Drew Peterson pre-trial hearing begins

[SHELBYDOG]

Drew Peterson pre-trial hearing begins


January 19, 2010 (JOLIET, Ill.) (WLS) -- Months before she was found dead, Kathleen Savio, told a former co-worker that estranged husband Drew Peterson once threw her to the floor and said he could kill her.

The testimony came Tuesday in an unusual hearing about what evidence can be presented in the murder case.

It's called 'hearsay evidence,' and under a new Illinois it can be allowed in some murder trials.

At the end of the hearing, which could last two to three weeks, the judge is going to decide if the hearsay evidence will be allowed into the trial.

If the judge does allow it, it will mean a lot for the prosecution. During this hearing, the prosecution is going to present 50 to 60 percent of their case.

In the case against Drew Peterson, Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow is going to present is hoping, if not counting, on new state law that allows victims to speak from the grave.

In this case, the victim is Savio, who was found dead in a bathtub six years ago.

It's up to the judge to decide if statements Savio said or wrote to others about threats Peterson made will be allowed in the trial.

"If they don't get any of the hearsay in, their case is gone. Also, from a strategic standpoint, we have a good look at what the state's case is going to be," said Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky.

The state called a former co-worker of Savio to the stand. Issam Karam testified that Savio told him that one night, Peterson broke into her home and "tackled her, threw her on the stairs, put a knife to her throat, and said he would kill her right there but couldn't because it would be too bloody."

The testimony did not come as a surprise to the spokesperson for the family of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, who disappeared more than one year ago.

"What we know of the two women, what we had heard, and what we know of Stacy and what she had told us, it all comes together," Pam Bosco said.

The hearsay evidence also includes statements Drew Peterson made to others. His former Bolingbrook police partner, James Coughlin, testified that in February 2004, he ran into Peterson at the Will County courthouse, following a court proceeding between Peterson and Savio. Coughlin testified that Peterson told him, "She got all my money. Life would be easier if she were dead."

Stacy Peterson's uncle, Kyle Toutges, told the judge that he remembered a conversation with Peterson two weeks after Savio's death. Toutges said Peterson's friend implied that he might have had something to do with Savio's death. Toutges said Peterson responded by saying, "Let them prove it."

"It's not right. That was somebody you lived with, somebody you loved.

Prosecutors say their case would be a lot easier if the hearsay evidence is allowed in. During the rest of the hearing, prosecutors are expected to be calling dozens of witnesses.


(Copyright ©2010 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)



http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7226389&rss=rss-wls-article-7226389

[SHELBYDOG]

Peterson's defense team challenges 'Drew's law'


By Stephanie Chen, CNNJanuary 19, 2010 5:12 p.m. EST


(CNN) -- Stacy Peterson had disturbing things to say about her husband, Drew Peterson.

She is still missing, but her statements about former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson, who is accused of murdering his previous wife, may start to come out in court at a crucial pretrial hearing that begins Tuesday.

Her statements, according to court documents, are likely to include her suspicions and fears of Peterson.

At the center of the debate is whether hearsay evidence can be used at Peterson's trial. Hearsay is what one person says to another, outside of a courtroom setting. Because courts prefer to hear from the original source, the person who hears a statement is usually not permitted to tell judges and juries about the statement.

Peterson is accused of murdering his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Her body was found in an empty bathtub in March 2004, and her death initially was ruled an accidental drowning. Her death was reinvestigated after Stacy Peterson's disappearance and then was ruled to be a homicide. Drew Peterson has been charged with first-degree murder. He denies the charges.

Read the indictment

If prosecutors get their way, Stacy Peterson will haunt her husband's murder trial.

In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the case Crawford v. Washington that hearsay evidence violates a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him or her.

That case added hurdles for the use of hearsay evidence, according to legal analysts.

But courts have been establishing exceptions to the hearsay laws in cases in which witnesses are silenced. And the list of exceptions has grown over the years, especially if the hearsay can be used to show a witness or victim's state of mind. In those cases, jurors are warned not to automatically consider the statement as truthful.

Illinois passed a law in 2008 -- dubbed "the Drew Peterson law" or "Drew's law" by the media -- that allows hearsay evidence if prosecutors believe the victim was killed to prevent his or her testimony.

The defense maintains in its own motions that the law unfairly targets Drew Peterson because it was passed after the investigation was launched. In a legal response, prosecutor James W. Glasgow called the defense claim "a thinly veiled effort to sway the court into believing that this statute pertains exclusively to this prosecution."

Stacy Peterson was 23 when she vanished in October 2007. According to the prosecution, she had voiced doubts about Savio's demise and told others before she vanished that she feared the same fate.

After Stacy Peterson's disappearance, the state performed a second autopsy on Savio, concluding in November 2007 that her death was a homicide. A third autopsy was performed at the request of the Savio family. The private medical examiner determined the cuts, lacerations and bruises on her body indicated a struggle.

Drew Peterson was charged last year with first-degree murder and held on $20 million bond. He pleaded not guilty. He has not been charged in Stacy Peterson's disappearance.

Stacy Peterson made statements regarding Drew Peterson's whereabouts the night of Savio's death, according to a pastor and other potential witnesses.

Six years after Savio's death, prosecutors also intend to introduce her words through family members who recall their conversations with her, as well as through letters she wrote to police.

The hearings, which could last a month, will determine the merit and relevance of the hearsay statements. As many as 60 witnesses may testify, according to CNN affiliate WLS-TV in Chicago.

James Carey, a law professor at Loyola University law school in Chicago, said prosecutors must prove that Drew Peterson intentionally got rid of Stacy Peterson to keep her from testifying.

Drew Peterson's attorneys are arguing that Illinois' new hearsay law is unconstitutional. The new law was passed only after Peterson's case gained media attention, the defense argues.

"Having newly-minted evidence, but not the evidence to prosecute anyone for it, the Will County State's Attorney decided to draft a new law," wrote Drew Peterson's attorney, Joel A. Brodsky. He was unavailable for comment Monday, an office assistant said.

It is not yet clear what evidence prosecutors are seeking to present. Their motion was filed under seal.

However the court decides on the Peterson evidence, an appeal is likely and the precedents could become legal landmarks.

"This other witness may truthfully be saying what the person said, but how do we know what the person said is true?" said Steven Beckett, director of trial advocacy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Beckett said hearsay evidence is a serious disadvantage to the defense because they cannot cross-examine the person being quoted.

There are no eyewitnesses or physical evidence to link Drew Peterson to Savio's death, his attorneys argue.

"I think the jury's going to see that, in fact, this always has been an accidental death and still is an accidental death," Brodsky told CNN's Larry King last year.

Savio's family has been hopeful the new law will help prove Drew Peterson's involvement in their daughter's case.

"We hope it's going to come out the right way," her father, Henry Savio, told CNN reporters in 2009, shortly after Drew Peterson was charged.


http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/19/illinois.drew.peterson.hearsay/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[iluvmybaby]

I can not stand that man, he makes me physically ill, how many women will he be able to kill before justice is served?