Opening Statement for the Defendant

Penalty Phase:  By Pat Harris

December 1, 2004

HARRIS:  Good morning. For the past four or five months we have sat here together. And basically we have gone through a man's life in very minute detail, down to facts that I don't think most of us would want to come out in their lives. Very minute detail.

We have talked about Scott Peterson so that we now know what clothes were in his closet. We know what he ate for breakfast. We know his financial life backwards and forwards, what checks he wrote, what things he's done. We know when he goes to the gas station how much gas he puts in his car. We know what would seem like to be practically every detail of this man's life. I think it will seem for any of us to say we now know who Scott Peterson is.

What I'm here to tell you in the next week will prove that wrong. You don't know who Scott Peterson is, and it's going to be our job to show you. We spent looking at five months of a man's life, mostly. There were things that obviously went back some. But, for the most part, we dealt with five months of this man's life. It was granted, the five months that brought us all the here together.

What we're going to now show you is the 30 years that preceded this. When we show you these 30 years, I believe that you will agree that this is a life worth saving.

Before I get into talking about specifically what mitigation involves, and what the things that we're going to specifically put on, kind of give you a road map of what the next week is going to hold, I want to tell you a couple of things I need to just discuss with you.

First of all, we're not going to put on a case here that says that there is nothing in Scott's life that -- he wasn't Jonas Salk. He didn't invent penicillin. He didn't come up with anything major.

I think the theme you are going to hear repeated over and over again, this is a man who affected people's lives, as one witness will tell you, in a million different small ways. Far from being someone who cared only about himself, you are going to hear about a person over and over and over from the people who knew him, and who have known him. Some of them for short phases of his life, some of them his entire life. And they are going to talk to you about the fact that this is a man who constantly put others first.

You are going to hear testimony about that repeatedly. Millions of little things is the way one witness will tell you, in his life.

I can't really without -- before I go into -- I can't continue without acknowledging the fact that some of facts -- actually, first of all, it's clear that the verdict against Scott Peterson that you came back with is not something that we agree with. It's not something -- I have tried to think a hundred different ways to phrase this and talk about it. But I think the best way is just acknowledge it.

We don't agree with it, but we respect that's what you came up with, and it's time to move forward. It's time to go on now. That's behind us. We have now got to look at this man's life. We have now got to talk about what it was he has done and who he is, and why this man should not be put to death.

I also want you to understand, you can't, in any way, shape or form, and I won't try and discuss what is essentially the pain that the Rocha family has gone through.

We can't in any way, shape or form understand that. I don't have -- regrettably have my own children. I can't imagine what that's like. We won't talk about that, and we certainly, in any way, do not mean to demean the pain that they have gone through.

I will ask you one thing, though. This is an enormous burden. Right now, Mark and I hold in our hands a man's life. I can't tell you what that's like. For one week we hold this man's life in our hands. And the reason I'm telling you that is, I'm going to ask you to please be patient with us.

You may wonder why we're doing something. You might wonder why a witness gets on and talks about something that may seem small but may seem irrelevant. You might seem to say, why are you discussing what he was like when he was a baby? What he was like, or family background? Because we're going to go into family background. Why is that happening?

Please be patient with us on this, because there is a reason. And there is -- as I said, the burden of carrying a man's life in our hands. And we cannot leave any stone unturned. We have to show you everything we can in order to prove to you that this is a life worth saving.

After a week that burden is going to shift to you.

You will have his life in your hands. You will be the ones that will make the ultimate decision. And we'll talk about that more in closing. But it is a tremendous burden, so please be patient with us as we go through this.

What is, exactly, mitigation? Lawyers throw around the term a lot. A lot of times not even correctly. Because it's a very simple phrase, very simple term. Essentially boils to down to what's good about a person. What's good. I thought when you all went through jury selection in this

case, we went through a couple of months of it. I thought the judge did an excellent job of talking about mitigation.

A lot of times judges kind of rush through it when they are talking about what's going to happen in the penalty phase, because it seems far down the road. Think back, if you will, each of you went through this, what the judge read to you, what he talked to you about, what mitigation can be.

He said now, almost anything out there can be a mitigating factor. The kinds of things you are likely to hear will be things like, you know, what kind of family does he come from? How was he raised? Has he ever been in trouble with the law before? Is this the first time he's ever been in trouble? How far did he go in school? Was he a Boy Scout? I mean anything that can be presented to you is a mitigating factor I think he talked to you to some -- even used examples, was kind to animals.

Anything can be a mitigating factor. That's one reason that we are going to go into depth in Scott's life.

We also, if you will recall when you were being interviewed -- and I just want to bring this up briefly, you were actually told at that time by the judge, you were actually questioned about, if he was found guilty of taking his wife's body and dumping it in the bay, would that, in itself, would that be enough for you to always vote for the death penalty?

Every single one of you came up with the same answer. The reason I know you came with the same answer, you wouldn't be here if you didn't. All of you said, no, that wasn't enough, almost to a person. I went back and looked at the transcripts of the jury questionnaires. And it's amazing how many of you said, no, I want to know more. That's what we're here to do. That's what mitigation is, and we're now going to show you more.

We're going to talk about the positive influences he's had on other people. We're going to talk about the good things that are valued and that we feel like are important to let this man continue to live.

So what are we going to do? Well, as I said a minute ago, we are going to do 30 years of the man's life, as opposed to the five months you have heard about. We're going to tell the whole life story. We're going to talk about stories that, in essence, couldn't be told during the guilt phase, because they just weren't relevant at that phase.

I'll give you an example. One thing you will hear in testimony, you remember in the guilt phase you heard a lot about financial condition. You heard about a country club membership that had been purchased. Parents had loaned him the money to buy a country club membership.

He grew up playing golf. And he was living in Modesto. They loaned him the money to buy the country club membership. It's easy, just taking that snapshot, to look at a man and say, well, here he grew up in this -- what seems to be a prosperous family. Seemed like he had it all.

Everybody was willing to give him stuff. He had his parents taking care of him. He was a rich kid. Never had to work for anything.

You are going to find out the testimony is exact opposite. You are going to hear a story about a kid, when he was 19 years old, who went to his parents and said, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate everything you have done for me. I'm going make it on my own now. I need to go out and work. I'll pay my college tuition. I'll take care of my expenses. And from that point on he went to college, and he worked not one, not two, but often three and even four jobs at a time while going to school in order to pay his expenses, when he didn't have to.

One of the themes that's over and over repeated throughout here is the hard work that he did from a very young age all his life. He wasn't some kid who just had it all, and who just got everything, his parents gave him everything. Far from it.

You are going to hear a lot of testimony about that. You are going to hear an overall picture. We're not just going to -- one of the things that was interesting, putting this together, we're not just going to be bringing in -- pick out some guy here who knew him ten years ago, barely knew him. We got to get him up here to say he was nice to animals and get him off.

You are going to get an overall picture. You are going to get a lot of different people, not just family.

There will be family. We want you to see the family. We want you to see how he grew up, the people he grew up around with.

You are going to see a number of friends who volunteered to come in here and talk about Scott, the effect he had. You are going to hear from co-workers. You are going to hear from employers. You are going to hear from coaches. You are going to hear from teachers. You are going to hear from a lot of different people about the lives he's affected. You are requesting to get an overall picture of the man. And when you hear from him, you are going to hear the theme that's repeated over and over and over again.

Again, generosity, constantly -- constant theme throughout his life. People will come in and tell you that he would literally give them whatever they asked for and then some. You will hear stories. For example, you will hear one story -- I was just talking to a witness the other night, actually made the comment that not only was he generous, that he would try to anticipate what you needed before you asked for it. You will hear that testimony.

You are going to hear about the selflessness and the empathy he has for others. That's, again, a recurring theme over and over and over. Selflessness. A man who constantly, where he got -- an ex-girlfriend, for example, is going to testify. The phrase she will use is this is somebody who always thought about others first before he thought about himself. You will hear that theme repeated consistently.

I have talked about the hard work. Another theme over and over and over. These are themes you are going to hear repeated from people. So it's not just one person. We can get up here and say, boy, we got lucky. We got a person who says -- these are people that they can -- you are going to hear repeated over and over, all these stories. How polite he was. How kind he was to not only just strangers, but how well he worked with the elderly people, people he constantly tried to help.

One of the things we are going to do as well is, we are going to go into a lot of depth about his parents' background. Some of that you may say, well, why is that relevant? Why do I want to hear that? We're here to talk about Scott Peterson. And the answer is, is because we're all products of our parents -- none more so than Scott Peterson.

You are going to hear the backgrounds of both Lee and Jackie. And it's going to give you, I think, a window into the person that we know. It's going to give you a window into Scott. And I think it will answer some questions for you in a lot of ways. Because we know from the trial that there have been questions. Often testimony was he didn't seem to act the way he ought to. You are going to hear testimony about how, in fact, Jackie Peterson and Lee Peterson, over and over people will tell you the way Scott acted was the way they acted.

They are not an emotional family. They hide things. And they go home and do it within the confines of their home. This is a family that well-known for being stoic, and for putting a smile on no matter what.

You are going to hear stories about Jackie Peterson that are hard to believe. This is a woman who has gone through things in her life that most of us can't even imagine. The first thing people will tell you she did was, she would walk out with a smile and be smiling every minute of the day. But she was going to go forward.

Just to give you a sneak preview -- I'm not going to go down the witness list. I do want to give you a sneak preview, some of the witnesses you are going to hear, just so you know ahead of time.

We're going to start with Lee. You have all seen Lee. He's testified a couple of times. We're going to start with him. He will spend some time on the stand today try and give you sort of an overall background of his life and his life with Scott. We'll end up with Jackie. We're kind of bookending mother and the father.

In between, you will hear from not only about his background -- I don't want to limit to just that with Lee.

You are going to hear another theme repeated by people is that Lee and Scott were best friends. I think it's important that when you listen to Lee, to hear him talk about that. He and his son bonded mostly through a golf course. How he and his son bonded and grew into best friends.

You are going to hear from a woman named Joanne Farmer. Joanne has known Jackie for 47 years. They met in Catholic school together. And they have stayed friends for 47 years. And, in fact, close enough friends that they call each other sister. They sign birthday cards and things to each other as sister.

Joanne is going to tell us a lot about Jackie, and the Jackie she knew growing up. And she's also going to talk about the Scott she knew. Because she was there when Scott was born. She babysat for Scott. She saw him grow into a man. She spent a lot of time with him. She is going to talk about the man she knows.

You are going to hear from Aaron Fritz. Some of you may remember Aaron. He testified. He was a friend of Scott's. You are going to hear him talk about -- Aaron, I don't know if you remember. Aaron actually knew Scott in high school. They had met in high school, I think on the golf team, or right before they got on the golf team. And Aaron then continued to keep the friendship. They continued to be friends until -- well, until even now. They are still friends.

What Aaron is going to talk about is, Aaron is going to tell you that this guy who is here, who he sees today has the same traits as he had when he was a teenager.

Some of same things I talked about. The selflessness, the hard work. Aaron is going to tell you stories about he would want to go golfing, do teenage things around, do whatever.

And Scott was always the responsible one, and say, no, I have got a volunteer project I got to do today, I have got to go pick up these kids, or whatever. He was always the responsible one. He was always the one who was going to do the right thing.

You are going to hear from a woman named Julie Galloway. Julie met Scott at San Luis Obispo when they were both working at a restaurant. And Julie and Scott became best friends. They didn't date. They just stayed -- became friends. They were friends for two or three years, best friends while they were together there. And you are going to hear her talk about him. I mentioned earlier, at least, she is the one who is going to testify Scott was somebody who, before you even asked for something, before you even asked for a favor, he was already trying to do it. He already read your mind.

That if you mentioned that there was -- they were down in LA, saw some, I don't know, some peaches, or something. Next time Scott was in LA, sure enough he would bring them back, they would be sitting on your porch. He was trying to anticipate people's needs. She is going to be a witness who will talk for quite a while. She knows him rather -- very, very well. Maybe as well as anybody. She is going to talk a lot about him.

You are going to hear from a gentleman named Abbas. Abbas Imani. Abbas, I-m-a-n-i. He ran the restaurant where Scott was employed during college. Called Pacific Cafe, well known restaurant in Morro Bay area. Scott worked there throughout most of college. He was a waiter there. And he's going to testify. He's going -- one of the people who is going to talk about Scott's schedule and how he would get up at five in the morning, work at the golf course, trying to go to school, work at the crating company, work at night in the restaurant, work until all hours of the night.

Going to talk about what an incredible schedule he kept and how hard he worked. But he's going to go beyond that. He's not going to just talk about this is a hard-working kid. He's going to talk about that he was a remarkable waiter, and the person he was, and how he always made the customers feel comfortable, and how it was just repeatedly, over and over and over, people would come in the restaurant and ask for Scott, especially elderly people.

Elderly people they would always want Scott.

He always made them feel comfortable. If he had a customer who he waited on before, and he knew they were coming, he would make sure something was ready for them. He was just that conscientious. He is going to talk about that, the way he treated people.

We're going to hear from a golf coach named Hugh Gerhart. Hugh is going to testify that, you know, one of the things he finds from having watched the trial, is something that he also saw when Scott was playing golf for him. Scott was very misunderstood because he was quiet and because, to many people, he appeared arrogant. He didn't talk a lot. He always had kind of a smile on his face. He always looked like he was just happy and above it all.

And he is going to say that's so wrong. He's going to testify that the way he was with people, and the way he was with other members, and how it was this quiet was so wrongly perceived. He was always going out of his way for others, always.

You are going to hear from a professor at San Luis Obispo named Bob Thompson. Bob has been teaching in San Luis Obispo, teaching there twenty, thirty years, something like -- he's had over 10,000 students, and he wants to testify because Scott Peterson stuck out in his mind. Out of 10,000 students he was one of the few that stuck out in his mind. Exceptional in many ways.

You are going to hear from Bill Archer. Bill is a roommate. Same sort of stories. Help you in a million different ways.

You are going to hear from Eric Sherar. I believe that's S-h-e-r-a-r. He lived next door to Scott and Laci while they were at San Luis, and apparently I guess they were living very close quarters so there weren't a lot -- whole lot of secrets going on back and forth. You could hear through the walls fairly well.

He'll talk about that his experience with Scott was, they had dogs. There were several different incidents, and they were friends. No matter what, Scott never lost his temper. He was always calm. He always sort of worked through whatever issues. There were things that would have made other people mad, things that would have made other people angry.

He'll tell you a story about the dogs getting in a fight and how basically calm and forgiving he was through the whole thing. Just wasn't somebody -- you never heard them fight. Just wasn't somebody who lost his temper.

You are going to hear from Jim Gray. Jim is the person -- as we go through the history, you will hear about a crating company Scott and his father started there in Morro Bay. Keep in mind, Lee has a crating business in San Diego.

He also opened one in Morro Bay. You are going to hear that Scott sold -- the person he sold it to, Jim Gray, wanted to testify because he thought he was extraordinary.

Some of the things, after he sold it, the way Scott treated him. He'll tell stories about, for example, bills that would come in that would be questionable, who ought to be paying, the new owner, the old owner. Scott called him, would show up, immediately write him a check. Let me take care of that one. Scott would actually come over and help after he sold the business, help build things in the office.

Help him out. And he thought that was extraordinary.

You will hear from Tom Beardsley, of one of his clients, put together a golf tournament which Scott won.

Promptly took a fairly sizeable check and turned it back over to the tournament, volunteered it back, gave it to them.

And, as I said, in the end, you are also going to hear from several relatives. And those relatives are going to talk about the effects on their lives that he has, and continues to have, writing letters, visits, when they get to see him.

And then, as I said, we'll end with Jackie Peterson. You will get to hear from Jackie a little bit about her life and, of course, about the son she loves and why you need to spare his life.

I know that we have been here a long time. I know it seems like an awfully long time. During the time period we have been here, I have gotten engaged. And if I don't get home soon, I'm the first person that gets divorced before they get married. I understand, believe me, what it's like to be here. But I'm going to ask, you please bear with us.

Listen closely. This is a life worth saving.

We're not asking you to let this man go free. Life without parole is not some kind of a holiday. Life without parole is a horrible existence where you wake up every morning having to rethink your life.

I notice going through some of the questionnaires, not one, but I think two of you actually wrote when you were writing, thinking about LWOP, think it's worse than death.

That's a view held by a lot of people.

We're also asking you -- this is a -- very well, obviously it's the most important decision you can make.

It's a very individual decision. You are going to deliberate as a group. You are going to go back there, all twelve of you are going to talk it through. But it's an extremely individual decision, talking about the power of life and death. This is something you are going to be living with the rest of your life.

It's one thing to go back in the room and be with twelve people here and discuss it. It's another thing, because after you leave this jury room, you are not going to be with each other. You are going to be spending the rest of your lives. May see each other briefly on occasion. But it's a decision you have to live with alone. It's a decision you have to think about alone. It's a very strong individual decision.

I'll just conclude by saying, once again, mitigation is looking to what's good about a person. Looking at what's good about a person. We're not going to try and portray him as a saint. You are going to hear a lot of good things. You are going to hear a ton of good things. You are going to hear the effect from a number of -- inordinate number of parties' lives were touched in a very positive way.

And, in the end, we're going to come back and tell you, and ask you, that this is a life worth saving.