REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Jurors in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial sent mixed messages from the deliberation room Monday, asking to see 89 different pieces of evidence even as they apparently indicated to a judge that they were struggling to reach a verdict.

Judge Alfred Delucchi has not made public the notes the six-man, six-woman jury has sent since it began weighing evidence Wednesday, but something prompted the veteran judge to summon the jurors into open court Monday morning.

Without explanation, Delucchi reread to them instructions he gave after closing arguments last week about their obligation to work together to determine whether Peterson is guilty in the murders of his pregnant wife, Laci, and unborn son.

"Do not hesitate to change an opinion if you are convinced it is wrong," he said. "However, do not decide any question in particular because a majority of the jurors, or any of them, favor that decision."

Story continues

advertisement

Typically, judges issue such a reminder if jurors send a note from the jury room saying either that they are deadlocked or that some panelists are refusing to deliberate in good faith.

Leaning over his bench toward the jurors, who seemed weary, but attentive, the judge reminded them about the five and a half months they and the parties in the case have invested in the trial.

The judge then paused, stared toward the jury and said, "Now, this is important for you now."

He then slowly read them a paragraph entitled "How Jurors Should Approach Their Tasks," from the state's official jury instructions.

"The attitude and conduct of jurors at all times are very important. It is rarely helpful for a juror at the beginning of deliberations to express an emphatic opinion on the case or to announce a determination to stand for a certain verdict. When one does that at the outset, a sense of pride may be aroused, and one may hesitate to change a position even if shown it is wrong," he said.

He concluded, "Remember that you are not partisans or advocates in this matter. You are impartial judges of the facts."

The jurors did not look at each other, nor the lawyers, and quickly filed out of the courtroom when the judge finished.

"We'll see what develops now," Delucchi said after they left.

He told the lawyers that he already had prepared a second, stronger admonition concerning the duty to deliberate if the jury needed it.

Evidence review

At the end of the day, with jurors still in the deliberations room, the judge took the bench again and announced a list of evidence the panelists had requested be brought in to them.

The items the jurors asked for, according to the judge, include transcripts of phone calls between Peterson and his mistress, Amber Frey; a homemade anchor from his boat; information about their life insurance policies; tidal charts; and a large plastic bag found near Laci Peterson's remains.

Those pieces of evidence are in addition to phone records, videos, maps, and schematics the panel requested last week, as well as Peterson's fishing boat which was brought to the courthouse Monday morning for their inspection.

Former San Francisco prosecutor Jim Hammer said that he believed the requests to review evidence indicated that the panel had gotten beyond whatever issue prompted the judge's reinstruction.

"If it was a total roadblock they would have stopped, and we would've gotten a note saying they couldn't proceed," he said. "They seemed to have gotten over whatever small problem there was."

The jury is charged with determining whether Peterson is guilty of first- or second-degree murder or should be acquitted of all charges.

Eyeing the boat

Some jurors' hands-on inspection of one piece of evidence — the fishing boat — led the defense Monday morning to demand a mistrial.

The panelists requested a second look at the 14-foot Gamefisher last Friday and were brought straight to the boat in an underground courthouse garage from the hotel where they are sequestered.

As the lawyers and Delucchi looked on, two jurors jumped into the aluminum boat and began jumping up and down, according to comments made later in court.

Delucchi then told the jury that they should keep in mind that the boat was on a trailer, not in the tossing waters of the San Francisco Bay.

The stability of the boat is a key issue in the trial. Prosecutors say Peterson weighted the 27-year-old mother-to-be's body with concrete anchors and then tossed it over the side of the boat. But the defense maintains that the boat would have capsized.

Shortly after the jury returned to its deliberations, defense attorney Mark Geragos requested a mistrial, saying that "rocking the boat" constituted an experiment. Jurors are prohibited from carrying out their own experiments.

"When I say rocking, I mean rocking," Geragos complained to the judge, noting that one of the panelists was hopping on one foot.

The judge denied the motion. He said that jurors were allowed to "closely observe and even manipulate" evidence during their deliberations. The jurors' actions, he said, "could work for the prosecution's benefit, could work for the defense's benefit."

The judge also denied Geragos' request that the jurors be shown a video in which the defense attempted and apparently failed to be able to reenact the crime. Delucchi ruled that tape inadmissible during the trial.

Also Monday, the presiding judge of the courthouse, Judge Mark Forcum, reversed his decision to allow cameras in the hallway to film the relatives of the victim and the defendant as they left after the verdict.

Both the prosecution and the defense opposed the cameras, saying they would exploit the pain of the families.

"Trial counsel have made compelling arguments of the need to preserve the dignity of the family members and on a human level that can't or shouldn't ever be disregarded," Forcum said.