Judge Moves Peterson Trial
The judge in the murder case against Scott Peterson on Tuesday ordered the trial moved about 50 miles away to San Mateo County because of hostility toward Peterson in his dead wife's hometown.
Judge Al Girolami ruled earlier this month that the trial had to be moved out of Modesto to ensure Peterson got a fair trial in the slaying of his wife and unborn son.
Girolami had four counties to choose from and picked San Mateo, the county south of San Francisco. Girolami had said he wanted a county close enough to Modesto so witnesses could drive there.
In making his decision, Girolami reject prosecutor complaints that he decided on a change of venue based on flawed data in a survey of potential jurors that was conducted by college students, some of whom have since admitted they cheated and made up results. The prosecutors had argued Girolami should reconsider his decision to move the trial, and keep it in Stanislaus County.
In the Jan. 8 ruling, the judge said his main concern was that there was too much news coverage of the case in the county of fewer than 500,000 people. He also said area residents had become too attached to the case — turning out in the thousands to search for Laci Peterson, mourn at her memorial service and give blood in her name.
"I think the venue change helps the defense but doesn't necessarily hurt prosecutors. The move gives Peterson a chance to get a jury that hasn't been completely saturated by news of the crime but it doesn't generate a jury pool that is overly friendly to defendants or suspicious about the government," says CBSNew.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen.
"There was no way the judge was going to keep the case in Modesto, bad survey or no bad survey. Clearly he is convinced, and with fairly good reason, that Laci Peterson is perceived as a hero in Modesto and Scott Peterson is perceived as a lout and that is not a good recipe for a fair trial in a capital case," says Cohen.
Scott Peterson, 31, has pleaded innocent to two counts of murder for allegedly killing Laci just before Christmas 2002 and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay. In April, the remains of her body and the fetus she was carrying washed ashore in the bay two miles from where Scott Peterson said he was fishing when she vanished.
The disputed survey was conducted by students at California State University. Nine students at the university have since told The Modesto Bee they made up results for the phone poll or broke the rules for conducting the survey by interviewing friends.
Prosecutor David Harris asked the judge to keep the case in Modesto or consider moving it 80 miles north to Sacramento, the state capital, if the county has an available courtroom and staff for the anticipated five-month trial.