July 7 CALIFORNIA: Peterson jurors see pictures of remains Prosecutors have abruptly changed the direction of their double-murder case against Scott Peterson after last week's questioning of witnesses about his affair. The move seemed to highlight a shift in the prosecution's strategy to focus more on the murder than on Peterson's seemingly odd behavior in the days before and after his pregnant wife vanished. Testimony this week turned to the discovery of Peterson's dead wife and the couple's fetus along the shore of San Francisco Bay. Elena Gonzalez testified she found Laci Peterson's body mostly just a torso half-submerged in the water along a rocky embankment. Gonzalez, who resumed her testimony Wednesday, said she saw a dog sniffing around the remains. Jurors on Tuesday appeared distressed as prosecutors displayed pictures of Laci's remains and the couple's fetus. Peterson, charged with both deaths, did not look at the large screen where the pictures were displayed. Laci's parents, who have been present throughout the trial, left the courtroom. Michael Looby testified he and his wife were walking their dog along the shore of San Francisco Bay on April 13, 2003, when he came upon a body in a marshy area. "It was a body of a small baby," Looby said, adding he and his wife walked to a nearby home and asked the residents to call 911. The body of Laci Peterson washed ashore a day later, not far from where the fetus was found. Last week, prosecutors focused on witnesses who testified about Peterson's affair with a massage therapist. Peterson's affair, according to the government, drove him to kill his pregnant wife on or around Dec. 24, 2002. They say he then dumped her body in San Francisco Bay. The defense contends someone else abducted her near their Modesto home as she walked her dog, held her captive before killing her and dumped her body to frame Peterson. Defense attorney Mark Geragos questioned 2 police officers who responded to the scene where the fetus was found. He pursued his theory that the fetus was killed after birth. "Did you notice ... what appeared to be some tape or twine around the baby's neck?" Geragos asked Officer Tod Opdyke, using hand gestures to motion in a manner as if he was tying something around his own neck. Opdyke called it "tapelike substance." Geragos has previously charged that the fetus had something physically tied around its neck. Prosecutors say it was simply debris from the water. Geragos then asked Officer Timothy Gard if he found anything in the area that resembled the tape or twine "tied" around the fetus' neck. "No," Gard replied. Prosecutors objected to the use of the word "tied." Judge Alfred Delucchi said he would leave it up to jurors to determine whether the material was tied around the fetus' neck or simply wrapped. Earlier in the day, California Department of Justice polygraph expert Douglas Mansfield testified he interviewed Peterson on Dec. 25, 2002, the day after Laci vanished. Mansfield said Peterson told him neither he nor Laci were having an affair and called his marriage fine. On cross-examination, Mansfield described Peterson as "very cooperative" during the interview that lasted about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Mansfield was identified to the jury only as a state Justice Department employee and the context of his questioning of Peterson that day was not made clear in court. Polygraph examinations are generally not admissible as evidence. (source: Associated Press) TEXAS: High court blocks execution of killer who chanted rock lyrics The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the scheduled execution of a man convicted of a murder nearly 20 years ago. Troy Kunkle, 38, was set for lethal injection Wednesday night for fatally shooting a Corpus Christi man during a robbery there when he was an 18-year-old high school student in San Antonio. The court issued an indefinite stay. Kunkle's appeal before the high court contended jurors who deliberated his death sentence were not allowed to properly consider his drug and alcohol abuse history and that he was on drugs and alcohol the night of Aug. 12, 1984, when Steven Horton, 29, was shot in the head and robbed of $13. "Evidence demonstrated that Mr. Kunkle was the product of a troubled and turbulent home environment, including parents who had been medically treated for depression, which would naturally have left him psychologically and emotionally scarred," his appeal said. Kunkle's rights to due process also were violated when his trial judge refused to allow his appeals lawyers to have a state-paid full transcript of nearly 6 days' worth of questioning of potential jurors, his appeal said. The Texas attorney general's office, contesting the appeals, accused Kunkle's lawyers of "trawling ... the record for possible errors" in the jury selection questioning. State lawyers also contended that if jurors believed Kunkle's drug and alcohol use and home environment were mitigating factors, they could have expressed that in their answers to questions that determined punishment. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles earlier this week rejected requests that his sentence be commuted to life or he be given a 6-month reprieve. According to evidence at his capital murder trial, Kunkle, after shooting Horton, said: "Another day, another death, another sorrow, another breath." The words are lyrics from a song called "No Remorse" from an album "Kill 'Em All" by the heavy metal rock group Metallica. Kunkle declined to speak with reporters in the weeks preceding his execution date but told the San Antonio Express-News in 1996 his life was transformed while on death row thanks to prison religious ministers. "I feel better about myself now," he said. "I get along better with others, which I had a problem with in the past. ... But I do think about my victim every day." Kunkle and four friends got high on LSD and marijuana and were drinking large amounts of beer when they decided to drive from San Antonio to the beach at Corpus Christi, 140 miles to the southeast. Court records show they robbed a man of $7 at a convenience store, then drove around Corpus Christi looking for someone else to rob. Horton was walking home after playing pool at a bar and the youths offered him a ride. When he got into their car, testimony showed Kunkle urged one of his companions to shoot Horton. When the friend refused, Kunkle grabbed the .22-caliber pistol. As they drove behind a skating rink, Horton was shot in the back of the head. His body was pushed out of the car and his wallet taken. Kunkle, identified as the shooter, and his friends were arrested later back in San Antonio. "I can't forgive him," Horton's mother, Mary, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in a story published this week. "He had no reason to do that. ... I guess the worst thing is it was a senseless murder." Kunkle's girlfriend, Lora Lee Zaiontz, received a life prison term. 2 others received 30-year sentences for murder and have since been released from prison. No charges were filed against a fifth person in the car. Kunkle, whose father was in the military, was born in Germany and was almost a teenager before he moved to the United States. (source: Dallas Morning News)
