Court TV Host: Chat with Courttv.com's Lisa Sweetingham about the case of Susan Polk, on trial -- and serving as her own defense lawyer -- for the killing of her husband. Yesterday, Susan Polk's son Eli took the stand for the sixth day and read from a letter he wrote to his mother shortly after she stabbed his father. Discuss the latest developments in the case, and Lisa Sweetingham's interview with Susan Polk's mother, or any other aspects of the case you like...

Lisa Sweetingham: Hi, everyone. Court starts after lunch today to accommodate a juror's prescheduled appointment, so I'm happy to be able to chat with you about the Polk case. We are heading into Day 7 of the defense case. Eli Polk, Susan's 20-year-old son, is expected to return to the stand for more re-direct questioning by his mother. He has appeared before the jurors for 7 days now, with many interruptions due to witnesses being taken out of order. Yesterday was a very emotional day, as he read out loud from a letter he wrote his mother when she was in jail and he was in juvenile detention. Let's get to your questions!

Question from mrpips: Hello Lisa - has Susan Polk presented ANY evidence that challenges or contradicts the forensics?

Lisa Sweetingham: No, mrpips, she has not yet even touched the forensics, as far as presenting evidence or experts who can speak to the crime scene and her husband's autopsy; however, she does have a pathologist expert witness who she had hoped to put on the stand yesterday, but because she wanted to finish her son before moving on to the next witness, the pathologist was delayed. She had made numerous accusations, as you know, that the investigators tainted the scene, poured water on her husband's bloody head, to try to make the dried blood appear wet, threw furniture, i.e. an ottoman, around to try to create the appearance of a violent struggle. Basically, she has tried to show that investigators tried to make a self-defense scene look like a murder scene.

Question from mrpips: I see , thanks :)

Question from kiara: Lisa_Sweetingham, how would you gauge Susan's demeanor as the trial has progressed? Is she deteriorating?

Lisa Sweetingham: kiara, you always ask interesting questions. I have been thinking about this as well, because early on, many trial watchers suggested that Polk would "lose it," "explode" basically completely lose her composure, and that has not been the case, in my opinion. While she has become more vociferous and consistent in her accusations against the judge and prosecutor (more claims of judicial misconduct and conspiring between the prosecutor and judge were lodged Monday), she has not shown any signs of tiring. If anything, her arguments have become more cogent, she is getting better at citing evidence code, but the constant problem we still see seems to be her complete lack of what I would call "situational awareness." For instance, she may show jurors photos of her family while having Eli narrate the happier times as he disparages his father's behavior but then, slipped in with those photos, she will show a picture of the son of one her enemies. If you've been following this case, you know the drill: SP believes several of her husband's friends have conspired against her. So, as I was saying, she will show a picture of Barry Morris's son, and then ask Eli if he was "popular" or well-liked. A nice picture show-and-tell of the Polk family, then, becomes a catty sort of high school exercise on who is popular, and who isn't popular. Other times her lack of situational awareness will come out when she loses her temper with the judge and makes snide comments about crooked judges and DAs. She never yells, or swears. It's not her style, but she can be very inappropriate

Question from kakkij: Lisa, how long do you think the judge will put up with those types of accusations? (and what are her options if she continues?) OR will she be allowed to accuse anyone of anything?

Lisa Sweetingham: Judge Laurel Brady has put up with SP's accusations for WEEKS. The not-putting-up-with-it final option would be to revoke SP's pro per status, and that the judge has said is a last resort. It would essentially require excusing the jury, a mistrial and starting over again. What the judge has been doing more recently is to take short breaks. They've been referred to as time-outs in the press, but I've never heard the judge call them that. In any case, we have one or two time outs a day when the DA is on cross-examination. SP's accusations are so rampant they seem to fall on deaf ears.

Question from Sailor: Does she have any coaching or any one assisting her with the law?

Lisa Sweetingham: Susan has different people in her life who she calls from jail. She has Valerie Harris back as a legal runner, which means she can help her schedule witnesses and run errands for her. She has a legal analyst or two, individuals you have seen on Catherine Crier, with whom she will ask questions about her case on occasion, during regular chit-chat about what's next for SP, and what she thinks about her case. But I am unaware of anyone with whom she regularly consults specifically for legal advice. It's not her style, I would think. She likes to run her own show and so far she has taught herself a tremendous amount about the California legal system just through her own study.

Question from ancesq: Do you believe the unusual level of animosity displayed by the defendant and the prosecutor has helped or hurt Ms. Polk in the eyes of the jury?

Lisa Sweetingham: I can't imagine how it would help her. She is on trial for murder, and she is trying to show this jury that she was the victim. And yet, time after time, jurors have watched her, claws out, attacking the judge and the prosecutor whenever she disagrees with the judge's rulings or the prosecutor's questions to a witness. The question they will have to ask themselves is: did she willfully stab Felix Polk? Or did she struggle for the blade after he attacked her with it? She has shown that it is not her style to rage or act out violently but the jurors have become so inured to her behavior in the courtroom that many of them no longer hide their smiles when she says something or does something inappropriate.

Question from sam: Do you think that given her conduct, people are starting to see her as less of a victim and perhaps as the type of person who would seek out an inappropriate relationship with her therapist?

Lisa Sweetingham: That's such a sticky question, Sam. For one, even if a 15-year-old girl sought out a relationship with her therapist, it would absolutely be up to the therapist to keep their relationship professional, and avoid any sort of personal entanglements. Secondly, hard to know if Susan Polk at 48 is the same as Susan Mae Bolling was at 15. Also, the question would presume that people see her as a victim, and while I do believe that she has been able to show that her husband was no angel, it's hard to tell whether jurors think she was a victim in the relationship. I'm not saying she wasn't victimized. Clearly, her isolation and her being completely and totally attached to Felix, their marriage, their children, for some 34 years, that had a huge effect on her growth and who she is today, but, in my opinion, she has yet to effectively demonstrate for the jury that she was victimized and to back up her claims that all of her life Felix was mentally and physically abusive. Still, it's early in her case and, so, too early to say what the outcome will be. She did have a very convincing and incredibly sincere witness, as you may recall from my report last week, a neighbor who risked the odds to arrive in court in a wheelchair to tell jurors about what a wonderful wife and mother SP was, and how she found Felix to be disagreeable. She described hearing him beating one of his sons. More of those kind of witnesses will really help her case.

Question from Alicia: Does Susan's mom have any relationship with her grandsons? Thanks for doing this chat, these are always fun!

Lisa Sweetingham: Hi Alicia, thanks for joining the chat! Helen Bolling, SP's 72-year-old mother, does not have a relationship with Gabriel or Adam, but she has become closer to ELI since the death of his father. You can read my interview with Bolling on the site, and find out more about her and her ideas about what happened the night Felix died. I spoke briefly with the Briners about Gabriel, because Bolling has said that she always felt a kind of bond with him, but that he never called her after his father's death. Marjorie Briner told me that Gabriel never really knew his grandmother. That there would be long stretches where he'd never see her, and then Susan would call her and ask her to come and babysit the children. Bolling testified that her relationship with the children, and her own daughter, faltered during the Polks' 20-year-marriage because Felix didn't want her around. Gabriel has said it was his mother's decision not to have Bolling around, and prosecutors even played Bolling a video of SP being interrogated by detectives on the night she was arrested, in which SP called her father a "pervert" and said her parents were both abusive to her. Bolling chalked it up to Felix's influence. In any case, Bolling is back in Susan and Eli's life, and she has been coming to court to support them both this week

Court TV Host: Thanks, Lisa, I know you've got to run...

Lisa Sweetingham: Thanks for your questions, and hope we can chat again soon!