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Toobin: Peterson hearing 'off and crawling'
MODESTO, California (CNN) -- Scott Peterson was in court Wednesday for a hearing in which evidence against him was revealed. Peterson is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son. He has pleaded innocent to the charges. He could face the death penalty if convicted. CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was in the courtroom, and spoke to CNN anchor Paula Zahn about the day's events. ZAHN: Now, I understand those of you who were observing what went on today got a pretty good idea of what the government's case against Scott Peterson might look like. What are the outlines of that case? TOOBIN: Well, I think it's fair to say that the government's case is off and crawling. We didn't move very quickly today. But the focus was on DNA evidence. The only witness today was an FBI scientist, who was testifying about the mitochondrial DNA, which concerns the DNA of hair. And the key issue here is, a hair was found on a pliers in Scott's boat. And the government is attempting to show that that hair belonged to Laci, the theory being that Scott killed his wife with the pliers in the boat and then dumped her body in San Francisco Bay. That's where the government appears to be going, but it's not going there very fast. ZAHN: And there was a lot of argument about just how effective this kind of testing is, right? TOOBIN: Right. This is not the kind of DNA that most people are familiar with, with blood, where there's PCR-RFLP. Those are the familiar kinds of DNA. This is a DNA that deals mostly with hair, which has not been tested as much by the courts. It actually came up in the Westerfield case in San Diego. They used it, but it hasn't been as familiar a part of the court system as the other kinds of DNA. And so Mark Geragos, the lawyer for Scott Peterson, has been challenging whether this is actually a legitimate, useful, reliable kind of DNA. ZAHN: What was Scott Peterson's demeanor like? TOOBIN: Well, it's interesting, Paula. A lot of times, when you see people who have been in jail for several months, they start to look drawn. They start to look tired. They start to sort of look physically diminished. Scott Peterson didn't look that way. I thought he looked pretty healthy and still looked pretty robust. His hair -- we have followed the color of his hair very closely. It seems to have gone back to its original brown. He's no longer a bleached blond. But he looks like he's bearing up pretty well and he's following this case very closely. His family is arrayed there behind him. Laci's family, the Rochas, are there, too. It's certainly tense between the two of them. But Scott Peterson looks pretty good for a guy who has been in jail for several months now. ZAHN: And how long could this all drag on? TOOBIN: Drag on, I think that's the right term. We were told five days. From the looks of things, I would say 10 days is more likely. But, here in California, where the Red Cross is doing such wonderful work helping out with the fires, amazingly enough, there was a Red Cross disaster relief truck in the press compound here. The sheriff said the press apparently needs some disaster relief. So they were giving us coffee and doughnuts. And so the press is grateful to the Red Cross here, as we are where they're fighting fires.
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