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Updated Nov. 8, 2004, 12:30 p.m. ET

Jurors turn focus to Scott Peterson's fishing boat
Scott Peterson told police he was fishing in this 14-foot boat the day his wife disappeared.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Jurors in Scott Peterson's capital murder trial want to see the boat the fertilizer salesman allegedly used to dump his wife's body in the San Francisco Bay, according to two sources close to the case.

The panel wrote a note to Judge Alfred Delucchi Friday requesting an inspection of the 14-foot aluminum Gamefisher Peterson took out on the bay Dec. 24, 2002, the day he reported his wife, Laci, missing.

The sources confirmed to Court TV that the boat will be brought to the courthouse and jurors will see it Monday.

The request to see the boat came as the panel completed a third day of deliberations without reaching a verdict. The six men and six women have weighed evidence for nearly 19 hours. They will spend the weekend sequestered at a hotel, but they are not permitted to discuss the case until they return to the jury room at about 8 a.m. Monday.


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Jurors first viewed the boat in a courthouse garage July 27 during the prosecution's case.

The boat is central to the prosecution's theory of the case, but also key to defense claims that Peterson is not guilty of the murders of the mother-to-be and the child she was carrying.

Peterson agreed to purchase the boat for $1,400 Dec. 9, 2002 — the weekend prosecutors say he hatched the plan to kill his wife.

Prosecutors maintain Peterson killed the 27-year-old in their home, placed her body in the boat in his warehouse in Modesto, attached homemade anchors to her body, and then drove the boat to the Berkeley Marina where he motored into the bay and dumped the body overboard.

During their case, prosecutors showed the jury photos in which a pregnant woman about the size of the victim easily fit between the seats of the boat. They also called to the stand a representative of the boat manufacturer who described the boat as a safe, stable watercraft.

The defense insists that the weight of the anchors and the 153-pound expectant mother would have capsized the small fishing boat.

The judge made no formal announcement of the jury's request, but he met privately with prosecutors and a defense attorney for about 45 minutes Friday afternoon. Prosecutors Rick Distaso, Birgit Fladager and Dave Harris emerged from the meeting smiling, but refused to comment.

The note to view the boat is the second request jurors are known to have made during their deliberations. They asked Thursday to review photos and video of the defendant's house and warehouse. Those photos included shots of the boat.

In other trial news, the prosecution and defense filed yet another joint motion opposing video coverage of the verdict. Delucchi, who is presiding over the trial, ruled Thursday that cameras would not be permitted for the verdict to avoid causing an "emotional meltdown" for the relatives of the defendant and victim.

The new motion opposes cameras in the hallway to capture the players leaving court. Judge Mark Forcum, presiding judge of the San Mateo County courthouse, permitted those cameras, but both sides are asking he reconsider the decision. Forcum has scheduled a hearing for 9:30 a.m. Monday.

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