trial has really focused on the killing of Dean Meyers. So, yet you see so much evidence from other cases coming in.
How is that allowable?
TOOBIN: Well, because the crime here involves terrorism and that suggests a chain of activity. Also, in general, when you have a single criminal charge, if you can prove that it is part of a pattern, if there's a modus operandi, you can charge -- you can prove all the cases together.
But you can be sure on appeal one of the things they will argue is that there was too much prejudice from those other crimes -- from the other evidence.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the Scott Peterson case. And it's so complicated that I feel like we should start getting...
TOOBIN: That's why I brought my notes today...
O'BRIEN: We do. We need our...
TOOBIN: ... because there's so much happened yesterday, yes.
O'BRIEN: ... our literature. Please. OK, detectives were on the stand and they were talking about what Amber Frey told them. Peterson apparently told Amber Frey that his wife had died. This is two weeks before she's actually disappeared.
TOOBIN: Correct. On December 9, he told Amber Frey that this Christmas would be his first one without his wife, who died. It's bizarre, like a lot of things in the Peterson case so far. It's weird. It's suggestive of guilt, but it's not really proof that he killed his wife.
O'BRIEN: But is it supposed to be proof of premeditation? TOOBIN: Interesting. Hard to know. It's, I, that's one interpretation, although there isn't much evidence of real premeditation here. It's mostly just evidence of motive, of the fact that he was trying to be a widower, even if he wasn't one yet.
O'BRIEN: What kind of legal weight does that carry as opposed to, again, I mean there seems to be some -- a bulk of evidence of ooh, that is just creepy and weird and, in some cases, dishonest and just odd. But is it damaging legally?
TOOBIN: Well, it is circumstantial evidence n when this case goes before a jury, as it certainly will, it will be one thing the jurors can consider. It tends not to be something that alone tips the weight towards guilt. But it is something they consider.
O'BRIEN: All right, let's go through some of the physical evidence. Loaded gun taken out of Scott Peterson's glove compartment of his car.
TOOBIN: Why did he have a gun? Good question. Something the jury will ask.
O'BRIEN: He actually called the detectives back and expected that they were going to give it back.
TOOBIN: He was wondering, he wanted the gun back.
O'BRIEN: And they had to advise him that actually it's illegal.
TOOBIN: Evidence of a -- it's evidence in an investigation. Interestingly, he could argue the fact that he wanted his gun back is suggestive of -- that he didn't think he'd done anything wrong and he didn't think the gun was illegal.
O'BRIEN: A homemade anchor, what's the circumstances behind that?
TOOBIN: The homemade anchor has been kind of the holy grail evidence of this trial. There was a homemade anchor in the boat. Also it came out yesterday, in the warehouse where he kept things, there was evidence suggesting that he had made other anchors. Those other anchors, if they exist, have never been found. Police certainly have been searching the bottom of San Francisco Bay, the implication being that those anchors might have been used to dispose of his wife's body. But those have never been found. Again, suggestive evidence, but not proof of anything.
O'BRIEN: More suggestive comments in the sense that the detective said that Scott Peterson asked him about when was he going to start using cadaver dogs.
TOOBIN: This was before his wife's body had been found so...
O'BRIEN: Everyone was working under the presumption that she was still alive. TOOBIN: She was still alive. He said several peculiar things, including that he said that Laci was mopping the floor when he left on Christmas Eve. You recall earlier in the preliminary hearing the maid had testified that she had cleaned the house the day before. Why would a seven months pregnant woman be mopping after the maid had just come?
The theory of the prosecution is that he raised that possibility because wet mops were found on December 24. That means, you know, that possibly he was trying to hide something, dispose of something, and he was trying to come up with a story for why the mops were wet.
O'BRIEN: We're still waiting to see Amber Frey on the stand.
TOOBIN: Waiting for that Amber alert.
O'BRIEN: Yes. You know, some people have said not to call it Amber alert, because, of course, that's something for missing children. So I'm not calling it that anymore.
TOOBIN: OK, well, I will not do that anymore.
O'BRIEN: But we are waiting for Amber Frey.
TOOBIN: Yes, indeed.
O'BRIEN: All right, Jeff, as always, thanks a lot.
TOOBIN: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
