We, the Jury: Deciding the Scott Peterson Case by Mike Belmessieri & Dennis Lear & Greg Beratlis & Tom Marino & Julie Zanartu & Frank Swertlow & Richelle Nice & John Guinasso & Lyndon Stambler

Author:Mike Belmessieri & Dennis Lear & Greg Beratlis & Tom Marino & Julie Zanartu & Frank Swertlow & Richelle Nice & John Guinasso & Lyndon Stambler [Belmessieri, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Phoenix Books
Published: 2007-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10:

A STONE COLD DEFENSE

“We gave Scott the fairest trial he could have had. He was innocent in all our eyes until the evidence proved him to be stone cold guilty.”

—Richelle Nice, Juror No. 7

Mark Geragos was sauntering through the hallways of the Redwood City Courthouse, when a reporter asked if he was going to put on a defense after the prosecution rested its case. Fond of recalling some advice his father, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, liked to give him, he quipped, “Rarely does the defense case get better after the prosecution rests.”

He should have taken pop’s advice.

But it was too late. Geragos already promised the jury during his opening statements that he would show that his client Scott Peterson was “stone cold innocent,” and after nearly five months, the jury awaited his defense of a man whom he called “a cad,” but not a murderer.

If someone wanted to rope an albatross around the neck of the jurors, Geragos could not have picked a better gambit than one in which he promised to prove Peterson didn’t kill his wife.

“Stone cold innocent. Well, I had a feeling that Mr. G was going to show us that Scott did not have anything to do with the murders,” Richelle Nice said. “He really made me think okay, good, we will find out that someone else did it.”

Geragos, who had pounded away at prosecution witnesses, made a lot of other promises to the jurors during his opening remarks. He said he would show that Peterson’s wife, Laci, was kidnapped and kept alive until Conner was born and then killed by her abductors, who, it was suggested, might be Satanists. He promised the jury he would present eyewitnesses who would say they saw Laci alive on the day she was supposed to have been murdered.

The jury waited to see Geragos pull his rabbits out of his fedora. And wait they did as the defense attorney began calling his witnesses to bolster his promises.

“I just kept waiting all the way to closing statements,” Nice said. “Okay, here it comes. He just ended up giving me pieces of the puzzle that didn’t fit right into place. We gave Scott the fairest trial he could have had. He was innocent in all our eyes, until the evidence proved him to be stone cold guilty.”

How did this happen? Geragos could do nothing wrong in the opening months of the trial during which he shredded prosecution witnesses and turned them into his witnesses. His sheer presence had kept visitors in the gallery from dozing off during the prosecution’s case. But after Amber Frey and Det. Craig Grogan and his 41 Reasons, the prosecution had steadied its case and chugged forward.

Some legal analysts believe that despite Geragos’ optimistic opening statement, he should have rested his case and offered no defense at all, announcing that the prosecution from Modesto had failed to meet the burden of proof for a murder conviction. For months, Geragos skirted the issue of putting Peterson on the stand.