by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright November 13, 2004
All Rights Reserved.

cott Peterson's $1 million legal defense couldn't buy the same result as O.J. Simpson, landing the 32-year-old fertilizer salesman a guilty verdict of first-degree murder. Peterson's celebrity attorney Mark Gerragos wasn't in court for the bad news, culminating an uninspired performance. Unlike O.J. Simpson, Peterson lacked a celebrity halo and legendary criminal defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, whose ability to brainwash a jury won an acquittal Oct. 3, 1995. Gerragos had the stature and reputation but failed to deliver on promises made during opening arguments, including key witnesses confirming his risky theory that Laci was abducted and murdered by a satanic cult or homeless drifter, framing poor Scott Peterson. When Laci and her unborn child washed ashore near the Berkeley marina where Scott just happened to be fishing on the day Laci disappeared, Gerragos faced a steep climb.

      Gerragos overplayed his hand suggesting that Peterson was framed by a satanic cult or unidentified serial killer. What possible motive would a satanic cult or drifter have framing an unknown fertilizer salesman? When Johnnie Cochran proposed his “Columbian necktie theory,” suggesting that Nicole and Ron were murdered by the Columbian mafia, he had a plausible context of a widely publicized celebrity cocaine connection. Swirling stories circulated in supermarket tabloids about O.J., Nicole and her cronies' cocaine habits. Gerragos never established the “plausible deniability” necessary for a clever diversionary tactic, like the satanic cult or drifter hypothesis. Remember, Cochran faced a more difficult task explaining away a “mountain” of direct evidence, including O.J.'s bloody footprints, bloody glove, what looked like irrefutable hair, fiber and DNA.

      Where Cochran paraded months of experts disputing the direct evidence, Gerragos' one star medical expert Dr. Charles March fell apart on the witness stand. Star was supposed to prove that Laci's unborn son, Connor, died sometime after Dec. 24, the date the prosecution contended Laci was murdered and dumped somewhere in San Francisco Bay. Autopsy photos showed an umbilical cord, proving, if nothing else, Laci was murdered while she was pregnant. Experts analyzing the case criticized the prosecution for having only circumstantial evidence, despite the fact the jury was treated to Laci's hair found in needle-nose pliers on Scott's boat. Hair is considered direct evidence, not circumstantial. Without having a plethora of experts to dispute circumstantial evidence, the jury relied on the prosecution's 174 witnesses, 298 exhibits, 115 audiotapes and 74 videotapes.

      When Peterson was finally arrested and charged with deaths of Laci and her unborn child, he was found with $15,000 in cash and bleached hair and beard. As with O.J.'s low speed chase, Peterson's change of appearance and cash was presumed as evidence of flight, though his arrest came four month's after Laci's disappearance. Gerragos never really explained why Peterson dyed his hair and carried so much cash. Though Gerragos took three months to select jurors, he had a difficult time creating sympathy for a man accused of killing his wife and unborn child. He didn't have the luxury of the “race card,” played brilliantly with nine Black jurors during the O.J. trial. Unlike Cochran, Gerragos tried, but failed, to put the police on trial. He wasn't forced to explain discrepancies like missing blood or the presence of a bloody glove found in O.J.'s own backyard.

      Cochran did a masterful job of indicting the police, wisely spending his time dredging up dirt on one on the case's lead detectives named Mark Fuhrman. Fuhrman was the detective who allegedly found the bloody glove on O.J.'s property. He was the one F. Lee Bailey got to perjur himself on the witnesses stand, claiming he had not used the “N-word” in recent years. When the O.J. jury heard eyewitnesses testify otherwise, the lead prosecutor Marsha Clark's case dropped like a rock. Gerragos found no blockbuster controversy to impeach Modesto County Dist. Atty. Mark Destaso's case. It was Destaso, after all, who told the jury in opening arguments that Peterson killed his wife and unborn child to free himself for a clandestine love affair with Amber Frey. Frey's secret tape recordings—before Laci's disappearance—showed Peterson lying and already talking about his “late” wife.

      Convicted of first-degree murder with a special circumstance, Peterson now faces possible death by lethal injection. When the penalty phase begins Nov. 22, Gerragos will have to decide whether to pursue an appeal based on possible irregularities in last-minute juror changes or have Peterson confess. Confessing and throwing his mercy on the court has inherent problems while Gerragos calculates his next legal move. Confessing could further antagonize an already jaded jury, sickened by the defense's farfetched theories. In all likelihood, Peterson will never take the witness stand, hoping that some technicality gives him a way out. Pop superstar Michael Jackson must breathe a sigh of relief, deciding to fire Gerragos in his latest case of child molestation. Gerragos violated a basic rule of criminal defense: Don't concoct a theory that you can't back up. Gerragos clearly didn't deliver.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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