Cameras Banned From Scott Peterson Trial

Start of Murder Trial Pushed Back Again
By KIM CURTIS, AP

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Feb. 2) - The judge in Scott Peterson's murder trial on Monday banned cameras from the courtroom out of fear that jurors and witnesses would ''get antsy.''

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi also agreed to delay the trial by at least a week because Peterson's lawyer, Mark Geragos, is defending another murder suspect in Southern California. Neither side was willing to speculate when the trial would now begin.
On the camera issue, Delucchi rejected arguments by media lawyers who argued that the public has a right to see images from the trial.

''Jurors get antsy when there's cameras in the court. Witnesses get antsy,'' Delucchi said during the 20-minute hearing. ''The print media is welcome. This is not going to be a secret trial.''

Attorney Karl Olson, who represented several newspapers, told the judge that coverage of the trial would be improved with photographs - just as front-page pictures enhanced coverage of the Super Bowl.

The judge berated Olson: ''This isn't the Super Bowl.''

Prosecutors agreed with Geragos, who argued that in-court cameras would only make the trial ''a bigger zoo than it already is.''

Peterson appeared in court for the first time since the case was moved from his hometown of Modesto to this bedroom community south of San Francisco. He told the judge he accepted as ''a regrettable necessity'' his attorney's request to postpone the start of the trial.

A noticeably thinner Peterson, wearing a light gray suit, smiled at his parents and other relatives as he walked into court. The parents of Laci Peterson and about a dozen other family members also attended.

The day saw little of the frenzy the sensational case is expected to generate - just 10 of the 25 seats available to local citizens were filled.

County officials have asked television stations to pay $51,000 to reserve one of 16 sidewalk spaces outside the courthouse for the duration of the trial, which is expected to last six months. Pelted by a dark rain, just two television tents were up Monday morning as lawyers assembled in the courtroom.

Geragos also dropped his initial insistence that another judge handle the trial. Outside court, he told reporters he now thinks Delucchi ''is even-handed, is fair and that's all we're asking for.''

Left undecided was the possible sequestration of jurors. That could be discussed at another hearing scheduled for next Monday.

Peterson, 31, could face the death penalty if he is convicted of two counts of murder for the deaths of Laci Peterson and the couple's unborn son. In April, the remains of mother and child washed ashore along San Francisco Bay, two miles from the spot where Scott Peterson said he was fishing on Christmas Eve 2002, when his wife vanished.

AP-NY-02-02-04 2239EST

But the judge is making the choices as he sees fit, and that's his job.

Justin Nyberg
Staff Writer
Published on Friday, February 13, 2004

REDWOOD CITY -- Scott Peterson is too sexy for his portrait.
Apparently, that's the consensus of two women whose job it will be to draw his face over and over again for the duration of his highly publicized trial for murder.

"I think that he is difficult to draw because he is too good looking," said freelance courtroom artist Vicki Behringer. "He doesn't have enough character lines or wrinkles."

With cameras banned from Peterson's trial, Behringer and fellow freelance artist Joan Lynch will spend the next six months furiously producing images of the drama that will transpire behind the closed double doors of courtroom 2M.

They say it is their biggest assignment ever.

"He has what I call an average face," Lynch said. "It was a little hard in the beginning. All of a sudden, I was able to draw some really good pictures of him. I just hope it keeps up."

The courtroom artist, once a staple of newsrooms, is a vanishing breed. In the 1980s, their ranks fell sharply after advances in camera technology and a demand for photographic images marginalized their work.

Behringer said work became more common after the televised O.J. Simpson trial in 1996 in Los Angeles, where grandstanding inside the courtroom led more judges to turn a cold shoulder to cameras.

Few pictures take longer than an hour and a half. During Peterson's preliminary hearing in Modesto, Lynch churned out three works in 30 minutes, and finished 13 by the end of the day. Both artists use ink pens to quickly capture an important scene, then fill in the lines with watercolors.

There are some tips they don't mind sharing. The key is to follow the storyline of a trial closely so you know the pivotal moment you need to capture -- the emotional moment of testimony, or the lawyer gesturing to the exhibit that will make or break the case.

Over the next six months, Peterson will stand trial for his life, accused of murdering his wife and unborn child on Dec. 23 or 24, 2002.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/templates/story.cfm?displaystory=1&storyname=021304n_peterson

less accurate, in my opinion, plus alot of "mundane" things left out by the media. I would have liked to see it for myself, get ALL the info, not just what the media decides is news-worthy.