Deliberations in Peterson trial to start Wednesday

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — Defense attorneys told jurors at Drew Peterson's murder trial Tuesday that the state's case against him is "garbage evidence." Prosecutors said it's just common sense that the former suburban Chicago police officer killed his third wife.

Jurors were expected to begin deliberating the case Wednesday, a day after both sides presented their closing arguments.

Prosecutors contend Peterson killed his third wife, Kathleen Savio, because he feared a pending divorce settlement would wipe him out financially. Savio's death was initially deemed an accident, but it was later ruled a homicide after her body was exhumed following the 2007 disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson.

The heart of the state's case is testimony from friends, relatives and acquaintances of the two women about things they allegedly told them about Drew Peterson. Such testimony, called hearsay, isn't usually allowed in court, but Illinois passed a law in 2008, dubbed "Drew's Law," that allowed it to be introduced at trials under rare circumstances.

In his more than hourlong closing, prosecutor Chris Koch went through more than half a dozen hearsay statements, including witnesses who testified Savio told them her husband repeatedly warned her he could kill her and make her death look accidental.

As he began his remarks Koch walked up to the defense table, pointed his finger at Peterson and boomed, "It is clear this man killed Kathleen Savio."

Punching his fist into his palm for emphasis, Koch said Peterson slipped into his estranged wife's suburban Chicago home — just a few blocks from his new house — in the early morning hours before March 1, 2004.

"He went into that house, pushed her down, held her down until she inhaled fluid and drowned," said Koch.

In the recurring mantra of his closing, Koch told jurors to use common sense in assessing Peterson's alleged threats and suspicious behavior in the days after Savio's death. Peterson, he said, went to Savio's house the day after her body was found there to wash blood from the tub.

"Are you kidding me?!" balked Koch. "What in the world is he doing there? Murders sometimes go back to the crime scene."

Defense attorney Joel Lopez countered that the state had presented "garbage evidence" during its five-week presentation of more than 30 witnesses.

Lopez told jurors that when they deliberate, they are required to hear a voice whispering to each of them that Peterson is innocent. He said they can't conclude Peterson is guilty unless the evidence is overwhelming and compelling.

"You have to find he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt — not maybe, not probably (he did it)," he said. "Are we going to convict someone on speculation? ... This is America!"

Lopez constantly doubled back to his central argument: The state hadn't even proved Savio's death was a murder.

"The framers of the Constitution would barf on this evidence," said Lopez.

But Koch told jurors it would be impossible for Savio to have received the gash on the back of her head and 14 bruises on the front of her body unless someone had attacked her.

"How can you get (all those wounds) in one fall?" he asked. "You can't."

Peterson, 58, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. If convicted, he faces a maximum 60-year prison sentence.

Judge Edward Burmila decided to send jurors home for the night after closing arguments ran longer than expected. Burmila said he would read instructions to the jury first thing Wednesday morning. The seven men and five women will then withdraw to a jury room to begin their deliberations.

Peterson is suspected but hasn't been charged in Stacy Peterson's disappearance, and prosecutors were barred from mentioning or hinting that that she is presumed dead and that her husband is the lone suspect in her disappearance.

___

Follow Michael Tarm at www.twitter.com/mtarm

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

1st of 8 trials start for soldiers in hazing death

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Defense attorneys argued as an army officer's court martial opened Tuesday that a private found dead in Afghanistan killed himself amid the stress of strained family ties and not because of alleged ethnic hazing by their client.

Sgt. Adam Holcomb of Youngstown, Ohio, is the first of eight men facing prosecution in connection with last October's death of 19-year-old Pvt. Danny Chen. Holcomb faces several charges, the most serious of which is negligent homicide. If convicted on all charges, he faces nearly 18 years in prison.

Military officials have said the private shot himself last year in Afghanistan after weeks of emotional and physical abuse that constituted hazing.

But defense attorneys argued in opening statements that Chen told fellow soldiers he had been disowned for joining the military, which they attributed to the cause of his stress. Holcomb's attorneys said when trial opened that the sergeant didn't cause Chen's death.

"There's one and only one person responsible for the death of private Chen," said defense attorney, Capt. Dennis Hernon. "That person is Danny Chen."

Chen's relationship with his family was a focal point Tuesday as 10 jurors looked on amid questioning of the man's mother, the opening witness.

Su Zhen Chen testified Tuesday that she had had a good relationship with her son and kept in touch with him during his deployment. She said claims of strained family relations were untrue.

"He's my only son," Chen said in between sobs. "Why would I disown my only son?"

Prosecutors argued that Holcomb had a history of using hate speech and allegedly dragged Chen across rocky ground at one point in Afghanistan.

For months, beginning in training, soldiers in his platoon peppered him with racial insults such as "Jackie Chen" and "Dragon Lady," his family has told authorities. On the day he died, they say he was forced to crawl about 100 yards across gravel carrying his equipment while his fellow soldiers threw rocks at him.

Chen had been deployed for two months when he was found dead in a guardhouse. Attorneys said Tuesday he shot himself in the head.

Hernon argued for the defense that Chen was an incompetent soldier, and that Chen's superior officers took appropriate corrective actions. He also said Holcomb called Chen "Dragon Lady," but argued that the nickname was meant "affectionately."

Besides Holcomb, four other soldiers are also charged with negligent homicide. The judge's decision in Holcomb's case could be an indicator for the other soldiers.

Chen was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division based in Fort Wainwright, Alaska, but was under the command of a Fort Bragg general in Afghanistan.

Maj. Gen. James Huggins requested the trial be transferred to Fort Bragg, which military officials said worked out better logistically.

The trial has attracted international attention, including coverage by a group of reporters from China who watched Tuesday's proceeding.

Elizabeth OuYang, president of the New York chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, a nonprofit advocacy group that worked with the Chen family, accompanied the family to the court martial. She said some people in China see the trial as an indicator for how the U.S. military treats Chinese.

Reed can be reached on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/Allen_Reed

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.