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CNN Saturday Morning News
Legal Brief's with Lida Rodriguez Taseff, Nelda Blair look at Martha Stewart's and Scott Peterson's cases
Aired October 23, 2004 - 08:00 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.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back from the CNN quarters, headquarters here in Atlanta. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is October 23rd, 10 days away from Election day. 8:00 a.m. in Fort Myers, Florida, 9:00 p.m. in Tokyo. Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Thank you for being with us this morning.
In the news now, a series of earthquakes has rocked northwestern Japan. The first had a magnitude of 6.8 followed by some small but strong aftershocks. Local media say at least two are dead, 90 injured. Buildings have crumbled. Water and electrical services are down and a bullet train jumped the tracks.
A developing story in Afghanistan, a grenade attack on the streets of downtown Kabul has killed or wounded a number of people. Peacekeepers say at least three explosions were aimed at a group of westerners on the street. We will update you on details just as soon as they become available.
Violence across Iraq this morning. A suicide bomber exploded his payload outside an Iraqi police station west of Baghdad. At least 10 Iraqi officers were killed. Another bomber killed an Iraqi guardsman near Samarra. And in Baghdad, a roadside bomb wounded six U.S. soldiers after exploding near their Bradley fighting vehicle.
British foreign secretary Jack Straw says he hopes all Iraqis will join him in demanding the release of an aid worker. Wrenching new video of Care director Margaret Hassan shows her begging for her life. She was taken hostage Tuesday in Baghdad. The British native is married to an Iraqi and has worked in Iraq for 30 years.
U.S. forces in Iraq say they have nabbed a major insurgent leader. A senior member of Abu Musab al Zarqawi's inner circle is in custody after an overnight raid in Fallujah. Five others suspected terrorists were caught in the operation. Multinational forces have been pounding the militant stronghold of Fallujah.
NGUYEN: Also, our agenda this morning, a typhoon wasn't bad enough. Now Japan is rocked by a series of earth tremors. We go there live for an update.
Ten days to go and the presidential candidates are doing whatever it takes to sway your vote. We are on the campaign trail.
And Martha Stewart's daughter tells us what's it's like for her mother in prison.
Well, you may not know this, but there are 10 different polls telling us which candidate is ahead, well, perhaps they're not so different after all. (INAUDIBLE) and they show President Bush holding a roughly 3 percentage point lead over Senator John Kerry. Bush's lead is about the same as before the debates. And on the stump, John Kerry's races through some key states today. CNN's Ed Henry is in Pueblo, Colorado where Kerry has a rally this morning. Good morning to you Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again Betty. That's right. In these final 10 days, there really are only about 12 states that are still competitive. We are going to see John Kerry and President Bush crisscrossing the country and really only hitting those 12 states, the ones that are still battlegrounds at this point and John Kerry wakes up this morning as you mentioned in Colorado. This is the state of his birth. He has high hopes of taking away the nine electoral votes. President Bush had this state in 2000. Polls currently show it neck and neck.
One way that Kerry hopes to win this state is by rallying some Hispanic voters here. He will do that this morning in Pueblo. He will appear with Ken Salazar. He is the Democratic Senate candidate in this state. He is Hispanic. He's currently the attorney general of the state. Kerry hopes to whip up some support here among Hispanic voters on to New Mexico, Las Cruces, New Mexico, later this morning, also, strong Hispanic population there that Kerry hopes to whip up support among. Five electoral votes at stake there in New Mexico. Al Gore only carried New Mexico by 366 votes. Polls there also showing it very, very tight race.
Last night, Kerry was in the third of the three competitive western states, Nevada. He had a big rally in Reno. He hit the president on a lot of the domestic issues that Kerry has been trying to focus on in the final two weeks. Also, Kerry hitting him a little bit on Iraq. There's been obviously a lot of talk about both foreign policy and the domestic agenda. Two states already have early voting here in the west, Colorado and New Mexico. That's another reason why Kerry is trying to hit these states, trying to get people to the polls already. Later this afternoon, he will though be heading, where else, to Florida, the place where President Bush is right now, the mother of all battleground states. Kerry will be joining the president there today and also have events there on Sunday. Betty?
NGUYEN: Getting down to the wire in this election. CNN's Ed Henry, thank you for that report. Tony?
HARRIS: And CNN's latest Electoral College outlook gives George Bush an edge. It shows Bush with 277 electoral votes and John Kerry with 261; 270 votes are needed to win the White House, but the map changes from day-to-day, so don't even try to take that to the bank just yet. President Bush is also on the trail in another crucial state, Florida. He has four rallies on his schedule today. White House correspondent Dana Bash has the latest from the Bush camp. She's on the phone from Florida. Good morning, Dana. DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Tony. Well, Ed just called Florida the mother of all battleground states and that is a very good way to put it. It's the president's third full day campaigning in the state in just one week. He is still trying to make up for lost campaign time here because of the hurricanes.
Now earlier in the week, he hit some areas that Al Gore won last time around that he lost. But today, four cities he's going to, Fort Myers. This is where he's arriving very shortly, Lakeland, Melbourne, and Jacksonville. These are all GOP strongholds and this is very much a rally that they have attributed here, all of these stops. What we can expect from the president is some of the same -- what we heard from him yesterday, what the campaign calls his closing arguments, trying to speak directly to voters about why he thinks he's better than John Kerry.
In the revamped stump speech, tries to frame the argument for re- election, what it would mean to families, trying to really personalize it. He breaks it down to the five, what the campaign hopes are digestible themes. He talks about your budget. He talks about the economy, your quality of life, talking about healthcare. But his biggest emphasis, no surprise here, his biggest political asset, which is as he calls it, your security which is terrorism, saying that he believes he can make Americans more secure than John Kerry and of course Senator Kerry campaigns as what President Bush is doing and talking about that is just essentially scare tactics. Tony?
HARRIS: Dana Bash on the Bush campaign trail for us this morning. Dana, thank you.
NGUYEN: And that takes us to our e-mail question of the day. Is the U.S. election system broken? Well, former President Jimmy Carter, who has helped monitor troubled elections over the world, says the U.S. system does not meet his standards for a fair vote. But we want to know what you think. E-mail us your responses at wam@cnn.com.
HARRIS: A series of major earthquakes shook northwestern Japan overnight. This just days after a typhoon devastated the islands. Correspondent Atika Shubert is on the telephone in Tokyo with us. Atika, good morning.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Tony. All three earthquakes happened in Niigata (ph) a prefecture which is north of Tokyo. But we could still feel the tremors even here in Tokyo, the city skyscrapers swaying for up to a minute. Now, authorities are warning aftershocks could still continue and they are warning residents to be on alert.
Closer to the epicenter in Niigata prefecture, there was quite a bit of damage. Several houses collapsed. Local television is now showing pictures of collapsed roofs, destroyed walls and there are still reports coming in of dozens of people injured. Local broadcaster NHK is also reporting that one of those injured has died in the hospital. Also, transportation was severely disrupted. There's footage of one train en route to the Niigata prefecture that derailed. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Also, roads in some towns cracked by the force of this earthquake. Tony?
HARRIS: Atika Shubert reporting for us from Tokyo this morning. Atika, thank you.
Martha Stewart serves time as her attorney serves papers to appeal the verdict. We'll talk about it all with our legal eagles.
NGUYEN: And Scott Peterson's attorney says the case against his client should be dismissed. That story shortly.
But later, millions of Americans are fighting for a younger look. Today's house call looks new, less invasive facelift procedures. Find out if they really work.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Planning a remodeling project? In working out your budget, set aside 10 to 20 percent of the total cost for any unexpected expenses. Know the retail prices of items like lighting fixtures, faucets and knobs. And if you can buy them on your own for less, the contractor will often agree to do just the installation. And no last minute changes or additions. That will add to the total cost and put the project behind schedule. Plan wisely. Educate yourself and stick to your original plan. I'm Gerri Willis and that's your tip of the day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Good morning and welcome back. It is Saturday. The weekend is upon us. You got big plans?
HARRIS: Little plans. Medium plans. But their own (ph) kids, running around playing.
NGUYEN: Inside or outside?
HARRIS: Outside. You got to get outside.
NGUYEN: Jacqui, outside, how's it looking?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No problem across the Atlanta area, but a little foggy for you. We've got some delays out of the Jackson Hartsfield Airport there for today. We also have some wet weather to talk about across Texas this morning. Some heavy showers and thunderstorms just to the east of the San Antonio area right now. These are producing some very heavy downpours, could even see up to four inches of rainfall as this line moves on through and it's heading on off to the east. You can see the scattered showers and thunderstorms heading and extending farther on up to the north.
There are some flood watches in place throughout this area, right between San Antonio and Austin in the dark green counties. We do have flood warnings in effect. The ground very, very saturated. General rainfall amounts here however should range between about a half of an inch to an inch. All being triggered by a very strong cold front across the nation's mid section, bringing showers and thunderstorms today from the upper Midwest and great lakes that will extent all the way down to the Gulf coast. We have some record highs in Houston yesterday, so very warm ahead of this front, but cooler air is pushing in behind it.
With the clash of the seasons taking place here, the whole red area highlighted, could see some severe thunderstorms, damaging wind, large hail and also some isolated tornadoes can't be ruled out. High pressure still trying to dominate news here on the east coast but we do have some surface moisture and that's why you're see the fog in Atlanta. We also had some delays earlier at Washington Dulles because of some low clouds and some delays out of Chicago at this hour because of weather en route. Beautiful day in the southwest but wet and cool in the Pacific northwest. We'll have more details on that coming up about one hour from now.
HARRIS: Jacqui, it's a busy morning for you. Thank you.
NGUYEN: It is, yeah. We do want to say good morning, Tampa, Florida. Check this out, a little foggy there with this live picture.
With 10 days to go until the election, the president campaigns across the hotly contested sunshine state, his first rally of the day in Fort Myers, Florida, which begins in about half an hour.
HARRIS: And here's a check of our top stories. Violent tremors in northwestern Japan this morning. Several powerful earthquakes shook the area within minutes of each other. Local media reports say at least two people are dead and more than 90 injured.
On the campaign trail, John Kerry is visiting Colorado today in a push to win the Republican leaning state. Meantime, George Bush is making his third trip to Florida in a little over a week.
And in Boston, will the celebrating continue? How's your daddy? Game one of the World Series is tonight at Fenway Park. The Red Sox are looking for their first World Series title since 1918.
NGUYEN: We are going to keep hearing that "who's your daddy" for a long time.
HARRIS: Thank you Pedro.
NGUYEN: In the meantime, Scott Peterson's attorney says there is no evidence to prove his client is guilty of murdering his wife and unborn son. Should the case be dismissed?
HARRIS: And Martha Stewart's attorneys fight to clear her name as she serves out her sentence. Was her decision to start serving time the wrong one? A look at both cases straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: The defense presents its case in the Scott Peterson double murder trial. Plus, prison inmate Martha Stewart tries to get her conviction overturned. Two stories on the docket this morning. In the Peterson case, a defense witness says Laci Peterson's fetus likely died five days after Laci vanished. Defense attorneys are trying to show the baby died well after Laci disappeared when Scott Peterson was under police surveillance. Now to the Martha Stewart case, her lawyers are asking a Federal appeals court to overturn the conviction for lying about a stock sale claiming her trial was fundamentally unfair. Stewart's lawyers say pre-trial publicity and confusion about her charges made proving her innocence impossible. Two legal experts are joining us now to weigh in on these cases. From Miami, Florida, civil liberties attorney Lida Rodriguez Taseff and from Houston, Texas, former prosecutor Nelda Blair. Good morning to you both this morning.
NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Good morning.
LIDA RODRIGUEZ TASEFF, CIVIL LIBERTIES ATTORNEY: Good morning.
NGUYEN: All right. Now let's start with you. How credible in the Peterson case is this doctor who said that the baby was born after Laci disappeared?
BLAIR: Well, he is not basing his information on anything very scientific, actually. But the whole thing boils down to he is one expert that is saying something different from what the prosecution's expert did and that's going to go on and on and on in this case. We have concrete experts that say things differently, this guy. Also, people that say different things about what the prosecution has brought out, different expert testimony. Unfortunately, that's really boring for the jurors. It's a little bit confusing for the jurors and it boils down to who they believe.
NGUYEN: I'm confused here too because this is hearsay evidence but it's from a doctor who's supposed to be an expert.
TASEFF: You know, what was funny is that Nelda was just so understated, maybe because it's early on Saturday. This expert was a disaster for the defense. He sat there and he testified that he based his calculations on the hearsay statements of one of Laci's friends that she said that Laci made during her baby shower, saying that she took a pregnancy test on June 9th and that's what he based his calculation on. The testimony was so bad that at some point, one of the prosecutors who was sitting in the front row was just giggling and had their face covered and everybody, the jury just losing it and at some point, the expert said, why don't you all cut me some slack? I made a mistake. It was disaster for the defense but it's not like -- it's not going to affect their case, really.
BLAIR: The whole case is a disaster for the defense. Let's get real Lida. I mean this case, this situation boils down to if they can't put Scott Peterson on the stand to defend himself, which they can't, if the jury will believe Scott Peterson, which they won't, then they're going to lose this case.
TASEFF: Oh, no. You know, they may very well put him on the stand. They've been practicing with him and you may very well see him.
NGUYEN: Exactly. He went into a mock Q and A session obviously for some kind of purpose. You don't think so Nelda? BLAIR: They're absolutely deciding whether or not they're going to to put him on the stand. I can't believe they're actually considering putting someone that we all know is a liar. We know he's a cheat. We know he's deceived his wife, his family, the police. Why wouldn't he deceive the jury?
(CROSSTALK)
NGUYEN: All right. Let's move on to Martha Stewart because we only have so much time, ladies and you're so good at going at it, so we want to give you your due time. Martha Stewart, her attorneys have filed an appeal saying that she got - or she didn't get a fair trial for a number of reasons, including not being able to cross-examine Pewter Bacanovic, her stockbroker, who was also convicted. So Lida, I'll start with you. Was her sixth amendment right to confront a witness violated here?
TAEFF: It absolutely was and the irony of ironies is that the Supreme Court said so in a case that was decided just days, days after Martha Stewart was convicted. In that case, the case called Crawford vs. Washington, the Supreme Court said that you have a right to confront the witnesses against you if what they're doing is testifying for the police.
In this case, Bacanovic was testifying in front of the SEC and they used the statement of his, which she was not able to cross- examine. So yeah. Her sixth amendment right was violated but the question is going to be whether or not this technicality about the fact that she was convicted before the decision was handed down is going to keep her from getting a just, a reversal here.
BLAIR: That decision was also very different. The Crawford decision is very different from the Martha Stewart case. Lida failed to mention that it involves a wife's testimony against her husband who was on trial and husband and wife testimony is far different from the average testimony of the average witness. I don't think it's going to apply to the Martha Stewart case. I don't think it's going to get her appeal any further down the road and neither are any of the other points they brought up like witnesses that they didn't care for, a jury that they didn't like. It's not going to matter because her appeals - her conviction is going to stand. The real question is, why is she serving her time if her appeal is so good?
NGUYEN: Exactly. And what about that ink expert? That was brought up before the conviction, yet that's again here in the appeal. Is that going to fly this time around?
TASEFF: Well, it does absolutely if you combine it with all the other things, because what they're saying is that the trial is fundamentally unfair when you put together all of these things that happened, including the fact that the prosecution kept alluding to some charge of insider trading which she was not charged with. So what the defense has done is they've made a case in the appeal, 87 pages, I know it's a little long, but what they've done is they've made a case in the appeal that all of these things taken together deny her a fair trial and it's a very, very good argument. BLAIR: I disagree. What's going to happen is you know, she is charged, she's convicted of three counts. Let's not forget that. It's not that Martha was just barely convicted. Three different counts she was convicted of. And even if one is overturned, there's still two others. She was given a minimal sentence. I think that this appeal number one, won't stand and number two, if it does stand, there's a possibility that she could be retried.
NGUYEN: And the big question here and you've mentioned it a little bit now, Nelda, is why is she even serving, even serving time if this appeal is so strong? Nelda.
(CROSSTALK)
TASEFF: Well, the answer basically is she wanted to test out microwaves in jail and so this is a good opportunity to see how...
NGUYEN: Oh Lida!
BLAIR: Oh Lida!
TASEFF: The reality is...
NGUYEN: all right. On that, we are done, ladies. We are done for this session today.
BLAIR: We're done, OK.
NGUYEN: Nelda, Lida, until next week, always a pleasure. Thank you.
BLAIR: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Tony?
HARRIS: Looking like there's a contract out there or something? Oh.
NGUYEN: She's tough.
HARRIS: OK. Larry King got a chance to find out how Martha is really doing and how she's really living in prison. He spoke with her daughter Alexis about Stewart's first two weeks behind bars. She says her mother is making the most of her experience and has some good ideas to improve prison food. Maybe she's not that far off the mark here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXIS STEWART, MARTHA STEWART'S DAUGHTER: I'm sure she could give them quite a few pointers. But I think that the budget is so limited that, I'm not sure how much change they would be...
LARRY KING: What does she say about the food?
STEWART: It's not very good. KING: Airplane?
STEWART: It's not just that it's airplane. I think airplane would be better. It's just -- it's terrible. And, you know, it is not going to affect her that badly because she is only there for five months.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: That's the point about prison. That's for sure. On the Web site, Stewart described prison life as pretty much what she expected.
NGUYEN: All right. We're going to shift gears now and get to our e-mail question of the day. Is the U.S. election system broken?
HARRIS: Jimmy Carter, former President Jimmy Carter seems to think so. There's some really serious problems.
NGUYEN: A lot of responses out here. You have one here don't you?
HARRIS: Yeah. It is from Rob in Washington, New Jersey. He says I feel we need more choices. Two parties just don't cut it. Who do you pick if you don't like either one of these guys? Well, you pick the lesser of two evils. If you want your vote to count or just don't vote at all, how many people will not vote out of the population of this great country? That's a good question.
NGUYEN: Just 10 days to go until the election. Our question again, is the U.S. election system broken? E-mail us your answers at wam@cnn.com. We'll read those on the air.
Well, a lifetime of questions but did she get the answers she was looking for? Next hour, we'll talk to National Public Radio's Terry Gross about her book "All I did Was Ask."
HARRIS: And straight ahead on "HOUSE CALL," taking a close look at a new technique for a less invasive facelift.
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Aired October 23, 2004 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back from the CNN quarters, headquarters here in Atlanta. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is October 23rd, 10 days away from Election day. 8:00 a.m. in Fort Myers, Florida, 9:00 p.m. in Tokyo. Good morning. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Thank you for being with us this morning.
In the news now, a series of earthquakes has rocked northwestern Japan. The first had a magnitude of 6.8 followed by some small but strong aftershocks. Local media say at least two are dead, 90 injured. Buildings have crumbled. Water and electrical services are down and a bullet train jumped the tracks.
A developing story in Afghanistan, a grenade attack on the streets of downtown Kabul has killed or wounded a number of people. Peacekeepers say at least three explosions were aimed at a group of westerners on the street. We will update you on details just as soon as they become available.
Violence across Iraq this morning. A suicide bomber exploded his payload outside an Iraqi police station west of Baghdad. At least 10 Iraqi officers were killed. Another bomber killed an Iraqi guardsman near Samarra. And in Baghdad, a roadside bomb wounded six U.S. soldiers after exploding near their Bradley fighting vehicle.
British foreign secretary Jack Straw says he hopes all Iraqis will join him in demanding the release of an aid worker. Wrenching new video of Care director Margaret Hassan shows her begging for her life. She was taken hostage Tuesday in Baghdad. The British native is married to an Iraqi and has worked in Iraq for 30 years.
U.S. forces in Iraq say they have nabbed a major insurgent leader. A senior member of Abu Musab al Zarqawi's inner circle is in custody after an overnight raid in Fallujah. Five others suspected terrorists were caught in the operation. Multinational forces have been pounding the militant stronghold of Fallujah.
NGUYEN: Also, our agenda this morning, a typhoon wasn't bad enough. Now Japan is rocked by a series of earth tremors. We go there live for an update.
Ten days to go and the presidential candidates are doing whatever it takes to sway your vote. We are on the campaign trail.
And Martha Stewart's daughter tells us what's it's like for her mother in prison.
Well, you may not know this, but there are 10 different polls telling us which candidate is ahead, well, perhaps they're not so different after all. (INAUDIBLE) and they show President Bush holding a roughly 3 percentage point lead over Senator John Kerry. Bush's lead is about the same as before the debates. And on the stump, John Kerry's races through some key states today. CNN's Ed Henry is in Pueblo, Colorado where Kerry has a rally this morning. Good morning to you Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again Betty. That's right. In these final 10 days, there really are only about 12 states that are still competitive. We are going to see John Kerry and President Bush crisscrossing the country and really only hitting those 12 states, the ones that are still battlegrounds at this point and John Kerry wakes up this morning as you mentioned in Colorado. This is the state of his birth. He has high hopes of taking away the nine electoral votes. President Bush had this state in 2000. Polls currently show it neck and neck.
One way that Kerry hopes to win this state is by rallying some Hispanic voters here. He will do that this morning in Pueblo. He will appear with Ken Salazar. He is the Democratic Senate candidate in this state. He is Hispanic. He's currently the attorney general of the state. Kerry hopes to whip up some support here among Hispanic voters on to New Mexico, Las Cruces, New Mexico, later this morning, also, strong Hispanic population there that Kerry hopes to whip up support among. Five electoral votes at stake there in New Mexico. Al Gore only carried New Mexico by 366 votes. Polls there also showing it very, very tight race.
Last night, Kerry was in the third of the three competitive western states, Nevada. He had a big rally in Reno. He hit the president on a lot of the domestic issues that Kerry has been trying to focus on in the final two weeks. Also, Kerry hitting him a little bit on Iraq. There's been obviously a lot of talk about both foreign policy and the domestic agenda. Two states already have early voting here in the west, Colorado and New Mexico. That's another reason why Kerry is trying to hit these states, trying to get people to the polls already. Later this afternoon, he will though be heading, where else, to Florida, the place where President Bush is right now, the mother of all battleground states. Kerry will be joining the president there today and also have events there on Sunday. Betty?
NGUYEN: Getting down to the wire in this election. CNN's Ed Henry, thank you for that report. Tony?
HARRIS: And CNN's latest Electoral College outlook gives George Bush an edge. It shows Bush with 277 electoral votes and John Kerry with 261; 270 votes are needed to win the White House, but the map changes from day-to-day, so don't even try to take that to the bank just yet. President Bush is also on the trail in another crucial state, Florida. He has four rallies on his schedule today. White House correspondent Dana Bash has the latest from the Bush camp. She's on the phone from Florida. Good morning, Dana. DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Tony. Well, Ed just called Florida the mother of all battleground states and that is a very good way to put it. It's the president's third full day campaigning in the state in just one week. He is still trying to make up for lost campaign time here because of the hurricanes.
Now earlier in the week, he hit some areas that Al Gore won last time around that he lost. But today, four cities he's going to, Fort Myers. This is where he's arriving very shortly, Lakeland, Melbourne, and Jacksonville. These are all GOP strongholds and this is very much a rally that they have attributed here, all of these stops. What we can expect from the president is some of the same -- what we heard from him yesterday, what the campaign calls his closing arguments, trying to speak directly to voters about why he thinks he's better than John Kerry.
In the revamped stump speech, tries to frame the argument for re- election, what it would mean to families, trying to really personalize it. He breaks it down to the five, what the campaign hopes are digestible themes. He talks about your budget. He talks about the economy, your quality of life, talking about healthcare. But his biggest emphasis, no surprise here, his biggest political asset, which is as he calls it, your security which is terrorism, saying that he believes he can make Americans more secure than John Kerry and of course Senator Kerry campaigns as what President Bush is doing and talking about that is just essentially scare tactics. Tony?
HARRIS: Dana Bash on the Bush campaign trail for us this morning. Dana, thank you.
NGUYEN: And that takes us to our e-mail question of the day. Is the U.S. election system broken? Well, former President Jimmy Carter, who has helped monitor troubled elections over the world, says the U.S. system does not meet his standards for a fair vote. But we want to know what you think. E-mail us your responses at wam@cnn.com.
HARRIS: A series of major earthquakes shook northwestern Japan overnight. This just days after a typhoon devastated the islands. Correspondent Atika Shubert is on the telephone in Tokyo with us. Atika, good morning.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Tony. All three earthquakes happened in Niigata (ph) a prefecture which is north of Tokyo. But we could still feel the tremors even here in Tokyo, the city skyscrapers swaying for up to a minute. Now, authorities are warning aftershocks could still continue and they are warning residents to be on alert.
Closer to the epicenter in Niigata prefecture, there was quite a bit of damage. Several houses collapsed. Local television is now showing pictures of collapsed roofs, destroyed walls and there are still reports coming in of dozens of people injured. Local broadcaster NHK is also reporting that one of those injured has died in the hospital. Also, transportation was severely disrupted. There's footage of one train en route to the Niigata prefecture that derailed. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Also, roads in some towns cracked by the force of this earthquake. Tony?
HARRIS: Atika Shubert reporting for us from Tokyo this morning. Atika, thank you.
Martha Stewart serves time as her attorney serves papers to appeal the verdict. We'll talk about it all with our legal eagles.
NGUYEN: And Scott Peterson's attorney says the case against his client should be dismissed. That story shortly.
But later, millions of Americans are fighting for a younger look. Today's house call looks new, less invasive facelift procedures. Find out if they really work.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Planning a remodeling project? In working out your budget, set aside 10 to 20 percent of the total cost for any unexpected expenses. Know the retail prices of items like lighting fixtures, faucets and knobs. And if you can buy them on your own for less, the contractor will often agree to do just the installation. And no last minute changes or additions. That will add to the total cost and put the project behind schedule. Plan wisely. Educate yourself and stick to your original plan. I'm Gerri Willis and that's your tip of the day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Good morning and welcome back. It is Saturday. The weekend is upon us. You got big plans?
HARRIS: Little plans. Medium plans. But their own (ph) kids, running around playing.
NGUYEN: Inside or outside?
HARRIS: Outside. You got to get outside.
NGUYEN: Jacqui, outside, how's it looking?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No problem across the Atlanta area, but a little foggy for you. We've got some delays out of the Jackson Hartsfield Airport there for today. We also have some wet weather to talk about across Texas this morning. Some heavy showers and thunderstorms just to the east of the San Antonio area right now. These are producing some very heavy downpours, could even see up to four inches of rainfall as this line moves on through and it's heading on off to the east. You can see the scattered showers and thunderstorms heading and extending farther on up to the north.
There are some flood watches in place throughout this area, right between San Antonio and Austin in the dark green counties. We do have flood warnings in effect. The ground very, very saturated. General rainfall amounts here however should range between about a half of an inch to an inch. All being triggered by a very strong cold front across the nation's mid section, bringing showers and thunderstorms today from the upper Midwest and great lakes that will extent all the way down to the Gulf coast. We have some record highs in Houston yesterday, so very warm ahead of this front, but cooler air is pushing in behind it.
With the clash of the seasons taking place here, the whole red area highlighted, could see some severe thunderstorms, damaging wind, large hail and also some isolated tornadoes can't be ruled out. High pressure still trying to dominate news here on the east coast but we do have some surface moisture and that's why you're see the fog in Atlanta. We also had some delays earlier at Washington Dulles because of some low clouds and some delays out of Chicago at this hour because of weather en route. Beautiful day in the southwest but wet and cool in the Pacific northwest. We'll have more details on that coming up about one hour from now.
HARRIS: Jacqui, it's a busy morning for you. Thank you.
NGUYEN: It is, yeah. We do want to say good morning, Tampa, Florida. Check this out, a little foggy there with this live picture.
With 10 days to go until the election, the president campaigns across the hotly contested sunshine state, his first rally of the day in Fort Myers, Florida, which begins in about half an hour.
HARRIS: And here's a check of our top stories. Violent tremors in northwestern Japan this morning. Several powerful earthquakes shook the area within minutes of each other. Local media reports say at least two people are dead and more than 90 injured.
On the campaign trail, John Kerry is visiting Colorado today in a push to win the Republican leaning state. Meantime, George Bush is making his third trip to Florida in a little over a week.
And in Boston, will the celebrating continue? How's your daddy? Game one of the World Series is tonight at Fenway Park. The Red Sox are looking for their first World Series title since 1918.
NGUYEN: We are going to keep hearing that "who's your daddy" for a long time.
HARRIS: Thank you Pedro.
NGUYEN: In the meantime, Scott Peterson's attorney says there is no evidence to prove his client is guilty of murdering his wife and unborn son. Should the case be dismissed?
HARRIS: And Martha Stewart's attorneys fight to clear her name as she serves out her sentence. Was her decision to start serving time the wrong one? A look at both cases straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: The defense presents its case in the Scott Peterson double murder trial. Plus, prison inmate Martha Stewart tries to get her conviction overturned. Two stories on the docket this morning. In the Peterson case, a defense witness says Laci Peterson's fetus likely died five days after Laci vanished. Defense attorneys are trying to show the baby died well after Laci disappeared when Scott Peterson was under police surveillance. Now to the Martha Stewart case, her lawyers are asking a Federal appeals court to overturn the conviction for lying about a stock sale claiming her trial was fundamentally unfair. Stewart's lawyers say pre-trial publicity and confusion about her charges made proving her innocence impossible. Two legal experts are joining us now to weigh in on these cases. From Miami, Florida, civil liberties attorney Lida Rodriguez Taseff and from Houston, Texas, former prosecutor Nelda Blair. Good morning to you both this morning.
NELDA BLAIR, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Good morning.
LIDA RODRIGUEZ TASEFF, CIVIL LIBERTIES ATTORNEY: Good morning.
NGUYEN: All right. Now let's start with you. How credible in the Peterson case is this doctor who said that the baby was born after Laci disappeared?
BLAIR: Well, he is not basing his information on anything very scientific, actually. But the whole thing boils down to he is one expert that is saying something different from what the prosecution's expert did and that's going to go on and on and on in this case. We have concrete experts that say things differently, this guy. Also, people that say different things about what the prosecution has brought out, different expert testimony. Unfortunately, that's really boring for the jurors. It's a little bit confusing for the jurors and it boils down to who they believe.
NGUYEN: I'm confused here too because this is hearsay evidence but it's from a doctor who's supposed to be an expert.
TASEFF: You know, what was funny is that Nelda was just so understated, maybe because it's early on Saturday. This expert was a disaster for the defense. He sat there and he testified that he based his calculations on the hearsay statements of one of Laci's friends that she said that Laci made during her baby shower, saying that she took a pregnancy test on June 9th and that's what he based his calculation on. The testimony was so bad that at some point, one of the prosecutors who was sitting in the front row was just giggling and had their face covered and everybody, the jury just losing it and at some point, the expert said, why don't you all cut me some slack? I made a mistake. It was disaster for the defense but it's not like -- it's not going to affect their case, really.
BLAIR: The whole case is a disaster for the defense. Let's get real Lida. I mean this case, this situation boils down to if they can't put Scott Peterson on the stand to defend himself, which they can't, if the jury will believe Scott Peterson, which they won't, then they're going to lose this case.
TASEFF: Oh, no. You know, they may very well put him on the stand. They've been practicing with him and you may very well see him.
NGUYEN: Exactly. He went into a mock Q and A session obviously for some kind of purpose. You don't think so Nelda? BLAIR: They're absolutely deciding whether or not they're going to to put him on the stand. I can't believe they're actually considering putting someone that we all know is a liar. We know he's a cheat. We know he's deceived his wife, his family, the police. Why wouldn't he deceive the jury?
(CROSSTALK)
NGUYEN: All right. Let's move on to Martha Stewart because we only have so much time, ladies and you're so good at going at it, so we want to give you your due time. Martha Stewart, her attorneys have filed an appeal saying that she got - or she didn't get a fair trial for a number of reasons, including not being able to cross-examine Pewter Bacanovic, her stockbroker, who was also convicted. So Lida, I'll start with you. Was her sixth amendment right to confront a witness violated here?
TAEFF: It absolutely was and the irony of ironies is that the Supreme Court said so in a case that was decided just days, days after Martha Stewart was convicted. In that case, the case called Crawford vs. Washington, the Supreme Court said that you have a right to confront the witnesses against you if what they're doing is testifying for the police.
In this case, Bacanovic was testifying in front of the SEC and they used the statement of his, which she was not able to cross- examine. So yeah. Her sixth amendment right was violated but the question is going to be whether or not this technicality about the fact that she was convicted before the decision was handed down is going to keep her from getting a just, a reversal here.
BLAIR: That decision was also very different. The Crawford decision is very different from the Martha Stewart case. Lida failed to mention that it involves a wife's testimony against her husband who was on trial and husband and wife testimony is far different from the average testimony of the average witness. I don't think it's going to apply to the Martha Stewart case. I don't think it's going to get her appeal any further down the road and neither are any of the other points they brought up like witnesses that they didn't care for, a jury that they didn't like. It's not going to matter because her appeals - her conviction is going to stand. The real question is, why is she serving her time if her appeal is so good?
NGUYEN: Exactly. And what about that ink expert? That was brought up before the conviction, yet that's again here in the appeal. Is that going to fly this time around?
TASEFF: Well, it does absolutely if you combine it with all the other things, because what they're saying is that the trial is fundamentally unfair when you put together all of these things that happened, including the fact that the prosecution kept alluding to some charge of insider trading which she was not charged with. So what the defense has done is they've made a case in the appeal, 87 pages, I know it's a little long, but what they've done is they've made a case in the appeal that all of these things taken together deny her a fair trial and it's a very, very good argument. BLAIR: I disagree. What's going to happen is you know, she is charged, she's convicted of three counts. Let's not forget that. It's not that Martha was just barely convicted. Three different counts she was convicted of. And even if one is overturned, there's still two others. She was given a minimal sentence. I think that this appeal number one, won't stand and number two, if it does stand, there's a possibility that she could be retried.
NGUYEN: And the big question here and you've mentioned it a little bit now, Nelda, is why is she even serving, even serving time if this appeal is so strong? Nelda.
(CROSSTALK)
TASEFF: Well, the answer basically is she wanted to test out microwaves in jail and so this is a good opportunity to see how...
NGUYEN: Oh Lida!
BLAIR: Oh Lida!
TASEFF: The reality is...
NGUYEN: all right. On that, we are done, ladies. We are done for this session today.
BLAIR: We're done, OK.
NGUYEN: Nelda, Lida, until next week, always a pleasure. Thank you.
BLAIR: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Tony?
HARRIS: Looking like there's a contract out there or something? Oh.
NGUYEN: She's tough.
HARRIS: OK. Larry King got a chance to find out how Martha is really doing and how she's really living in prison. He spoke with her daughter Alexis about Stewart's first two weeks behind bars. She says her mother is making the most of her experience and has some good ideas to improve prison food. Maybe she's not that far off the mark here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXIS STEWART, MARTHA STEWART'S DAUGHTER: I'm sure she could give them quite a few pointers. But I think that the budget is so limited that, I'm not sure how much change they would be...
LARRY KING: What does she say about the food?
STEWART: It's not very good. KING: Airplane?
STEWART: It's not just that it's airplane. I think airplane would be better. It's just -- it's terrible. And, you know, it is not going to affect her that badly because she is only there for five months.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: That's the point about prison. That's for sure. On the Web site, Stewart described prison life as pretty much what she expected.
NGUYEN: All right. We're going to shift gears now and get to our e-mail question of the day. Is the U.S. election system broken?
HARRIS: Jimmy Carter, former President Jimmy Carter seems to think so. There's some really serious problems.
NGUYEN: A lot of responses out here. You have one here don't you?
HARRIS: Yeah. It is from Rob in Washington, New Jersey. He says I feel we need more choices. Two parties just don't cut it. Who do you pick if you don't like either one of these guys? Well, you pick the lesser of two evils. If you want your vote to count or just don't vote at all, how many people will not vote out of the population of this great country? That's a good question.
NGUYEN: Just 10 days to go until the election. Our question again, is the U.S. election system broken? E-mail us your answers at wam@cnn.com. We'll read those on the air.
Well, a lifetime of questions but did she get the answers she was looking for? Next hour, we'll talk to National Public Radio's Terry Gross about her book "All I did Was Ask."
HARRIS: And straight ahead on "HOUSE CALL," taking a close look at a new technique for a less invasive facelift.
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