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American Morning
Jury Deliberations Begin Today in Second Sniper Case
Aired December 17, 2003 - 07:12 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: In Virginia today, the jury gets the case of the second sniper defendant, Lee Malvo. We're talking about that and two other high-profile cases this morning, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jackson, with CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. He's going to be sitting next to me this morning.
Thank you for helping me out all morning. Appreciate it.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Hi.
O'BRIEN: Let's get right to Lee Boyd Malvo. Two and a half hours of closing arguments yesterday, and now the jury gets the case. What do you think of the job that the prosecutor, Robert Horan, did in presenting this case?
TOOBIN: Well, the image that certainly sticks with me from the summation is he put a photograph of the victim on the screen, you know, with half her head blown off, sitting there in the parking lot, and then played for the jury Malvo's confession to shooting her. That is just very tough to deal with if you're a defense attorney, you know, a confession to a horrible crime like this. You can have all of the explanations you want, you can have all of the brainwashing claims, the age difference between Malvo, but when you have a confession to a crime like that, that almost always means conviction.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the Kobe Bryant case. We've heard a lot from the defense. Many of the motions are actually leaked to the press, and it looks like...
TOOBIN: Well, released, not necessarily leaked.
O'BRIEN: Released to the press.
TOOBIN: Right, yes.
O'BRIEN: The tact that they're going to take, it seems to be, will be attacking the credibility of this young woman. But we know that Colorado has very strict rape shield laws. So, it seems to be -- I'm finding it hard to put those two things together. How is this possible?
TOOBIN: Well, I mean, you can still challenge the credibility of an accuser. And here, one of the new claims in these latest rounds of motions is that the accuser was taking drugs for schizophrenia, and schizophrenia is not a minor mental illness. If this is true, this really could impact on whether she has the ability to tell the truth about this claim. So, it is not just their sex life -- this woman's sex life they are getting into. It is, you know, her ability to tell the truth, and that's an issue in any case, especially a rape case.
O'BRIEN: We're going to talk more about these cases this morning. Jeff Toobin, we're going to ask you to stick around all morning.
TOOBIN: Lots to talk about.
O'BRIEN: Appreciate it.
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 December 17, 2003 - 07:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In Virginia today, the jury gets the case of the second sniper defendant, Lee Malvo. We're talking about that and two other high-profile cases this morning, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jackson, with CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. He's going to be sitting next to me this morning.
Thank you for helping me out all morning. Appreciate it.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Hi.
O'BRIEN: Let's get right to Lee Boyd Malvo. Two and a half hours of closing arguments yesterday, and now the jury gets the case. What do you think of the job that the prosecutor, Robert Horan, did in presenting this case?
TOOBIN: Well, the image that certainly sticks with me from the summation is he put a photograph of the victim on the screen, you know, with half her head blown off, sitting there in the parking lot, and then played for the jury Malvo's confession to shooting her. That is just very tough to deal with if you're a defense attorney, you know, a confession to a horrible crime like this. You can have all of the explanations you want, you can have all of the brainwashing claims, the age difference between Malvo, but when you have a confession to a crime like that, that almost always means conviction.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the Kobe Bryant case. We've heard a lot from the defense. Many of the motions are actually leaked to the press, and it looks like...
TOOBIN: Well, released, not necessarily leaked.
O'BRIEN: Released to the press.
TOOBIN: Right, yes.
O'BRIEN: The tact that they're going to take, it seems to be, will be attacking the credibility of this young woman. But we know that Colorado has very strict rape shield laws. So, it seems to be -- I'm finding it hard to put those two things together. How is this possible?
TOOBIN: Well, I mean, you can still challenge the credibility of an accuser. And here, one of the new claims in these latest rounds of motions is that the accuser was taking drugs for schizophrenia, and schizophrenia is not a minor mental illness. If this is true, this really could impact on whether she has the ability to tell the truth about this claim. So, it is not just their sex life -- this woman's sex life they are getting into. It is, you know, her ability to tell the truth, and that's an issue in any case, especially a rape case.
O'BRIEN: We're going to talk more about these cases this morning. Jeff Toobin, we're going to ask you to stick around all morning.
TOOBIN: Lots to talk about.
O'BRIEN: Appreciate it.
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.
