The Drew Peterson Prosecution and Verdict Threatens All Americans

Drew Peterson    Photo by Paul Huebl

Joliet, IL—A jury convicted retired Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson of murder yesterday.   Peterson very publicly proclaimed his innocence and in the process became an absolute public pariah.   The media he used to assert his innocence redundantly exposed Peterson’s troubled marriages with much younger women.  The self-generated publicity backfired.

Police and prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to take action against Peterson under existing law.   There was no way to proceed with a prosecution.

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow quickly lobbied a special legislative bill that would retroactively allow him to use normally outlawed hearsay testimony as evidence in court.  Additionally, it was a special law that was designed and promulgated just for the prosecution of him and was given the popular moniker of The Drew Peterson Law.

The Constitution provides three protections that should have precluded this law.  The law was a prohibited ex post facto law.  This was also a prohibited bill of attainder.  The biggest problem of all was that it denied Peterson his right to confront the evidence used against him in court. 

Apparently there is no amount of pre-trial publicity that will cause today’s courts to take steps to prevent the outside influences from reaching a sitting high profile case jury.  Nothing interfered with the jury from their Internet access to hundreds of articles and videos related to the matter under examination throughout the trial.  Juror’s very human inquisitive nature makes judicial admonitions to avoid such exposure unenforceable and totally meaningless. 

I’m not clairvoyant and cannot tell you what happened to Kathleen Savio eight years ago inside her locked domicile.  The expert’s disagreed and that normally should have been reasonable doubt enough.  Police only bothered to look at one suspect.

The troublesome hearsay statements are never made under oath nor a guarantee that the witness repeating the statements are both accurate and truthful when they offer this kind of testimony. 

The capable lawyers representing Drew Peterson were placed into a grossly unfair disadvantage with this unprecedented hearsay prosecution.  They even had to somehow create new and untested jury instructions for this trial. 

Hearsay was popular evidence in another infamous criminal justice system from history, The People’s Court of National Socialist Germany 1933-1945. 

The Drew Peterson case endangers every American and their loved ones to the kind of tyranny we have just seen in Will County, Illinois.

Drew Peterson Trial Ends Third Week, The Best is Yet to Come!

Drew Peterson   Photo by Paul Huebl

Joliet, IL—Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow made a non-stop mess of his questionable effort to destroy Retired Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson.  He knows that while gossip and hate may be over the top, real evidence of murder and Peterson’s possible involvement is almost non-existent.

At best it can be shown that Peterson was a lousy husband and that Kathleen Savio was on a campaign to grab the marital assets of her failed marriage. She was an angry and scorned woman.

Savio had her emotional problems and was taking or in some cases not taking drugs prescribed to her to keep her under control.

It's also reasonable to believe that Peterson said some ugly things about and to Savio.  Divorces seldom bring out the best behavior of those involved. 

The biggest problem I have is calling Savio’s death a murder.   Aside from the original investigation and autopsy are the total lack of signs of a fight for life that would normally exist.  No defense wounds, nothing in the area disturbed nor were there broken fingernails with DNA material.  

We can’t dismiss the reality that Savio changed the locks on the home and Peterson had no key. 

The hearsay issue has very frightening implication to the American freedoms and liberty so many brave Americans gave life and limb to protect.  If they can get Drew Peterson through hearsay evidence, you’re next!  We all have someone in our lives that would lie just because they can.  They tell others and the story spins and grows to epic proportions before it’s ever heard in court. 

In this case, was Savio lying to those close to her?  She can’t be cross-examined nor was she ever placed under oath.   Next did the people claiming they heard her statements tell the truth?  Did they perhaps misunderstand what they were told, if they were told? 

As a cop and criminal defense investigator I learned long ago people will embellish or even lie if they thought it could somehow “bring justice”.  Everyone wants to help the cops especially in a high profile case that can bring fame and fortune.

There’s a huge rub here that we are sure to observe if this silliness continues.  That is that this case has been dragging on for years.  Peterson has a sharp legal team and they left no stones unturned.  Any time a defense investigator has this much time he will find more and more people that will rat on the witnesses.  Relationships dissolve or were never quite as solid as some of the witnesses think.  Three years of idle chatter and inconsistent stories will be put before the court.

Impeachment of witnesses becomes easy when people lie, embellish or spin their accounts to their so-called friends.  Lawyers know this so they employ investigators trained to flesh out impeachment witnesses and other evidence. 

The fun begins during the defense portion of trials because the impeachment witnesses are not part of discovery process.  They can be brought into courtrooms by surprise.  In high profile cases its common to see people we look up to like professionals, members of the clergy destroyed especially when the media is watching intently.

For a defense investigator having three years to watch, track and record witnesses is a gift from heaven.   Today, an investigator contacts a friend, relative or acquaintance of a witness and learns nothing but he dutifully leaves a business card behind.  Months later the phone rings and startling facts come to life. 

I believe that the so-called prosecution blunders and not what they seem.  They are deliberate.  Glasgow wants this trial to go away because he knows all he has are his shaky hearsay witnesses and he rightly anticipates a credibility bloodbath.  If there is a mistrial Glasgow knows he can blame the judge to save his own political ass.

The Forbidden Fruit of the Information Age

As for the jury and the evidence being kept out of the courtroom that’s another total disaster.  Few jurors have the self-discipline or the motivation to not actively search out the forbidden fruit provided by today’s Information Age.  They can be counted upon to follow their human curiosity and learn what causes sidebars and the jury to be removed from the courtroom.  In this case they are also learning that prosecutorial misconduct is running over the top here. 

I can’t predict just how this circus will end but it’s proving to be the greatest show on earth.  I don’t share early defense team beliefs that the judge will have the balls to render a directed verdict of Not Guilty when the state rests their case. Directed verdicts are rare and seldom granted even when solidly warranted.

The defense will be forced to put on a case complete with impeachment witnesses, experts and investigators.   I doubt seriously that we will hear from Drew Peterson.  I doubt he has anything to add to the mountain of interviews he’s granted.  The jury  already knows what he had to say about this case.  

This trial Will Change Lives
The case will go to this jury and they will either render a unanimous verdict or not.   If they follow the instruction of the court I doubt there can be a conviction.  Jurors seldom follow instruction so anything is possible. 

The only thing I know for sure is that this trial will change the lives of those involved and not for the best.