Posted on 06/07/2003 5:43:07 AM PDT by runningbear
Death certificates opened for Laci Peterson and son
Posted on Sat, Jun. 07, 2003
Death certificates opened for Laci Peterson and son
By Brian Anderson and Claire Booth
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
MODESTO - The Contra Costa County Coroner's Office could not determine a cause of death for Laci Peterson, but concluded that her son was born dead.
The coroner lists Peterson's manner of death as homicide. Death certificates for the 27-year-old and the son with whom she was eight months pregnant were made public late Friday.
A judge agreed earlier in the day to allow release of the documents, but kept sealed the results of the two autopsies.
During two hours of courtroom wrangling, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami told Scott Peterson's defense lawyers and the prosecutors who have charged him with the murders of his wife and child that the report will remain sealed until a preliminary hearing.
The death certificates were filed in Contra Costa County on Friday. Signed April 21, they are the official record of Laci and Conner Peterson's deaths.
The filings do not mean the remains will be released to Laci Peterson's family. A court order requires the coroner's office to retain custody of the remains until told otherwise by a judge, said coroner's spokesman Jimmy Lee.
Laci Peterson's family does not know when that will be, said family spokeswoman Kim Petersen. "It's a very tough time for them," she said Friday.
The death certificates contain the time and place of death. For Laci Peterson, the coroner's office specifies the date she was found on the Richmond shoreline, April 14.
Conner Peterson was found a day earlier. That is specified on his fetal death certificate, along with where he was found along the Richmond shoreline. Fetal death certificates have no category for a cause of death. Conner's does specify that he was born dead.
Cable news station MSNBC reported last week that a leaked portion of the autopsy reports showed that Conner was found with 11/2 loops of tape around his neck.
Legal analysts have surmised the information could be used to back a defense theory that a satanic cult played a role in Laci Peterson's disappearance and slaying.
It also was widely believed that the defense team had a hand in leaking the autopsy to bolster its case with the public, an allegation attorney Mark Geragos adamantly denied.
The autopsy had been sealed May 15 at the request of both defense attorneys and prosecutors. After last week's leak, the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office asked that the entire report be unsealed.
Deputy district attorney David Harris told Girolami on Friday the leaked details provided a "significant slant" in favor of the defense. "We can't discuss inaccuracies or accuracies without violating the court order," he said.
Girolami said the results will not be unsealed. "I don't think that releasing the report at this time is necessary. The mere fact that someone has leaked out part of the report does not justify releasing all of it."
In other matters, Girolami told lawyers for 22 reporters that a state law does not protect calls and conversations they placed to Scott Peterson. Authorities wiretapped Peterson's phone before his arrest and alerted journalists last month that they had been taped.
Scott Peterson, 30, was arrested April 18. His wife, who was eight months pregnant, vanished Dec. 23 or 24 from her Modesto home.
Peterson could be executed if convicted;..................................
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Autopsies Kept Sealed in Laci Peterson Case
Autopsies Kept Sealed in Laci Peterson Case
Fri June 6, 2003 07:19 PM ET
By Tim Wimborne
MODESTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A judge refused on Friday to make public graphic autopsy reports for Laci Peterson and her unborn son, rebuffing press efforts to unseal key documents in a murder case that has riveted the nation.
The parents of the 27-year-old substitute teacher left the Stanislaus County courtroom when Superior Court Judge Al Girolami began discussing whether to release the autopsy, grim details of which have already surfaced in media reports.
Laci's husband, Scott Peterson, 30, who is charged with two murders and could face the death penalty if convicted, has pleaded not guilty.
During the autopsy discussion, Peterson, who has shown little emotion during the proceedings, dabbed his eyes with a tissue and appeared grim-faced, swallowing hard several times.
"This is not about adverse publicity," Peterson's attorney Mark Geragos told the court in opposing the release of the autopsies. "I'm worried about my client's life."
Geragos has argued against releasing many of the documents in the case, saying that to do so would increase the already high public hostility toward his client.
Judge Girolami said leaks to the press of some details from the coroner's reports were not a justification to release the entire document. Prosecutors in the case had withdrawn their objections to the report's release.
The judge, however, refused to authorize a gag order on lawyers in the case and authorized the Contra Costa County coroner to prepare and release death certificates for Laci and her unborn son, that might list a cause of death.
Officials have not publicly stated how they believe Laci Peterson died, and have released few details of the case they have against Peterson.
WASHED ASHORE
The two decaying corpses washed out of San Francisco Bay in April, prompting Peterson's arrest. Coroners worked for weeks on the bodies, saying the advanced state of decomposition made their job especially difficult.
A law enforcement official told Reuters on Friday that plastic was wrapped in the area of the neck of the unborn baby when it was found along the Contra Costa high-tide shoreline, but said it could well have been from trash rather than a clue to the murder.
"There is a lot of junk in the sea, maybe that's what it is," the official said.
San Francisco television station KTVU quoted law enforcement sources on Friday as saying Laci Peterson may have been drugged with a so-called date rape drug to weaken her before being strangled........
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Media Won't Hear Scott Peterson Wiretaps
Media Won't Hear Scott Peterson Wiretaps
Judge Rejects Reporters' Requests to Hear Wiretaps of Husband in Laci Peterson Murder Case
The Associated Press
MODESTO, Calif. June 6 —
The judge in the Laci Peterson murder case on Friday rejected requests by reporters to listen to wiretaps of phone calls they made to Scott Peterson.
Attorneys representing 22 reporters had asked to review to tapes of their calls to Peterson so they could determine if they might be barred from becoming evidence.
The lawyers said those conversations were protected under the California Shield Law, which protects reporters from turning over unpublished work. They claimed the wiretaps are the same as journalists' notes.
But Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami said he did not think journalists were entitled to any privilege protecting their phone calls. He did, however, delay for 10 days the release of the tapes.
Girolami's ruling came during the first hour of a hearing in which he also set a June 19 date to rule on defense motions regarding wiretaps of Peterson's calls. The judge was also expected to begin considering a prosecution motion to unseal results of an autopsy on the bodies of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner.
Scott Peterson's lawyers want the judge to dismiss the prosecutors assigned to the case and to toss out the results of two wiretaps that monitored thousands of Peterson's calls after the disappearance of his pregnant wife, Laci.
During the court-approved wiretaps, the first of which began two weeks after Laci Peterson vanished when investigators thought they had exhausted normal evidence-gathering techniques, police logged 3,858 phone calls made to her husband, according to court papers.
Some of those conversations will be questioned by defense lawyers, who claim police eavesdropped on protected conversations between Scott Peterson and his lawyer.
Girolami will also consider issuing a gag order to prevent evidence leaks in the case and he may decide whether to release autopsy results of Laci Peterson and her unborn son. Prosecutors have said they support some form of a gag order, while defense lawyer Mark Geragos said in court paper that he opposes any effort to curtail discussions about the case.
Peterson, 30, has pleaded innocent to two counts of murder for ....................
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Judge keeps documents sealed in Peterson case
Judge keeps documents sealed in Peterson case
BEE STAFF REPORTS
Published: June 6, 2003, 12:49:07 PM PDT
A judge kept under wraps many documents and other evidence in the Peterson double-murder case Friday. During a discussion of autopsy reports, defendant Scott Peterson - who is charged with killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner - dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief.
Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami:
Kept sealed autopsy reports on both bodies.
Ordered the Contra Costa County coronor’s office to issue death certificates.
Kept sealed wiretap recordings. He allowed prosecutors and defense attorneys to get copies of the tapes, but temporarily prohibited the handing over of calls between Peterson and journalists. Prosecutors also are not allowed to hear calls between Peterson and his defense team.
Delayed a decision on a potential gag order preventing principals ...................
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(Excerpt) Read more at bayarea.com ...
Yeah, it sounds like he has no problem with the ones that have five o'clock shadows.
Here's how.
..................................California's is a comparatively tough fetal homicide law. About half the nation's states have such provisions, but many only cover viable fetuses. The California Penal Code describes murder as "the unlawful killing of a human being, with malice aforethought." A 1970 state Supreme Court decision, however, held that a Stockton man who had killed a fetus carried by his estranged wife couldn't be prosecuted for murder because the Legislature had probably meant the phrase "human being" to mean someone who had been born alive.
In response to that ruling, the Legislature amended the murder statute to its current form, which describes the crime as "the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought." The amended statute includes an exception for abortions. The Legislature at the time could have limited the term "fetus" to mean "viable fetus," but specifically rejected a proposed amendment requiring the fetus be at least 20 weeks in gestation before the statute would apply. And in a 1994 case, the state Supreme Court held that viability is not a concern in fetal murder cases, and that prosecutors can pursue such a case "as long as the state can show that the fetus has progressed beyond the embryonic stage of seven to eight weeks.".........................................................................
For the rest of the article, go here.
California has a tough fetal murder law
This "conclusion" is just not as obvious to me as you make it seem.
When my daughter was born it seemed to me that in California about 95% of first time pregnant middle class women went to Lamaze classes. Of these, it seemed that the number who actually succeeded in having a vaginal delivery with no drugs of any sort was surprisingly small--I think less than 10% or so. Of the new mothers in the hospital at the same time as my wife and I, 100% had been to Lamaze classes, 0% had a drug-free delivery.
This was 22 years ago--before the internet, and before search engines.
I can easily envision Laci, who would have time on her hands, researching anything and everything about childbirth. She was upper middle-class, intelligent and clearly preparing for her baby. Given the choice between daytime TV and internet research, I think she would have rapidly become bored with TV and instead researched even low-probability things on the internet.
IF LE can connect Scott with an illegal purchase of GHB in the right time frame, and there was GHB in Laci's body then the theory starts to look better. Otherwise it is a very fragile circumstantial thread.
Is there an online access to the death certificates? If so would you post a link? Thanks
I'm not sure--I was going by the first article posted on the thread.
When I get tired of listening to Mike Gallagher I tune into Glenn Beck.
I hope I remember to have it there on Tuesday.
Give me a Freepmail reminder on Monday. :-)
Seems like I have missed something along the way.
Where, When, and How, did it come about that you are talking of an ex boyfriend of Scotts?
From what I understand GHB can't be detected in the body.
That April 21st. date gave them a little over a week from the time the bodies were found to the time they issued the "undetermined" cause of death. The autopsy lasted, what, another month? The autopsy is bound to contain something about the cause of death that is not in the DC. The defense is crying about a "fair trial" when discussing the unsealing of the autopsy but didn't even let out a wimper regarding the DC.
The article linked in my previous post seems to be touting GHB as a "natural drug" of sorts......a substance that exists naturally in the body and that was sold in health food stores up until the 1990's. I don't find it unlikely at all that a pregnant woman might have run across a reference to it as a childbirth aid and decided to look it up. Whatever the case, I don't think it automatically points the finger at anyone.
There was talk of vomit in the mop.
This whole GHB thing is just sickening if true.
Also didn't we hear that the police took Viagra out in a bag?
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