Toobin: Peterson displays matter-of-fact demeanor
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CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin
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An FBI forensics expert reports on controversial DNA test results. CNN's Rusty Dornin reports.
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MODESTO, California (CNN) -- Testimony is set to resume Monday in the preliminary hearing for Scott Peterson. Peterson is accused of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn son.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin talked Monday with Anchor Bill Hemmer about the hearing so far and what he expects to see in court.
TOOBIN: Well, I think we will be returning to the single strand of hair that so far has been at the center of this case, a hair found on pliers in Scott Peterson's boat.
Scott Peterson said he went fishing on last Christmas Eve, and that was the day that his wife, Laci Peterson, disappeared. Her body, of course, was found months later in San Francisco Bay, near where Scott Peterson said he was fishing.
This single strand of hair has been identified through mitochondrial DNA testing as Laci Peterson's hair. The defense is challenging that technology, and their witness will be the main witness today -- their expert witness.
HEMMER: On Friday, you say that Mark Geragos really dominated the courtroom. [He's] the defense attorney for Scott Peterson. How did that take place? And put on your prosecution's hat for a second here looking at a defense attorney yourself -- what's the impact his presence may have there, if anything?
TOOBIN: ... One of the things you learn when you actually are in the courtroom is you see sort of the vibe and who's acting like they're in charge. And all last week, the first week of the preliminary hearing, Mark Geragos really did dominate.
He asked most of the questions; he went on, I thought, many irrelevant tangents in cross-examining the FBI's scientific expert. [There was] no objection from the prosecutor, no objection from the judge. These are low-key prosecutors. It's a low-key judge. And sometimes what happens in a case is that a defense attorney really dominates the courtroom, and that's a good thing for the defense.
There's a long way to go in this case. We're only in the preliminary hearing. There's, of course, no jury yet involved. But if a defense attorney takes charge, if he's allowed to dominate, that is really something that prosecutors have to worry about. It may be just a matter of temperament that these are prosecutors who simply are not as aggressive in the courtroom. But it's certainly going to be something to watch as this case unfolds.
HEMMER: On Friday on the stand, Laci's sister, Laci's mother testified. [I'm] curious to know the relationship inside that courtroom with Scott Peterson when they were in his presence.
TOOBIN: You know, Scott Peterson doesn't look like a guy who's been in prison for a number of months now. He's still ruddy. He's still, you know, he doesn't look drawn and gray the way a lot of people in prison still look. And he did not look abashed at all by seeing his former in-laws testifying. He saw his father testify.
Scott Peterson is taking a very sort of businesslike, matter-of-fact temperament into the courtroom. It was not really as emotional as I would have expected.
[Laci's mother] Sharon Rocha, you may remember, gave this extremely emotional, devastating news conference when Scott was arrested, very clearly indicating that she thought Scott was guilty without saying so in so many words. But in court she was composed. She was not emotional -- same thing about Laci's sister [Amy Rocha]. So it has been a fairly low-key hearing. It has not been emotional in terms of the demeanor of the witnesses.
