Defense attorneys for Scott Peterson submitted a motion for a new trial in court Friday morning. The judge sealed the motion to the public.
According to published reports, the motion deals with a taped conversation between two men, one of whom is in prison, discussing a burglary at the Peterson home. Defense attorneys contend that Laci Peterson may have walked in on the burglary and been harmed. Peterson's lawyers claim prosecutors withheld the tape from them, which, if true, could be grounds for a new trial.
Last November a jury convicted Scott Peterson of the murders of his wife and unborn son. A month later the jury recommended that Peterson be sentenced to death.
Judge Alfred Delucchi said he would make the defense motion public on March 9, after the prosecution files its response.
Originally Delucchi was scheduled to formally sentence Peterson on Friday. In light of the defense motion, that hearing has been postponed to March 16.
Peterson appeared in court Friday, as did three jurors in his trial.
Of course thats just my opinion....I could be wrong. (Dennis Miller)
"You might be the toughest little whacker. . .but in my world, you're about as worrisome as a cloudy day." (Dutch Dooley)
Defense Requests New Trial; Sentencing Set For March 16
POSTED: 7:24 am PST February 25, 2005
UPDATED: 11:47 am PST February 25, 2005
REDWOOD CITY -- Scott Peterson's defense team asked for a new trial Friday based on what it says is evidence that prosecutors did not obey discovery rules in the capital murder trial.
In December, a jury found Peterson guilty of the Christmas Eve 2002 murders of his wife Laci and the couple's unborn son and recommended the death sentence. Judge Alfred Delucchi can either impose the jury's recommendation at the formal sentencing which was originally scheduled for Friday or opt for life in prison without parole.
However, Delucchi ordered the formal sentencing delayed because of a flu bug delayed work by Peterson's defense team. A new formal sentencing date of March 16 was set at Friday's hearing with Delucchi warning the attorneys that no further delays would be allowed.
Peterson wore a suit during the hearing, looking much like he did during his trial except that he appeared to have gained weight. He smiled at his mother, who was in the courtroom with his sister-in-law, but otherwise showed no emotion.
At short hearing, defense attorney Mark Geragos filed a motion seeking a new trial. KTVU Fox 2 has learned that the motion is based upon an apparent phone conversation taped between an inmate in Modesto and his brother.
"The tape has a brother outside of jail telling the brother in jail that he had heard that people had burglarized Laci and Scott's house," said attorney Michael Cardoza, who has assisted with Peterson's defense. "(It goes on) that Laci had surprised them and that there were words between the burglars and Laci and then it went from there."
A burglary gone bad was one of many scenarios the defense floated as a possible explanation for the murders during the highly publicized seven-month-long trial.
Peterson's defense team is also busy preparing a series of appeals focusing on among other legal issues the fact that three jurors were excused during the trial.
Meanwhile, prosecutors Rick Distaso and Dave Harris had a short news conference outside the courthouse Friday, one of the few they have given since the trial began.
They said they couldn't cite a turning point during the five-month trial. Instead, they said prosecutors "stuck with the plan we had and followed it through to the end," Harris said. "It was all of the pieces."
Distaso also gave credit to their star witness, Peterson's former mistress, Amber Frey.
"She obviously was a big part of the case," Distaso said. "I think she did a good job."
If Delucchi does affirms the verdict, the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman will be sent to the state's death row at the notorious San Quentin State Prison, which overlooks the bay where prosecutors say Peterson dumped his wife's body.
He will have his own cell, he will be allowed outside in the prison yard for five hours a day and he will be offered three showers a week. Meals will be given at the same hours three times a day.
It will be Peterson's routine for decades to come as his case is appealed. Peterson will sit on death row for more than five years before he is appointed an attorney for his first and mandatory appeal to the California Supreme Court.
A big reason for the delays is that there are too many inmates with too few lawyers willing to volunteer for the relatively low-paying job. A condemned Peterson would join about 120 others who do not yet have lawyers.
And even when an attorney is appointed, there are no deadlines for California's high court to act.
Of the 38 states with the death penalty, California moves the slowest toward executions. The most active death penalty state, Texas, has executed 23 inmates this year and 336 since 1982, when executions resumed there.
California only recently executed its first inmate -- Donald Beardslee -- since 2002 and the 11th since the state resumed executions in 1992. Ironically, Beardslee was sentenced to die in the same courthouse as Peterson's verdict.
Once Peterson's state appeals are exhausted, his case would move to the federal courts, beginning with the district court and then on to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has overturned more California death sentences than it has allowed.
Of course thats just my opinion....I could be wrong. (Dennis Miller)
"You might be the toughest little whacker. . .but in my world, you're about as worrisome as a cloudy day." (Dutch Dooley)
Feb. 25, 2005 — When the jury in the Scott Peterson double murder case delivered its verdict last November, it was unanimous: guilty of murdering his wife, Laci, and the unborn child she was carrying. But it could have been a very different story.
For the first time, one of the jurors has revealed how close the case came to a mistrial.
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In an exclusive interview, John Guinasso, juror No. 8, told ABC News that the original foreman had been leading the jury in a pro-defense direction before he was dismissed one week into the panel's deliberations.
"My personal opinion is … if he was to remain on the case I think we would have had a hung jury," Guinasso told ABC News.
According to Guinasso, the foreman — an attorney and nonpracticing M.D. — told the other jurors on the first full day of deliberations that he was strongly persuaded by the defense's key witness, Dr. Charles March. March had testified that Laci's baby did not die until a few days after Laci's Christmas Eve 2002 disappearance. His testimony contradicted the prosecution's argument that Scott killed his wife and disposed of her body on or around Dec. 24, and that the fetus was later expelled from her corpse.
Most legal observers in the courtroom, however, said March fumbled badly on the stand and did not come across as credible.
Guinasso said that when other jurors challenged the foreman's opinion, he became flustered.
"At that point he told the 10 other people there 'I want off the trial. I've never been at a meeting like this in my life and there's too much hostility in the room,'" Guinasso said.
The foreman was let off the panel by the judge, after asking more than once to be excused. According to court documents, he told the judge he felt pressured by what he knew was the "popular verdict." An alternate took his place.
The jury went on to convict Peterson and then recommend that he be given the death penalty. Peterson is expected to make his first court appearance since the sentencing phase today, for a procedural hearing at the Redwood City courthouse.
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
Delta said this in post #289 : What do you think the Judge will do?
Well, Im not sure.
I have a few opinions about it though ( as if thats a surprise).
Well, I think if they did hold back that tape, then they did violate the disclosure rule and therefore a new trial should be set.
NOW..the prosecution might have investigated it and found that there was no substance to what was said on the tape, but they still were obligated to disclose it and allow the defense to investigate it also. If the defense wanted to bring it up to show doubt they could have and then the state could have countered it with their testimony about their investigation (if one was ever done)...so it is still a problem for the state.
The judge may deny it, but if he does, it will definitely go to a higher court...and its hard to say what will happen. It could go in Scott's favor though even if it has to go as far as the Supreme Court.
Personally, I still think the juror that laft could be cause for a new trial as well. Him just up and leaving after all that time, and being that he may have gotten him a hung jury, and left because he was feeling pressure...well, thats B.S. A juror who accepts that "job" should be there till the end. It certainly says something about this guy's character. He doesnt know how to fight.
It also says, to me anyway, alot about the judge, who just let him off...
This is why I think the judge will overall deny the motion, and let them take it to a higher court...he cant handle pressue either.
To me, he was doing whatever the public wanted done...and a judge who rules his court by public pressure (for political reasons) is a judge without the ethics of law.
He is there to uphold the law, not to crack under public pressure.
Anyhow...thats my answer I guess. The judge is more concerned with what the public thinks and is less concerned with the values of what the court system law is, and the state broke that when thye didnt disclose the evidence (even if it means nothing....it was still possible exculpatory evidence, and they are supposed to reveal it.
Of course thats just my opinion....I could be wrong. (Dennis Miller)
"You might be the toughest little whacker. . .but in my world, you're about as worrisome as a cloudy day." (Dutch Dooley)
What I think is that it depends on how important the evidence was.
If they didnt investigate it, this could be a problem. If they did investigate it and it turned out to be nothing, I dont think the judge will motion for a new trial.
Of course thats just my opinion....I could be wrong. (Dennis Miller)
"You might be the toughest little whacker. . .but in my world, you're about as worrisome as a cloudy day." (Dutch Dooley)
THE PETERSON TRIAL
Judge puts Peterson sentencing on hold
Defense source says a jail tape tells of Laci and burglars
Diana Walsh, Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writers
Saturday, February 26, 2005
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Scott Peterson Trial
Sentencing postponed; motion for new trial filed
- 2/26/05
Jurors tell the story of sentencing decision
- 12/16/04
Debra Saunders: Time is on Peterson's side
- 12/16/04
Dignity, parking spots return as media circus pulls up stakes
- 12/15/04
Geragos, despite loss, still likely to remain a hot legal commodity
- 12/15/04
The stuff of crime novels finally has an end
- 12/15/04
Jury recommends death for Scott Peterson
- 12/14/04
Possible routes appellate lawyers may pursue
- 12/14/04
Peterson trial page
John Guinasso came to court in Redwood City on Friday looking for closure.
The former Scott Peterson juror, the one reporters called "the Teamster" before they knew his real name, said he just wanted to see the infamous double- murder case through to its conclusion. He wanted to see whether Judge Alfred Delucchi would follow the jury's recommendation and condemn Peterson, the 32- year-old former Modesto fertilizer salesman, to die for murdering his wife, Laci, and the couple's unborn child.
But Guinasso, and the two other former jurors who attended the brief hearing, will have to wait.
Peterson's sentencing date, originally scheduled for Friday and delayed until March 11, was continued yet again to give the prosecution and defense more time to prepare.
Defense attorneys Mark Geragos and Pat Harris filed a 122-page motion asking for a new trial. Delucchi sealed the documents, saying he wouldn't make them public until the prosecution filed its response March 9.
But Michael Cardoza, a local lawyer who has been helping the defense, said Geragos had uncovered new evidence. He said a prison inmate had been caught on tape talking to his brother about a burglary at the Petersons' house in which Laci Peterson confronted the robbers. Geragos may argue that authorities withheld evidence that could have been helpful in proving that Scott Peterson was not the killer.
"Law enforcement did not turn (the recording) over," Cardoza said. "By not turning it over, they opened a Pandora's box."
Delucchi also sealed a note that Lee Peterson, Scott's father, sent to the court. Presumably, the San Diego man begs for leniency for his son. In addition, the judge is keeping under wraps 153 more letters sent by people who followed the trial -- some critical of how the case was handled and others supportive.
"Right now, I don't want to poison the atmosphere by allowing the letters to become public,'' Delucchi said.
For five months, as the world watched the case from afar while the cable networks reported its every twist and turn, Guinasso and his 11 fellow jurors had a front-row seat to the macabre soap opera. And it took its toll.
"There's not a day that I don't think about the case," said the 43-year- old parking garage supervisor and member of the Teamsters union, who lives in Pacifica. "The autopsy pictures were pretty horrific, and how the victims' bodies were found was terrible."
Laci Peterson's headless corpse was discovered on the Richmond shoreline four months after she was reported missing from her Modesto home on Dec. 24, 2002. The body of her unborn baby was found a day earlier in the same area.
Guinasso said the panel's deliberations in the penalty phase of the case were so emotionally draining that by the end, one of the jurors, a Roman Catholic, walked to a corner of the room and began praying. Another, according to Guinasso, was so traumatized that she confessed to the group that she had accidentally killed her own child by backing over him in her driveway.
Coming to the final hearings, Guinasso said, is like therapy.
"It's a stepping-stone toward closure," he said.
So was the dinner that Guinasso and nine other former jurors had last month at the Canyon Inn in Redwood City with members of Laci Peterson's family and the prosecutors. The family thanked them profusely for their service and recapped some of the case with the jurors.
Guinasso said he planned to be there until the very end. Other members of the panel told the former juror that they planned to be there, too.
But no matter what happens to Peterson, Guinasso doubts he will ever know the answer to his biggest question about the case -- "why?"
E
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
The articles that Ihave been able to find say Nada about this. Do you remember anything.? i seem to somewhere, sometime during. in, the trial but its been a few thousand posts a go if you know what I mean. Geese.!!
Hey I would love to have Scott to pick on again. Hee Hee
Did you catch the stuff on Jon Bonet Ramsey?
D Miss U
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
Delta said this in post #295 : The articles that Ihave been able to find say Nada about this. Do you remember anything.? i seem to somewhere, sometime during. in, the trial but its been a few thousand posts a go if you know what I mean. Geese.!!
Hey I would love to have Scott to pick on again. Hee Hee
Did you catch the stuff on Jon Bonet Ramsey?
D Miss U
I did read some of that post on Jon Benet...but I didnt read it thoroughly...I will though!
I dont remember anything about this tape..and no one would remember anything about it because its something was obviously was never brought up..(thats why they are stating that it was never disclosed)....no one but the DA and officers knew about it.
So it wont be in the past posts....I was just stating if there was any info about it in the newest articles about it recently.
Of course thats just my opinion....I could be wrong. (Dennis Miller)
"You might be the toughest little whacker. . .but in my world, you're about as worrisome as a cloudy day." (Dutch Dooley)
Did you catch the Mêlée between the Peterson's and the Reporters?
bot family;ies were moving furniture and other items pit the house as it is going up for sale IN a few weeks.
Mrs.Peterson came out and told the reporters to tell the truth and /Scott would not be in prison.
She looked better then we have seen her for awhile. climbing in and out of the U Haul. Geese, seeing stuff like ironing boards and bedroom furniture being moved was so creepy.
As soon as the Rocha's heard the Peterson's were there they scampered over to protect their half.
What a shame.
Oh Mystic I owe you a big one Hee Hee
D
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
I saw Anne Bird Scotts half Sister on Hannity and Colmes the other night.
Guess what? She has written a Book. Surprise! Surprise.! Its called 33 Reasons why Scott killed Laci or something like that.
On H and C show she never said anything I mean anything that was new or interesting. And guess who her Atorney is? You got it Gloria
there should be a Law that people can not gain on the backof someone elses problems. But that would never fly i guess.
Oh well on to the Next chapter, Mark will write a book, Cardoza will write a book the Judge will write a book Marlene has already writen a book... GEESE!!!
Maybe Mystic and me can write one called DAY BY DAY the real true story of the Trail of Scott Peterson Hee Hee.
D
aka deltacent aka deltater
Life may not be the party I had hoped for.......
But while I'm here I might just as well listen to the music and dance..
02-25-2005 10:07 PM
oh its so fun to talk about this case> BTW did you see the new sruff on JonBenet Ramsey?
as if thats a surprise).
