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Resuers Plan Second Outing To Save Entangled Whale; Prosecutors Recommend Indictment Of Ariel Sharon; White House Uses Executive Privilegds, Say Condoleezza Rice Will Not Testify
Aired March 27, 2004 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Time now for our legal roundtable. It's been a busy week in court. We are talking today about the Michael Jackson grand jury starting on Monday. With me now from Cleveland, Ohio is civil rights attorney Avery Freedman. And in New York, criminal defense attorney Richard Herman. Good to see you.
RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Ready to go.
WHITFIELD: All right. So, we have 19 grand jurors that have been selected, and the case, the prosecution will make its case on Monday. How long, Avery, do we think it might take?
AVERY FREEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: It's going to take about a week, maybe a little bit more. But what is interesting about it, Fredericka, is that what Tom Sneddon could have done, the district attorney, is had a mini trial. That's how they do it in California. But he would have faced Geragos and Brafman, as well as the judge. So, he's decided to do it in secret with a grand jury. And this case is already bleeding to death with reasonable doubt. So, that's why we are looking at the grand jury.
WHITFIELD: So, Richard, why would he do it that way? The prosecutors have the advantage traditionally this way?
RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: A prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. And basically, what is going to happen at this, no defense attorney is going be there, it's only going to be Sneddon. And he will probably bring the victim in, because in California, they do not allow hear say evidence to come in. So, the victims, plural, will come in and testify, without cross examination. Sneddon's career is riding on this. And he didn't want a fiasco of people jumping on top of cars and dancing and a party atmosphere. He doesn't want that.
WHITFIELD: So, Avery, the alleged victim could be there as well as defendant, Michael Jackson, could appear, right?
FREDEMAN: I don't think we will see that. I think what we're going to see is the victim along with some supportive witnesses. And as I say, that will take about a week. Then at that point, Sneddon has his indictment, you go forward with that.
WHITFIELD: OK. Let's talk about the Tyco case now, Avery. This is pretty astounding considering some of the jurors coming back into the courtroom and reporters have reported that they have seen one of the jurors giving the defense team, Dennis Kozlowski, an OK sign.
FREEDMAN: An OK sign, right.
HERMAN: What's wrong with that?
FREEDMAN: Listen, this is New York jury. You take a combative guy like Richard, multiply it times 12. That's the picture here. You have five months of trial. These guys have been figing over this thing. Whatever. The judge is doing a good job in trying to get the jury to come up with a deliberation. My prediction, next Monday, it's going to be a mistrial.
WHITFIELD: Oh, boy.
HERMAN: You know, Fredericka, this happens all the time. And with a wink or a nod. Only it happens to the prosecution. And nobody raises a stink about that. The fact of the matter is, is this woman, who is an educated woman, a teacher, an attorney, a law graduate, she is maintaining her position and she will hold on to this position. And Avery, I will have to agree with you. This will be a mistrial on Monday.
WHITFIELD: Wow. All because of potentially one person, the other 11 jurors all have come into agreement.
FREEDMAN: Awful. Terrible.
WHITFIELD: All right. The Jayson Williams case. The defense tried to show that the gun probably had the propensity of misfiring. Richard, did they make a good case?
HERMAN: Well, it's a nice segue, because I have been telling you every week, this is what Jayson Williams needs, he needs one juror to hold out for him. Because, again, the prosecution case was overwhelming.
Now this gun expert who testified -- you know each side put together an expert to put forth their points and their view. There has to be a level of objectivity to the testimony. When the gun expert uses words like immoral or unethical in his examination, it destroys his crediblity. And even Dr. Michael Baden, the pathologist, his crediblility was shaken a little bit, and he's impeccable. These experts have to have a level of credibility. And if they lose that, which I believe both of these experts have been deficient in thier testimony.
WHITFIELD: Avery, how do you see it?
FREEDMAN: Well, you know, Richard has already convicted Jayson Williams. I buy into the old concept that maybe you want to hear all the evidence first before you convict him. There's some correctness, I aggree, there are some problems with these expert testimonies. I think the big problem is that Billy Martin, the defense lawyer, promised that we would hear from Jayson Williams. The jury already knows he gave a Barbara Walters interview. And you know what, once he takes the stand, if he does, a testimonial catastrophe. That's coming up this week.
WHITFIELD: Wow. Avery Freedman, Richard Herman, always great to see you guys.
Thank you very much.
HERMAN: Thank you so much.
:nav Source: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/27/cst.07.html
Resuers Plan Second Outing To Save Entangled Whale; Prosecutors Recommend Indictment Of Ariel Sharon; White House Uses Executive Privilegds, Say Condoleezza Rice Will Not Testify
Aired March 27, 2004 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Time now for our legal roundtable. It's been a busy week in court. We are talking today about the Michael Jackson grand jury starting on Monday. With me now from Cleveland, Ohio is civil rights attorney Avery Freedman. And in New York, criminal defense attorney Richard Herman. Good to see you.
RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Ready to go.
WHITFIELD: All right. So, we have 19 grand jurors that have been selected, and the case, the prosecution will make its case on Monday. How long, Avery, do we think it might take?
AVERY FREEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: It's going to take about a week, maybe a little bit more. But what is interesting about it, Fredericka, is that what Tom Sneddon could have done, the district attorney, is had a mini trial. That's how they do it in California. But he would have faced Geragos and Brafman, as well as the judge. So, he's decided to do it in secret with a grand jury. And this case is already bleeding to death with reasonable doubt. So, that's why we are looking at the grand jury.
WHITFIELD: So, Richard, why would he do it that way? The prosecutors have the advantage traditionally this way?
RICHARD HERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: A prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. And basically, what is going to happen at this, no defense attorney is going be there, it's only going to be Sneddon. And he will probably bring the victim in, because in California, they do not allow hear say evidence to come in. So, the victims, plural, will come in and testify, without cross examination. Sneddon's career is riding on this. And he didn't want a fiasco of people jumping on top of cars and dancing and a party atmosphere. He doesn't want that.
WHITFIELD: So, Avery, the alleged victim could be there as well as defendant, Michael Jackson, could appear, right?
FREDEMAN: I don't think we will see that. I think what we're going to see is the victim along with some supportive witnesses. And as I say, that will take about a week. Then at that point, Sneddon has his indictment, you go forward with that.
WHITFIELD: OK. Let's talk about the Tyco case now, Avery. This is pretty astounding considering some of the jurors coming back into the courtroom and reporters have reported that they have seen one of the jurors giving the defense team, Dennis Kozlowski, an OK sign.
FREEDMAN: An OK sign, right.
HERMAN: What's wrong with that?
FREEDMAN: Listen, this is New York jury. You take a combative guy like Richard, multiply it times 12. That's the picture here. You have five months of trial. These guys have been figing over this thing. Whatever. The judge is doing a good job in trying to get the jury to come up with a deliberation. My prediction, next Monday, it's going to be a mistrial.
WHITFIELD: Oh, boy.
HERMAN: You know, Fredericka, this happens all the time. And with a wink or a nod. Only it happens to the prosecution. And nobody raises a stink about that. The fact of the matter is, is this woman, who is an educated woman, a teacher, an attorney, a law graduate, she is maintaining her position and she will hold on to this position. And Avery, I will have to agree with you. This will be a mistrial on Monday.
WHITFIELD: Wow. All because of potentially one person, the other 11 jurors all have come into agreement.
FREEDMAN: Awful. Terrible.
WHITFIELD: All right. The Jayson Williams case. The defense tried to show that the gun probably had the propensity of misfiring. Richard, did they make a good case?
HERMAN: Well, it's a nice segue, because I have been telling you every week, this is what Jayson Williams needs, he needs one juror to hold out for him. Because, again, the prosecution case was overwhelming.
Now this gun expert who testified -- you know each side put together an expert to put forth their points and their view. There has to be a level of objectivity to the testimony. When the gun expert uses words like immoral or unethical in his examination, it destroys his crediblity. And even Dr. Michael Baden, the pathologist, his crediblility was shaken a little bit, and he's impeccable. These experts have to have a level of credibility. And if they lose that, which I believe both of these experts have been deficient in thier testimony.
WHITFIELD: Avery, how do you see it?
FREEDMAN: Well, you know, Richard has already convicted Jayson Williams. I buy into the old concept that maybe you want to hear all the evidence first before you convict him. There's some correctness, I aggree, there are some problems with these expert testimonies. I think the big problem is that Billy Martin, the defense lawyer, promised that we would hear from Jayson Williams. The jury already knows he gave a Barbara Walters interview. And you know what, once he takes the stand, if he does, a testimonial catastrophe. That's coming up this week.
WHITFIELD: Wow. Avery Freedman, Richard Herman, always great to see you guys.
Thank you very much.
HERMAN: Thank you so much.
:nav Source: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/27/cst.07.html