Scott Peterson returned to court On Monday for his retrial to overturn his conviction for the grueouting murder of his pregnant wife 20 years ago, as his defense team argued that the juror was not impartial because she claimed she had not disclosed domestic violence during his first trial.
Lawyers on Monday concluded their questioning of former juror Richel Ryce, who testified that she did not intentionally lie in the jury questionnaire that she was the victim of a crime.
‘I didn’t do it intentionally. I don’t consider myself a victim. I’ve been in a lot of fights,” Yis testified.
Ness, dubbed the “Strawberry Cake” because of his dyed red hair, was among 12 jurors who found Peterson guilty of murdering his pregnant wife Lack..
The 49-year-old Peterson was convicted in 2004 of killing Lack and their unborn son, whom the couple planned to call Connor. He has long argued that he is innocent.
Attorney Pat Harris said it was impossible for Ness to be impartial in Peterson’s case because she was a victim of domestic violence while pregnant, like Lack.
On one occasion, Yss got a restraining order against a boyfriend convicted of assault.
“When I filled out this questionnaire, honestly and really, none of this ever crossed my mind, ever,” Yis said Monday of her failure to disclose that she had applied for a restraining order in 2000 against her then-boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, saying she feared for her own unborn child.
That, Peterson’s lawyers say, has colored her view of Peterson. But they must first prove to California Supreme Court Judge Anne-Christine Masulo that Ness lied in her jury questionnaire before the trial to join the panel.
The judge will then have to find that Ness was biased against Peterson from the start, tainting his jury and denying him a fair trial.
Peterson’s lawyers plan to spend the next two days of the week-long hearing facing witnesses who they say will contradict Nis’s answers.
Scott Peterson listens during a hearing in the San Mateo County Supreme Court on February 28. His lawyers are seeking a review of the case on the grounds that the juror lied in her questionnaire when he failed to disclose that she was once beaten while pregnant
Peterson, seated, listens as attorneys Shelley Sandusky, left, Pat Harris, second from left, and Cliff Gardner, speak during the rest of the hearing at the San Mateo County Supreme Court in Redwood City, California on Monday, February 28
Lawyers must first prove to California Supreme Court Judge Anne-Christine Masulo that Ness lied in her questionnaire to the jury before the trial to join the panel that convicted Peterson in 2004.
Richel Ness was the juror who helped convict Scott Peterson of the 2002 christmas murder of his pregnant wife Lassie and their unborn son Connor
Peterson was sentenced to death in 2005 for the murders, but last December he was re-sentenced to life without the right to exchange.
Ys oath also disputed any financial motives in the case.
The jury never discussed co-writing a book until after the trial and verdict – “Absolutely not,” she swore.
Another juror loaned her $1,000 only after the trial ended – “Long after the trial, maybe even a year.”
She denied selling a series of letters after the trial between her and Peterson to People magazine.
Ness said she did not recall telling a fellow juror that when she joined the jury in the deliberations, she said, “We have to take Scott for what he did to Lack and the “little guy.”
“It doesn’t sound like something I would say, but I have no idea,” she said. “I don’t remember that,” he said.
According to her recollection, she said the first time she used a “little man” to label Connor was in her first television interview since the trial.
Peterson’s lawyers say she lobbied to enter the jury.
But prosecutors on Monday questioned that with a transcript of the jury selection process showing that the judge removed Nis from the jury due to financial difficulties and she was ready to leave the door without complaint – to Peterson’s celebrity lawyer, Mark Geragos, called her back.
Only then did she say she could afford to serve during what was expected to be a five-month trial period, even though she was only paid by her employer for two weeks.
Yis said she can afford to be left without pay because she lives with her mother and boyfriend, who can help financially.
Scott Peterson, seated right, listens as attorney Pat Harris, right, speaks during a hearing in the San Mateo County Supreme Court on Monday, February 28
Peterson, right, leaves court after Monday’s hearing.
But Peterson’s attorney, Pat Harris, said Friday that they could not find Ness’s then-boyfriend, who he said told a defense investigator at the time that he was concerned about the financial costs and the need for Ness to care for a sick child. Masulo is weighing whether to allow the coroner to testify instead.
Defense lawyers plan to call on Geragos to stand up, now arguing that allowing Nis to serve amounts to ineffective counseling.
Geragos said in court documents that if he had known about Nice’s personal history, he would have immediately rejected it from the jury.
Peterson’s lawyers plan to call three former fellow jurors to the scene; co-author of “We, the Jury”, the book written by Nice and six other jurors; and directors who say that Nis had on her wall a picture of a small child in pajamas with a print on the pajamas with the inscription “Little Man”.
They also plan to interview a People magazine reporter who wrote a story based on the 17 letters Polis wrote to Peterson after his conviction, and the eight letters Peterson wrote to Nice.
Ys became emotional for the only time during her two days of questioning when she said her therapist offered to write to Peterson after the ordeal, which she said had “absolutely” changed her.
She said she asked Peterson about his infidelity in a letter because she was trying to find out “about men in general, why they cheat on you.”
Peterson was only arrested after his lover showed up to say he had told her his wife was missing a month before her actual disappearance.
Ryce testified that her boyfriend at the time was serially unfaithful, which Peterson’s lawyers have suggested she was biased against him from participating in the trial, which she denies.
Ryce (pictured during Peterson’s sentencing in 2005) is alleged to have failed to disclose that she was a victim of domestic violence during the 2004 jury selection process for peterson’s high-profile trial and this is now among the reasons his defence team is seeking a retrial
Ness’s testimony monday and Friday focuses on whether she lied about her history of domestic violence. She is pictured on February 25, 2005
Neys is pictured hugging attorney Gloria Allred after speaking at a news conference following Scott Peterson’s official sentencing in Redwood City, California, on March 16, 2005.
Yiss’s testimony, which began Friday, kicked off a week-long hearing focused on whether she lied about her domestic violence history so she could enter the jury so she could vote to convict Peterson.
While grilled at the counter on Friday by Peterson’s attorney Pat Harris, Neys argued that although her boyfriend was convicted of assault, he never actually did.
She said her then-boyfriend Eddie Whiteside called the cops in November 2001 after she assaulted him in their bedroom during a fight. When police arrived, she said, they noticed a cut to her lip caused by her braces and arrested him for assault.
“Eddie never hit me,” she told the court on Friday. — Now or at any time. Eddie never hit me, so I’ve never been a victim of domestic violence.
However, Ness admitted during the deposition that she had not revealed she had been victimized by her ex-boyfriend’s girlfriend, who slashed his tires, broke into their home and threatened her.
Ness, who testified with impunity, claimed she never lied intentionally when answering a jury selection question about whether she or her associates had ever witnessed or been the victim of a crime.
She replied that she was not a victim, even though she filed a restraining order while pregnant in 2000 against a woman she then accused of terrorizing her.
But on Friday, she said in a statement that she was “vicious” by seeking an injunction against herself and her unborn son.
Asked if she ever feared the woman would harm her unborn child, she replied: “No.”
Her latest claim that she is not worried about her baby’s safety contradicts statements she made while asking for the court order. At the time, she said she was worried the woman might hurt and harm the fetus.
Now she says she’s only worried about what might happen if the two fight with their fists.
“She wouldn’t intentionally hurt my child, but if we were fighting and rolling like some mannequins on the ground, then yes, I would be afraid to lose my child doing such stupidity,” she said.
If Peterson gets a new trial, Harris said, they could present new evidence that the thieves were nearby on the day Laci Peterson disappeared, that witnesses saw her alive that day and that her fetus was “alive for at least another five to six days” based on a study of fetal remains.
Prosecutors, however, said Peterson’s lawyers had not presented any evidence to support his claims that he deserved a new trial because Ness had a “darker motive” to be on the jury “and was essentially a hidden juror.”
Peterson’s pregnant wife Laci (pictured) disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002 and was found months later sailing in the San Francisco Bay. The mutilated corpse of their unborn son was also found
If Peterson gets a new trial, his lawyers said they could present new evidence that the thieves were nearby on the day Laci Peterson disappeared.
Lassie Peterson, 27, was killed when she was eight months pregnant with a son the Peterson family planned to name Connor. Investigators said that on Christmas Eve of 2002, Scott Peterson threw his wife’s body out of his fishing boat in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Peterson was eventually arrested after Amber Frey, a masseuse living in Fresno, told police they had begun dating a month before Lassie Peterson’s death.
She said he told her his wife was dead. Peterson maintained his innocence the whole time.
Although the state Supreme Court overturned Peterson’s death sentence in December and ordered Supreme Court Judge Anne-Christine Masulo to decide whether Nice had tainted his trial, he also said that “there is significant other circumstantial evidence incriminating Peterson.”
Peterson was sentenced to death in 2005 for the 2002 murder of his wife Lack and their unborn son Connor. Last December, he was re-sentenced to life without parole.
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