Panel Discusses Peterson's Sentencing Phase
KOPPEL: Unless the California Supreme Court intervenes, the penalty phase of Scott Peterson's murder trial begins next week in Redwood City. Before the same jury that convicted him two weeks ago. But the trial judge and an appeals court have rejected defense motions to move the penalty phase out of Redwood City and to pick a new jury to decide Peterson's sentence. Now the defense wants the state Supreme Court to hear those motions. The Peterson case is the focus of today's legal discussion. Joining us from Cleveland to discuss the case is civil rights attorney and law professor Avery Friedman. Mr. Friedman, what will the prosecution and the defense strategy be going into the sentencing phase?</s>AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, that assumes, of course Andrea that the Supreme Court will deny Mark Geragos relief and I think that's likely. So what we're looking to see starting on Tuesday will be the prosecution introducing evidence of the effect of the crime, the effect of the murder on family and others. Among the evidence or part of the evidence, Andrea, will be forensic scientists who will testify about, among other things, the pain that Laci Peterson experienced in the death as well as the pain of the fetus. So this is going to be very, very dramatic, heart wrenching testimony. And what we're going to see from the defense will be efforts to minimize or mitigate that evidence by introducing, for example, testimony of Scott's parents who will say, in so many words, he's a good boy. He shouldn't be executed.</s>KOPPEL: Now, Scott Peterson won't go and speak before the jury, isn't that correct?</s>FRIEDMAN: No.</s>KOPPEL: And explain why he can't do that.</s>FRIEDMAN: Well, he's not going to testify. The purpose of this penalty phase is for the jury to consider mitigation factors. The difficulty here is Scott has taken the position that he is innocent of the crimes. His appeal will essentially deal with his innocence and the error by Judge Al Dellucci at the trial level. As a result of it, there's no way that the jury is going to hear from Scott Peterson on the question of remorse. Scott can't say that he's remorseful because of course Andrea he's saying I didn't commit the crime.</s>KOPPEL: What about the type of sentence that the prosecution is likely to push for? Do we have any sense as to whether it's going to be life in prison or the death sentence?</s>FRIEDMAN: Well, I think the reality is that the district attorney here, Andrea, is looking for death penalty. The prosecution is trying to show is that this is a heinous crime. There are not factors that would warrant a life sentence and that death is appropriate here. On the other hand, Mark Geragos will advance factors which the jury will consider and whether or not death penalty will be appropriate. But he's got a very, very tough task here, Andrea, because there is really very little evidence he can put in other than family who loves Scott and basically says he shouldn't die.</s>KOPPEL: Mr. Friedman, we've got our next guest who we thought might not make it, but I understand that Richard Herman, who is a criminal defense attorney --</s>RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Has finally shown up.</s>KOPPEL: Has finally shown up so we are going to give you a couple of minutes.</s>HERMAN: Holy smokes.</s>KOPPEL: I'm sure the traffic was terrible. Mr. Herman what do you want to tell us about the strategy that Scott Peterson's attorney is likely to take.</s>HERMAN: Well, Andrea, I'm sure Geragos has hired a mitigation team. These are teams composed of various experts in this particular area who he's working with to try to somehow help him persuade this jury not to give him the death penalty. But the bottom line is this, they will have a prison expert get up and testify for the defense. This person will tell this jury what prison life is like for Scott and what he has to look forward to and the fact that he's never getting out of prison. Now you know the Lee Boyd Malvo, the sniper case and the Terry Nichols Oklahoma bombing case. In all those cases the juries did not vote for the death penalty. That's all that Peterson can hope for, is that one juror, one juror holds out and, therefore, he does not get the death penalty.</s>FRIEDMAN: Not going to happen.</s>KOPPEL: But even if he were to get it Mr. Herman, isn't it true that in California people will be on death row perhaps for the rest of their lives, that the chances of there actually being executed are slim to none.</s>HERMAN: Andrea, that's 100 percent accurate. I think of the 600- some-odd cases in California where the juries came back to kill the particular defendants, I think only six or seven actually received execution. So I don't think that even if he gets the death penalty, there will be 20, 30 years of appeals. We probably won't ever see the day that Scott actually gets killed by the state.</s>KOPPEL: Mr. Friedman, because you showed up on time, I'll give you the last word.</s>HERMAN: He did this to me. He did this to me again.</s>FREIDMAN: It was difficult to create the roadblock, Andrea. Go ahead.</s>KOPPEL: I was just going to ask you if you have a closing thought or you know why trials have separate sentencing phases from the rest of the case.</s>FRIEDMAN: Here it is in a nutshell. The jury recoiled from some of the evidence. Watch what happens starting on Tuesday. They don't know what they're going to be experiencing. This will tear their hearts out. It will be heart rendering for the jury. My prediction is that they're going to render a death penalty verdict. It's not going to be life if prison. That's what's going to happen here in the Scott Peterson case.</s>HERMAN: Andrea, the rules of evidence don't apply. Hearsay is admissible. It is going to be devastating testimony next week.</s>FRIEDMAN: That's right.</s>KOPPEL: Richard Herman, criminal defense attorney, I understand it was a studio problem. I unfairly maligned you.</s>FRIEDMAN: No, it wasn't unfair. It was very appropriate.</s>HERMAN: It was sabotaged by Mr. Friedman again.</s>FRIEDMAN: That's exactly why. Wait till next week.</s>KOPPEL: Avery Friedman, thank you both.</s>HERMAN: Nice to see you, Andrea. Take care.</s>KOPPEL: A trekie takes his dedication to a cult classic to a whole new level. How one man's labor of love is getting "Star Trek" fans a whole new way to enjoy Captain Kirk and Spock.