Posted: November 9, 2004 at 11:00 a.m.
Updated: November 10, 2004 at 12:50 p.m. REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) -- The judge in the Scott Peterson trial removed the jury's foreman on Wednesday, the second time in two days a juror has been dismissed from the panel.
The judge did not disclose why he dismissed juror No. 5., a man in his mid-40s who has both medical and law degrees. The juror was replaced by an alternate whose son-in-law now owns a restaurant that Scott and Laci Peterson once owned in San Luis Obispo.
The move follows the removal Tuesday of juror No. 7, Frances Gorman, who reportedly did her own research on the case. Jurors are only supposed to consider evidence presented during trial.
The foreman, Gregory Jackson, was himself an alternate, replacing a juror just three weeks after the double-murder trial began. Justin Falconer was dismissed in June for talking to Laci Peterson's brother.
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi told the new panel that they needed to start their deliberations over, for the second day in a row.
"You must therefore set aside all past deliberations and begin deliberating anew," he said Wednesday.
Jackson and Gorman remain under a court-imposed gag order.
Jurors sat impassively, some grim-faced, as Delucchi announced the latest change. They have endured a five-month trial and have been sequestered since deliberations began Nov. 3.
Wednesday's move leaves the jury pool with just three remaining alternates.
Juror No. 6, a man who works as a firefighter and paramedic, was elected as the new foreman.
During the trial, he at times seemed uninterested in the proceedings. He was seen rolling his eyes on occasion, specifically during the playing of tape-recorded conversations between Peterson and his girlfriend, Amber Frey.
"He was one of the jurors who seemed most bored during Amber Frey's testimony," said Jim Hammer, a former San Francisco prosecutor who has been observing the case. "He seems very mainstream, which is good for the prosecution."
The judge indicated jurors had been communicating with the court but would not elaborate. Hammer said it is too soon to say the jury is in disarray.
"I wouldn't call it a runaway jury," he said.
A jury expert said the foreman's removal could indicate that the panel is concerned about its leadership.
"They went with somebody who seems a little less rigid," said David Graeven, a jury consultant from San Francisco with no connection to the Peterson trial.
The new juror has a distant connection to Scott and Laci Peterson.
His daughter is engaged to a man who owns the Shack restaurant in the town where Scott and Laci Peterson graduated from college. The son-in-law had worked for the Petersons when they owned the cafe and eventually bought it from the person the Petersons sold it to before the couple moved to Modesto, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Alternate jurors have been present throughout the trial in the jury box but have not been inside the jury room during deliberations. They have been sequestered along with regular jurors at an area hotel.
If jurors ultimately conclude that Peterson killed his pregnant wife, Laci, and her fetus on Christmas Eve 2002, they must decide whether he's guilty of first- or second-degree murder.
First-degree convictions, carrying the death penalty or life without parole, would mean jurors believe Peterson planned the killings. Second-degree murder convictions don't require a finding of premeditation and carry sentences of 15-years-to-life for each count.
Prosecutors claim Peterson killed Laci around Dec. 24, 2002, then dumped her weighted body from his small aluminum boat into San Francisco Bay. The remains of Laci and the fetus were discovered a few miles from where Peterson claims to have gone fishing alone the day his wife vanished.
Since deliberations began, the panel has asked to review numerous pieces of evidence, including the boat prosecutors claim Peterson used to dispose of his wife's body; San Francisco Bay tidal charts seized from Peterson's computers; an anchor found on Peterson's boat that prosecutors allege is similar to the ones he used to sink his wife's body; and transcripts and recordings of telephone calls between Peterson and his mistress, Amber Frey.
Discord was evident early in the deliberations. On Monday, Delucchi lectured the panel about the importance of keeping an open mind.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
