Sept. 8
CALIFORNIA:
Police testify on Peterson tips
Prosecutors in Scott Peterson's murder trial sought Tuesday to counter
defense claims that police were so eager to charge their client with his
wife's killing that they ignored other credible tips.
2 investigators testified that in the weeks after Laci Peterson vanished
they pursued a tip that the pregnant schoolteacher was held in a rural
area about 30 miles from her hometown.
Modesto police officer Eric Beffa testified about an anonymous tip
received in early January 2003, weeks after the disappearance, that
Peterson was being held captive near the suburb of Tracy.
Beffa quoted from a report: "They have a pregnant woman there and he
states he recognizes her to be Laci. ... He doesn't want the reward money;
he just wants her to be found."
He and a San Joaquin County sheriff's deputy, Paul Mears, testified that
they and other law enforcement personnel responded to the area but were
unable to find any sign of the woman, despite a 4-day search.
Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his wife in their Modesto home on or
around December 24, 2002, then drove to San Francisco Bay and dumped her
body.
The remains of Laci Peterson and the couple's fetus washed ashore in April
2003, not far from where Peterson set out for what he claims was a solo
fishing trip that Christmas Eve morning.
Defense lawyers contend someone else abducted and killed Laci, then framed
their client after learning of his widely publicized alibi.
As the trial entered its 15th week, prosecutors prepared to introduce
evidence they say places Laci Peterson on the boat police allege Scott
Peterson used to dispose of her body.
A pair of pliers found on the boat contained a strand of hair that
prosecutors claim DNA testing indicates likely came from Laci Peterson.
It's their only piece of potential physical evidence linking Laci to the
boat police claim she never knew her husband had purchased.
Sarah Yoshida, a state criminalist, testified Tuesday that she found no
signs of blood or tissue on 2 pairs of Peterson's pliers seized by police.
Under cross-examination, she said the pliers were rusty and showed no
signs of recent use.
Outside court, Peterson's parents and Laci's parents appeared to have the
1st verbal confrontation of the trial.
Laci's stepfather, Ron Grantski, has spoken out previously about how
ridiculous it is that Peterson went fishing on Christmas Eve, when
Grantski himself would later testify that he, too, went fishing alone that
morning.
"Where did you go fishing?" Peterson's father, Lee, said to Grantski on
Tuesday as the families left the courtroom.
"You come down here and I'll tell you where I went fishing," Grantski
replied sternly, heading down the courthouse escalator.
(source: Associated Press)
*********************
Pliers found in Peterson's boat showed rust, witness testifies
Needle-nose pliers found in the bottom of Scott Peterson's boat during the
investigation into his wife's disappearance were so rusty that a forensic
expert charged with testing the tool had difficulty opening it, according
to testimony in the double-murder trial this morning.
Investigators testified earlier in the trial that a hair they believed to
be a match for Laci Peterson was lodged into the teeth of the pliers.
Scott Peterson reported his wife missing Dec. 24, 2002, and police turned
up the pliers and the hair during a search of his boat 3 days later.
Sarah Yoshida, a forensic analyst, said that when she began examining the
pliers for Modesto police two months after the 8-months-pregnant woman
disappeared, it was so badly corroded that she had trouble prying it
apart.
Modesto police asked Yoshida to test the pliers and another pair of wire
cutters found on the boat to see if either had been used to cut chicken
wire also turned up during the search. Chicken wire was found in the back
of Peterson's truck, but jurors have not been told its significance.
Yoshida testified that tests she conducted Feb. 23, 2003, showed neither
pair had been used recently to cut anything. However, she said that the
rust on the pliers could have been caused by exposure to salt water and
may have developed quickly. She noted that when she examined the needle-
nose pliers nearly a month after her original tests, the tool appeared to
have developed even more corrosion.
The forensic expert also testified that she saw no signs of blood or human
tissue on the pliers.
"Neither of these tools had any signs of recent use whatsoever?" defense
attorney Mark Geragos asked.
"Correct," responded Yoshida.
Peterson, 31, a Modesto fertilizer salesman, is being tried in Redwood
City on charges that he murdered Laci Peterson and the couple's unborn
son. He could face the death penalty of convicted.
Prosecutors believe Peterson killed his wife at the couple's Modesto home,
towed her body in his newly purchased boat to the Berkeley Marina on Dec.
24, 2002, and dumped her body in San Francisco Bay. Peterson reported Laci
Peterson missing after returning from what he told police was a day of
fishing for sturgeon on the bay.
The woman's body and that of the Petersons' unborn son washed up on the
Richmond shoreline nearly 4 months after she disappeared.
(source: San Francisco Chronicle)
VIRGINIA----impending execution
Killer's execution is set for tomorrow----He is contesting lethal
injection as cruel and unusual punishment
James Edward Reid is scheduled to die for killing Annie Lester on Oct. 12,
1996.
A handyman who beat and stabbed to death an 87-year-old Christiansburg
woman is scheduled to be executed tomorrow night.
Unless Gov. Mark R. Warner or the courts intervene, James Edward Reid, 58,
will die by injection - a method of execution he is fighting - at the
Greensville Correctional Center.
There is little doubt of Reid's guilt or the savageness of the crime.
Using a can of condensed milk and a pair of scissors, a drunken Reid
murdered Annie Lester in her lifelong home on Oct. 12, 1996. She had been
stabbed 22 times and struck in the head with the milk can. One stab wound
punctured a lung, another her heart.
Shortly after the slaying, Reid, a brain-damaged alcoholic, was seen
leaving the area of Lester's home with blood on his jacket. A witness said
he smelled like a "brewery."
DNA from Lester's blood was found on Reid's clothing, and his bloody
fingerprints were on her telephone.
Reid won a stay of execution last December alleging that the way Virginia
conducts lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. But on
Aug. 11, the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out the stay, and the new execution
date was set.
Reid took his case back to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
yesterday, said Rob Lee of the Virginia Capital Representation Resource
Center, who is one of Reid's lawyers.
"Our claim is about the risk that the inmate will become conscious during
the execution," Lee said. The 1st of 3 drugs administered in lethal
injection is supposed to render the condemned unconscious.
Reid's lawyers say there is a possibility that the inmate is conscious and
suffering pain when a 3rd drug is injected that stops the heartbeat.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson held that "there is simply
no reason to believe the speculative list of horribles described by Reid
are likely to come to pass."
Reid also has a clemency petition before Warner. Reid declined to be
interviewed yesterday.
Ellen Qualls, spokeswoman for the governor, said a supplement to the
clemency petition was recently filed.
In December, when Reid had another execution date, his current lawyers
argued to Warner that because of incompetence by Reid's trial lawyers, no
court ever heard evidence that Reid could not be found guilty of capital
murder.
Evidence about Reid's drinking and other problems were presented as
mitigating evidence in the penalty phase of the capital-murder trial.
Reid's current lawyers argue that the evidence should have been used in
the guilt or innocence phase of the trial because it presented a viable
defense.
That was because Reid was so intoxicated and prone to violent rages that
he could not form the necessary premeditation or intent to commit capital
murder, they argue.
His trial lawyers advised Reid to plead guilty to capital murder and not
put up a defense, leaving his fate in the hands of the judge.
His execution would be the 5th in Virginia this year and 94th since the
U.S. Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976. Only Texas, with
325 executions, has put more people to death since 1976.
(source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)
**********************
Muhammad Cites Proof of Rule Violation
Lawyers for sniper John Allen Muhammad said yesterday they have written
proof that their client's right to a speedy trial in Fairfax County was
violated. Prosecutors immediately produced their own document and demanded
a hearing.
At issue is the date of Muhammad's formal "arrest" on capital murder
charges in Fairfax -- part of numerous charges filed against Muhammad in
the October 2002 Washington area sniper slayings. Under Virginia law, a
jailed defendant must be tried within five months of being arrested.
Lawyers in the case have written 10 briefs on the subject. Fairfax Circuit
Court Judge Jonathan C. Thacher, who is considering the issue, said last
week that he would decide soon whether the capital murder charges in
Fairfax should be dismissed.
Muhammad, 43, and Lee Boyd Malvo, 19, were arrested Oct. 24, 2002. Within
days, authorities in Virginia, Maryland and the District filed murder
charges against the pair. Muhammad was shipped to Prince William County on
Nov. 7, 2002, for his 1st prosecution; Malvo went to Fairfax.
Muhammad's attorneys noted that he was indicted in Fairfax on Nov. 6,
2002, and was available for proceedings there once he was jailed in
Virginia. The defense argues that Muhammad's 5-month speedy trial clock
began ticking as soon as Fairfax sent a "detainer" notice to Prince
William. The lawyers cited a 1993 Virginia appeals court ruling that a
detainer sent from one county to another effectively served as an arrest.
The defense documents filed Friday and released yesterday show that
Fairfax police did not fax a copy of Muhammad's indictment and bench
warrant to Prince William until Jan. 6 of this year, after Muhammad had
been convicted and sentenced to death in the Prince William case.
The jail's records show that a teletype was also received from Fairfax on
that date seeking to detain Muhammad.
Muhammad was not brought before Thacher until June 22, more than 5 months
after the fax was sent from Fairfax. Defense lawyers Peter D. Greenspun
and Jonathan Shapiro believe that, regardless of when the detainer was
served, Muhammad entered Virginia custody in November 2002 and had the
right to begin his Fairfax proceedings then.
Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said last week that
the detainer sent by police was merely a request to be notified if
Muhammad were to be released, not a formal arrest. He also said that
officers in the Prince William jail are not sworn deputies and do not have
the power to serve warrants.
Greenspun mocked that logic in one brief, saying it turned the detainer
into a mere request for a phone call from Muhammad's jailers asking: "We
have this detainer. Do you really want him on this bench warrant for
capital murder or should we just let him go?"
Greenspun also said in a brief that the acting superintendent of the
Prince William jail, Maj. Charles Land, told him that his jail officers do
have full arrest powers.
Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh maintained in a response
brief that the jailers cannot serve arrest warrants. He said Fairfax did
not formally arrest Muhammad until May of this year, when Muhammad was
served while on death row in Sussex, Va. Morrogh asked Thacher to hold a
hearing on the issue Sept. 22.
Late yesterday, Morrogh filed another jail document showing that "the jail
was instructed not to serve a detainer from Fairfax on the defendant."
(source: Washington Post)
