Posted on 01/20/2004 5:48:01 AM PST by runningbear
Prosecutors favor Santa Clara County location for murder trial
Posted on Mon, Jan. 19, 2004
Prosecutors favor Santa Clara County location for murder trial
By Brian Anderson
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Scott Peterson's prosecutors have urged a Stanislaus County judge to move the upcoming trial to the Bay Area's Santa Clara County, but also have asked that Sacramento County be considered.
In court documents released over the weekend, prosecutor David Harris said Santa Clara County in the South Bay has a large enough jury pool, is close to Modesto and has had less media coverage of the disappearance and slaying of Laci Peterson and her unborn son.
Harris compared Santa Clara County to Alameda, Orange and San Mateo counties, which the state Administrative Office of the Courts suggested could host the trial of Scott Peterson on charges accusing him of killing his wife.
Harris said prosecutors preferred San Mateo second followed by Alameda and Orange counties. He added, however, that Orange should be excluded from the list because costs associated with flying in upward of 175 expected witnesses, among other things, would be huge.
Harris also asked Judge Al Girolami to once again consider holding the trial in Sacramento County. At a hearing earlier this month, Girolami eliminated that location along with other San Joaquin Valley counties, saying there has been too much publicity surrounding the case there.
But new evidence suggested that a poll cited by defense attorneys in their request to change the trial venue was fabricated. Students of a California State University professor who oversaw the study have told reporters for the Modesto Bee that they made up the results.
The study, a class project that accounted for 20 percent of a final grade, had indicated Scott Peterson could not be tried in front of a fair and impartial jury in Central Valley counties, such as Merced, Fresno, Sacramento and Stanislaus.
Professor Stephen Schoenthaler has been subpoenaed to a Tuesday court hearing in Modesto, where the judge and lawyers are expected to address the issue. A final decision on where to move the trial also is anticipated.
Laci Peterson vanished Dec. 24, 2002 and was later.......
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Peterson Prosecutors Make Santa Clara Co. Top Choice
Peterson Prosecutors Make Santa Clara Co. Top Choice
Harris Says Orange County Should Not Be Considered
POSTED: 10:39 PM PST January 19, 2004
MODESTO, Calif. -- Prosecutors say in court papers that if Scott Peterson's capital murder trial can't be held in Stanislaus or Sacramento counties, they would prefer that it be held in Santa Clara County.
A document filed by Stanislaus County Senior Deputy District Attorney David Harris late Friday does not say why he prefers Santa Clara County over Alameda and San Mateo counties, the two other Bay Area counties that Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami is considering as venues for Peterson's trial.
Harris said only that San Mateo is his second choice and Alameda is his third. Orange County also is being considered, but Harris said it should be rejected because it's too far away.
Girolami will hold a hearing in his courtroom in Modesto Tuesday morning on the issue of where Peterson should be tried on charges that he murdered his wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son, Connor, in the early morning hours of Christmas Eve 2002. If convicted, Peterson faces the death penalty.
Earlier this month, Girolami said the trial shouldn't be held in Stanislaus or Sacramento counties because the nationally watched case has received so much publicity there that Peterson could not receive a fair trial.
The state Administrative Office of the Courts has suggested that the trial could be moved to Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in the Bay Area as well as to Orange County.
Peterson's defense lawyer, Mark Geragos of Los Angeles, hasn't said which of those four counties is his first choice.
In his court filing, Harris said Orange County is the most distant site of the four, as the possible site in Santa Ana is 340 miles away from the Stanislaus County courthouse in Modesto.
The proposed site in Alameda County, in Oakland, is the closest at a distance of 81 miles, followed by the San Jose site in Santa Clara County at 87.2 miles and the Redwood City site in San Mateo County at 88.4 miles.
Harris said Girolami should reject Orange County as a possible site because of the distance issue, saying that county is "cost prohibitive" and would "pose an undue hardship to witnesses and citizens of Stanislaus County."
The prosecutor said San Mateo seems to have had the least amount of media coverage of the counties being considered, while Alameda and Orange seem to have had the most.
In a separate but related motion, Harris asked Girolami to reconsider his decision to move the trial out of Stanislaus County because of new evidence suggesting that a poll defense attorneys cited in their change-of-venue request was fabricated.
Students of a California State University, Stanislaus professor who oversaw the study have said that they made up the results because of time and money pressures.
The study claimed that Peterson could not get a fair and impartial jury in Central Valley counties, including Merced, Fresno, Sacramento and Stanislaus counties.
However, when Girolami made his ruling he said the primary factor in his decision was media coverage and that the survey was used only in part to help him make his choice.
Harris' motion says an unidentified witness has come forward to tell prosecutors that she has known the professor who oversaw the study for a long time, has worked for him for a number of years and "has personal knowledge of the professor falsifying research data in the past." ..........
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Going Postal
A&E's Between the Lines is a slow-going treat for epistolary geeks.
Going Postal
A&E's Between the Lines is a slow-going treat for epistolary geeks.
By Dana Stevens
Posted Monday, Jan. 19, 2004, at 4:04 PM PT
By what felicitous gift of gab did the developers of Between the Lines (Fridays, 10 p.m. ET) manage to convince the money people to throw down for a four-part miniseries consisting entirely of celebrities reading aloud from the correspondence of famous people? A&E's new series, an investigation of letters throughout history, hosted by Robert Downey Jr., originates from a belief in the power of the written word—not exactly a box-office goldmine. I can see the concept working on PBS or C-SPAN, but this is Arts & Entertainment, the channel whose January lineup has already given us the baffling new reality show Airline, as well as tonight's thoughtful one-hour special Who Killed Laci Peterson? As the national attention span grows ever shorter, the epistolary nerd in me—the one who still sends the occasional paper letter and bids on typewriters on eBay—finds something irresistible about the singularly poky prospect of watching Hilary Clinton don reading glasses and dip into Eleanor Roosevelt's mailbag. (And on a Friday night, yet!)
Unfortunately, like a wallflower ......
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Judge to decide Peterson trial location
Laci Peterson
Judge to decide Peterson trial location
A hearing will be held Tuesday in Modesto, California, to decide where to conduct the murder trial for Scott Peterson. A judge has ruled that Peterson couldn't get a fair trial in his hometown because of pre-trial publicity. He's accused of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn child. A court administrator has suggested four other possible locations. Prosecutors prefer Santa Clara County if the judge doesn't reconsider Sacramento. Other possibilities are Alameda, Orange and San Mateo counties. Prosecutors say they have several hundred witnesses and the cost of transporting them to Orange County in Southern California could be nearly 100-thousand dollars. Defense attorney Mark Geragos has said repeatedly that he wanted Los Angeles County, where he practices. ........
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(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
San Mateo County Returns Shall Gray Davis be Recalled? Yes 80,109 37.2 No 135,210 62.8 Candidates to succeed GRAY DAVIS as Governor if he is recalled: Cruz M. Bustamante Dem 86,854 44.5 Arnold Schwarzenegger Rep 68,191 35.0 Tom McClintock Rep 23,454 12.1
Geragos predicts they'll be ready for trial by mid February. I don't know if he meant they will then begin the jury process or the actual trial will begin. Legal eagles are saying it would benefit Geragos to go to trial immediately because a delay will give the prosecutors more time to find additional evidence.
Thanks for the ping runningbear.
THAT'S IT! If they end up with a panel full of liberals, the prosecution needs to play up the "abusive male" stereotype! That'll nail Scott! After all, violence against women is unapproachable!
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