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Scott Peterson Murder Case | Did bad science convict the wrong person? — Transcript

by Dr. Todd Grande · 4,141 words · 600 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00welcome to my scientifically informed
0:01insider look at mental health topics if
0:04you find this video to be interesting or
0:06helpful please like it and subscribe to
0:07my channel
0:08well this is dr. grande today's question
0:11asks if I can review the Scott Peterson
0:13murder case so I'll be taking a look at
0:17the timeline here and then some of the
0:20evidence from the prosecution and
0:22defense and then talking about some of
0:24the mental health personality and human
0:26behavior factors that played a part in
0:29this case this analysis is based on
0:30information that's been reported
0:32I'm not diagnosing anybody that is
0:35involved in this case just speculating
0:38based on what could have happened in a
0:39situation like this so taking a look at
0:43the people involved first we have Scott
0:46Lee Peterson who is 30 at the time of
0:50the murder and this was back in 2002 we
0:54see Lacey Peterson
0:56his wife she was 27 and she was seven
0:58and a half months pregnant with her
1:01unborn son named Connor and then we see
1:04another kind of key player in this
1:07murder case Amber Dawn Frye amber fries
1:10she was also 27 and she was Scott
1:14Peterson's mistress so the case kind of
1:18starts there right we see Scott Peterson
1:21has an affair with amber Frey allegedly
1:24he tells her that he's not married so a
1:27single and he's looking for a long-term
1:30relationship so they have a relationship
1:33that kind of heats up in a short period
1:35of time and then we moved to December
1:3923rd 2002 and this is the last time that
1:42Laci Peterson was seen alive by people
1:45that she knew right so this was on
1:48December 23rd now Scott Peterson claims
1:51that he saw her life the next day but
1:53that's different there was some
1:54eyewitnesses that may have seen her
1:55that's kind of a different thing in
1:57terms of like initially looking at this
2:00case there's pretty clear evidence that
2:02she was alive on December 23rd so what
2:07happens here is that after she's seen on
2:10December 23rd Scott Peterson claims that
2:12they
2:13home they were home on December 24th and
2:17that he left to go fishing around 9:30
2:20a.m. and that she was in the house and
2:22alive now he went fishing and came back
2:28and she wasn't there and eventually the
2:31police were called a little bit after 5
2:33p.m. now it's interesting because that's
2:36all we have so far right she was alive
2:39on December 23rd Scott Peterson said she
2:42was alive on the 24th and he left and
2:44came back and she was missing
2:46now the police came out and right away
2:49suspected that Scott Peterson had
2:52murdered his wife and Conner they were
2:55thrown off by how calm he was his kind
2:58of cool demeanor and they're also thrown
3:00off by how he didn't seem to have a lot
3:02of questions for them now it was a
3:05little while later when Conners body was
3:08discovered and shortly after that when
3:11Lacey Peterson's body was discovered so
3:13a little bit after the bodies were
3:15discovered Scott Peterson was arrested
3:16he was arrested on April 18 2003 near a
3:21golf course and what's interesting about
3:23his arrest is kind of what he had in his
3:25possession at the time when he was
3:27arrested in his car they found almost 15
3:30thousand dollars in cash for cellphones
3:33survival and camping equipment his
3:36brother's driver's license and of course
3:38his own driver's license and 12 viagra
3:41tablets so he'd also dyed his hair blond
3:44so this didn't look too good for Scott
3:47Peterson at this point right he looked
3:50like he may have been getting ready to
3:52flee so as I mentioned he was arrested
3:55he was charged and later on he was
3:56convicted a first-degree murder for
3:58Lacey Peterson's murder and
4:00second-degree murder for the murder of
4:02Conner Peterson so Scott Peterson was
4:05sentenced to death for those convictions
4:07and currently as I'm making this video
4:10he's still in prison appealing the death
4:13penalty so now taking a look at the
4:16evidence for the prosecution and defense
4:18I'm looking here at the entire picture
4:20not just what was presented back at the
4:22trial so we look at the prosecution's
4:24case their theory of the crime it was
4:26actually priest
4:27straightfoward they believe that Scott
4:30Peterson strangled or smothered Laci
4:33Peterson on the night of December 23rd
4:36or on the morning of the 24th but they
4:39didn't know when it happened and they
4:41argued they didn't have to prove when it
4:43happened they only need to prove that it
4:45happened
4:45they believed after that when he went on
4:48what he called the fishing trip he
4:50dumped the body and the San Francisco
4:51Bay and his motivation would have been
4:54money like life insurance money and of
4:57course the affair with amber Frey so
5:00taking a look at the evidence on the
5:01side of prosecution we see both physical
5:03and behavioral evidence so in terms of
5:06physical evidence they found a strand of
5:09hair in pliers on the boat but I don't
5:12think this really was too convincing
5:14they had this theory that Connor died on
5:1712 24 and they supported this theory by
5:20using an expert who testified about the
5:23filled bones and how he measured them
5:25and how the time of death could be
5:26calculated with that measurement but the
5:28expert used an incorrect method he used
5:31a method that deviated from the method
5:33that he said he used so that was
5:35problematic they also had evidence about
5:38the dogs picking up Laci Peterson scent
5:41at the marina but this is pretty
5:43interesting the dogs were actually
5:45unqualified I'm sure they were nice dogs
5:47I have anything against the dogs but
5:49evidently they were not qualified they
5:52weren't very good or accurate at their
5:55job and also the method that was used
5:57the way the dogs were used was actually
5:58incorrect and one example of this is the
6:02scent they gained the scent from
6:05cross-contaminated items so items that
6:07Laci Peterson touched and used but also
6:10items that Scott Pearson could have
6:12touched or used now recently we see that
6:15an expert has weighed in on this and
6:18indicated that these searching protocols
6:20that were used in the case were
6:21virtually guaranteed to produce an
6:24unreliable result so the dogs really
6:27weren't used correctly and again they
6:29didn't appear to be qualified the
6:30prosecution also called an expert who
6:32was supposed to understand how bodies
6:35would move in water because again of the
6:37theory of the crime Scott Peterson must
6:40have dumped the bodies
6:41but of course they washed up somewhere
6:43else and the prosecution had to explain
6:45that difference and they explained it
6:47through this so-called expert but as it
6:50turned out on the stand
6:52this individual admitted that he had
6:54done those studies he had no education
6:56or expertise in terms of how bodies move
7:00and water he also indicated I think this
7:03is particularly important that he was
7:05aware of the prosecution's theory of the
7:08crime now it's interesting because his
7:10testimony was key in getting the
7:13convictions one Scott Peterson and yet
7:16he's saying he really doesn't know what
7:18he's doing and he was aware of what
7:20result he was supposed to find and I'll
7:23talk about this more in a moment now we
7:26also see that my detectives said that
7:28the house smelled like bleach turns out
7:30there was no evidence to support that
7:32and we see that there was really no
7:35evidence anywhere else there was no
7:36evidence on Scott Peterson in his boat
7:40in his yard in his house in his vehicle
7:43anywhere so this just seems kind of
7:47unusual that there be no physical
7:48evidence at all well on Scott Peterson
7:52were the places where he would have
7:53needed to be in order to commit the
7:55crime now getting into the behavioral
7:57evidence I think this is particularly
7:59interesting because we see this a number
8:01of cases right we see that there was
8:03this feeling that the police had that
8:05Scott Peterson was too calm also that he
8:09was keeping secrets so allegedly he kept
8:12the fact that he had a boat secret from
8:14Laci Peterson we find out of course that
8:16this wasn't true and really what the
8:19police were saying was Scott Peterson
8:21was not reacting in the right way and
8:24I'll talk more about this in a few
8:26moments so now moving over to the
8:28defense well the defense had a few
8:30different components they challenged of
8:32course the prosecution's assertions they
8:34indicated that the timeline could be
8:37accounted for right so Scott Peterson
8:39went fishing and they kind of showed the
8:42different steps in that going to the
8:43warehouse getting the boat towing the
8:45boat to the marina all this and they
8:47also looked at this idea that you didn't
8:49lie right there weren't lies told the
8:52beginning and then you see him changing
8:54his story that
8:55seemed to happen and usually when people
8:57are guilty of murder they do change
8:59their story once or maybe even more so
9:02he didn't appear to lie he went fishing
9:05and came home and that seems to be
9:08supported by quite a bit of evidence now
9:11I mentioned before the prosecution had
9:12that witness that testified about the
9:14length of the fetal bones to establish
9:16when Connor had died and the defense
9:19called
9:19a witness to counter that prosecution
9:23witness and this witness was going to
9:25testify that the unborn son Laci
9:28Peterson's unborn son lived until well
9:31after the mother was reported missing
9:34so that would of course kind of tear
9:36apart the prosecution's case now this
9:39individual his name was dr. March he was
9:41a fertility expert and on the stand he
9:44kind of came apart under
9:45cross-examination so when the
9:47prosecution was asking him questions it
9:50kind of came apart and he said he was
9:52sorry that he made an error and he even
9:55asked the prosecutor to cut him some
9:58slack this actually happened on the
9:59stand so this was fairly devastating to
10:02the defense other evidence they had
10:05though was that there was a burglary
10:06that was committed in the house across
10:08the street from the Petersons on
10:11December 24th now this gets a little
10:13mixed up because the prosecution had a
10:15different theory about what had happened
10:16but that was still something the defense
10:18brought up so if there were burglars
10:20there then it makes sense that those
10:22burglars would be dangerous so it offers
10:24an alternate theory of the crime and
10:27there are also a number of witnesses
10:28that saw Lacey walking her dog after
10:31Scott Peterson already left to go
10:33fishing so if that's true if Lacey was
10:35walking her dog after Scott Peterson
10:37left there's no way he could have
10:38committed the murder so that was a good
10:40point for the defense of course
10:42ultimately the defense failed and Scott
10:45Peterson of course as I mentioned it was
10:47convicted and sentenced to death so now
10:49I'm moving to my thoughts on this in
10:50terms of a mental health personality and
10:52human behavior aspect and also my
10:54thoughts on whether Scott Peterson is
10:56guilty or not guilty so obviously I
10:59don't know for certain I don't know if
11:00he did it or not but I will offer my
11:02opinion on this and I have a lot of
11:04difficulties with this case I have a few
11:06different problems about what happened
11:08this case
11:09the kind of procedures that were
11:11followed at how they didn't really
11:13follow the scientific method and really
11:15didn't represent good investigative
11:18practices and how really Scott Pearson's
11:21behavior was used against him in a way
11:23that doesn't seem to be really supported
11:25by scientific evidence so in terms of
11:28that aspect in terms of his behavior we
11:31see that in this case there's really a
11:33certain way that somebody's supposed to
11:35act when someone dies and Scott Peterson
11:39didn't act that way and that kind of got
11:41him in trouble right in terms of the
11:44investigation but this brings up an
11:46important point do we really know how
11:48somebody's supposed to act when their
11:49spouse is missing or when they've
11:50committed a murder
11:51we're both murders are not that common
11:54and people going missing really isn't
11:56that common either right if you go and
11:58talk to a married couple that's been
12:00married 10 20 30 or say 40 years and you
12:04ask them how many times has your spouse
12:05gone missing a lot of them will probably
12:08say it's never happened so we don't
12:11really have a lot of observations of
12:13these kind of extreme situations on
12:16which we can make these judgments there
12:18is no normal way to act there is no
12:21correct way to act or if there is it
12:23hasn't been established through
12:25scientific research so we don't really
12:27know yet again this was really used
12:29against Scott Peterson I've seen people
12:32react in all kinds of ways to all kinds
12:35of stressful and unusual situations
12:38right terrible things will happen in
12:40people's lives and they'll be calm and
12:42collected and kind of even calculating
12:45sometimes other times I've seen events
12:48occur to seem really minor or just
12:51routine and people have incredibly
12:53strong dramatic reactions so I'm not
12:57really kind of buying this argument that
12:59there's a certain way to act when bad
13:01things happened and that he didn't act
13:03that way the bottom line here is that
13:05the police believed he was supposed to
13:06be distressed crying and inconsolable
13:10and he wasn't that way so what happens
13:13and this is why this is a problem what
13:15happens here is that little
13:17misinterpreted observations so small
13:20things that the police saw
13:23lead to more significant events like the
13:25police obtaining search warrants so
13:28really Scott Peterson's behavior right
13:32his demeanor kind of directed the
13:34investigation so this really brings up
13:37this argument about the role of the
13:38police right as their job to collect
13:40evidence and to find the truth they have
13:42to be open to the truth whatever the
13:45truth is so that includes that Scott
13:48Peterson may have been not guilty of
13:50this and somebody else was responsible
13:53but instead they used Scott Peterson's
13:55behavior to form the theory of the crime
13:57again it directed the investigation they
14:00did this with no mental health training
14:01yet they used his personality and his
14:04behavior to make important decisions now
14:08as I mentioned I've been a counselor for
14:09a long time I've seen people react in
14:11all kinds of situations and I don't know
14:13what to make of Scott Peterson's
14:15demeanor that's with the years of
14:17training and experience so how could it
14:19be that these detectives were able to
14:21draw all these conclusions from really
14:24this short period of time right there's
14:27this idea that this behavior indicates a
14:30state of mind not like a long history
14:33not like we see in counseling where we
14:34can work with people for a long time and
14:36kind of see patterns but just this brief
14:39behavior really this momentary
14:41interaction with Scott Peterson leads to
14:44this inference about his state of mind
14:46and eventually of course helps build the
14:49case against him so you could argue of
14:53course that momentary behavior has
14:55meaning but I think my argument would be
14:58that look at just behavior that happens
15:01quickly in isolation and there could be
15:03a lot of explanations there right it's
15:05not always clear like if somebody's
15:06crying that could mean that they're sad
15:08that could mean that they're acting or
15:11that could mean that they just laughed a
15:13lot sometimes when people laugh really
15:14hard they cry at the same time or
15:17something could be smiling and so they
15:19could say well if that person's smiling
15:20they're happy or they're thinking
15:23Pleasant thoughts or they're up to no
15:25good it could be that they're just
15:27physically smiling they could be faking
15:29that smile so if we only have a brief
15:32interaction to deal with it's very
15:35difficult to draw conclusions
15:37if you work with somebody for years and
15:39you see they tend to smile in like
15:41socially inappropriate situations then
15:44you have a pattern to work with then you
15:46can say okay I've seen them manifest
15:48that behavior many times and there's a
15:50theme or pattern available there but a
15:53brief interaction is not enough to
15:55establish a pattern so my theory about
15:57this part is that we really just asked
16:00too much of police officers I don't
16:02think these police officers were
16:03necessarily bad or anything like that I
16:05think we just asked too much of them
16:07I call it the James Bond theory of
16:09police work right if you look at James
16:11Bond like in the movies he was good at
16:13everything
16:13he was an excellent driver he knew how
16:16to operate a number of different types
16:18of weapons including rifles and pistols
16:20and explosives he could pilot anything a
16:23jet fighter a helicopter a boat he was
16:27great at hand-to-hand combat he
16:29understood technology and he had fairly
16:31good social skills although of course
16:32this would be debatable I suppose so
16:35James Bond really could do everything
16:38but real people can't and we see a
16:41number of examples in this case of this
16:44happening we see one of the detectives
16:46talking about a witness that saw Laci
16:48Peterson alive when Scott Peterson
16:51already left and he said that he didn't
16:54think that occurred because it didn't
16:55happen she was already dead by that
16:57meaning Laci Peterson so he had already
17:01formed his conclusion and then was
17:03finding or excluding evidence based on
17:06that conclusion right because in his
17:08mind Laci Peterson was already dead that
17:11witness didn't say that she wasn't that
17:14was the logic being used there we also
17:16see that those burglars that burglarize
17:19the house across the street they were
17:21eventually arrested their names were
17:23Stephen Todd and Glen Pierce and when
17:26they arrested they said no that didn't
17:28happen on the 24th
17:29it happened on the 26th because of
17:32course we know that burglars would never
17:34lie right so this was really what the
17:36police were thinking that burglary was
17:39okay with these two people with these
17:41two men but it would somehow violate
17:43their values to lie so burglary that's
17:47okay but lying is where they draw the
17:49line
17:50this is actually what the police must
17:51have believed now of course they were
17:53trying to fit the evidence to the theory
17:55of the crime but it's interesting
17:57because there was a guard and a nearby
17:59prison who monitored a phone call
18:01between an inmate and the inmates
18:04brother and on that call the inmates
18:07brother said that Steven Todd one of the
18:09burglars admitted that he was confronted
18:12by Laci Peterson on December 24th 2002
18:16now there are other factors involved
18:18here too just not mistakes that the
18:19police might have made we see that we
18:22have in Scott Peterson somebody with no
18:24history of anger or violence so it
18:27doesn't seem likely that somebody like
18:29that would commit this type of crime and
18:32leave no evidence physical evidence
18:35behind at all again not in this truck on
18:37the boat on the warehouse not on his
18:40person and he did all this in broad
18:43daylight
18:43and there were no eyewitnesses now there
18:46were eyewitnesses that saw Laci Peterson
18:48alive after Scott Peterson went fishing
18:51but there were no eyewitnesses that saw
18:53him commit this crime now there were
18:55witnesses that saw Scott Peterson for
18:57example he was observed at the boat ramp
18:59and they said there was really nothing
19:01unusual about his behavior with the boat
19:03they didn't see like a human-sized bag
19:06being loaded on the boat or being in the
19:08boat so the witnesses that did see Scott
19:12Peterson really don't have testimony
19:15consistent with what we see in terms of
19:17what the prosecution was saying happened
19:20now at this time as I'm making this
19:21video there are 11 eyewitnesses that
19:24claimed to have seen Laci Peterson after
19:26Scott Peterson had already left so when
19:30you think about things like reasonable
19:32doubt with the strength of the
19:34prosecution's case meaning it's a fairly
19:36weak case how many witnesses would
19:38somebody need here to say okay there's
19:41reasonable doubt again there are 11
19:43people saying that they saw her how many
19:46would be necessary how many could be
19:48wrong and there would still be
19:50reasonable doubt in this case so this
19:51brings me to my thoughts in terms of
19:54guilt or Scott Peterson being not guilty
19:57right so of course the answer is I
19:59mentioned for is I don't know but I will
20:01speculate and offer my opinion here
20:03and it really just is my opinion so if
20:06we start with some of the kind of key
20:07points of the case right with Scott
20:09Peterson a good guy well he was having
20:11an affair and apparently he had an
20:13affair before that so by that standard
20:16it doesn't seem like he was a good guy
20:18and I think that hurt him was he
20:20suspicious in this case was his behavior
20:22suspicious yes right being calm and
20:26having a cool demeanor and all that does
20:29seem suspicious but I talked about how
20:31that might not mean anything so what
20:34about in terms of like preponderance of
20:36the evidence of I think about this and
20:37say is there a 51 percent chance that he
20:41did it in my opinion right well criminal
20:45cases of course aren't decided by
20:46preponderance of the evidence but I'll
20:48give my thoughts on this I really
20:50thought about this a lot initially I
20:52thought that he probably did do it and I
20:55think that for me it was the timing with
20:57the affair but as I look at the timeline
21:00and the lack of evidence and the other
21:03evidence in this case I'm kind of left
21:05on the fence maybe even leaning toward I
21:08don't believe they did it I mean I
21:10believe there's a chance he did it but
21:12not a 51% or a greater chance right so
21:15that's kind of where I am right now I'm
21:19really not sure
21:20now this moving on kind of speaks to
21:23where somebody might be with reasonable
21:24doubt right was the reasonable doubt in
21:27this case based on what I know based on
21:29the evidence that I've seen and just my
21:31opinion I think there clearly was so he
21:35may have done it I don't know but there
21:38does appear to be reasonable doubt here
21:39so who knows what's gonna happen in this
21:41case maybe Scott Peterson will be
21:43executed
21:44maybe his sentence will be commuted
21:45maybe he'll get a new trial I don't know
21:48will happen but I think either way this
21:50is a great example of how bad science
21:53can be problematic right especially
21:56telling people who are doing tests what
21:59you need them to find that's not how
22:01science works and also I think just a
22:03lack of awareness about how people work
22:05how we can misinterpret people's
22:07reactions and this can really move
22:10people into focusing on something that
22:12they would not have focused on so if
22:15someone else had committed this crime
22:16the police really weren't looking for
22:19that person or those people so there's a
22:22lot of great information a lot of
22:24valuable information we can learn from a
22:26case like this and I think that in terms
22:30of what happens with Scott Peterson I
22:31think he deserves a new trial but again
22:34that's just my opinion based on the
22:35information that I know we'll have to
22:37see what happens there I know that with
22:39the system of justice the United States
22:41it's very clear in our system that we
22:44would rather let 10 people who are
22:46guilty not be punished than punished one
22:49person who is not guilty so that's
22:52important to keep in mind when we look
22:54at kind of this case and kind of frame
22:56it in the context of the justice system
22:58in the United States so I know that the
23:01Scott Peterson case is a controversial
23:03case a lot of people have strong
23:04opinions in both directions there are a
23:06lot of people to believe he's absolutely
23:08guilty and that he should have already
23:10been executed or he should be spending
23:12his life in prison and there are many
23:13people believe that he's not guilty and
23:15they're very sure these not guilty so
23:18with all these strong opinions if you
23:19agree or disagree with me or have other
23:21opinions please put those in the
23:23comments I think they will generate an
23:24interesting dialogue about this case as
23:27always I hope you found this description
23:29of the Scott Peterson murder case to be
23:31interesting thanks for watching

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