[San Miguel:] Kobe Bryant's accuser talks about sex with other men. An alleged killer confesses after watching "The Passion of the Christ." And a grand jury is seated to hear the case against Michael Jackson. Three compelling topics for the legal panel this morning. From Miami, we welcome back civil liberties attorney Lila Rodriguez-Taseff. And from Houston, we are joined by former prosecutor Nelda Blair. Good morning, ladies. Thanks for being with us.
[Lila Rodriguez-taseff, Civil Liberties Attorney:] Good morning.
[Nelda Blair, Former Prosecutor:] Thanks.
[San Miguel:] We start with Kobe Bryant. The accuser testifies on her own sexual history in closed session. And she's asking for a speedy trial because of media attention and threats against her life as this goes on. As a matter of fact, in the letter to the judge from the accuser's mother, we have a full screen as to a brief comment from that. "My daughter has lived in four states in the past six months. Her safety is at risk; she has to move again. She can't live at home, she can't live with relatives, she can't go to school, or talk to her friends." Lida, I'm wonder if you're afraid that all of this, concerning this case, is going to scare off future rape victims from coming out.
[Rodriguez-taseff:] Absolutely not. Alleged victims have the right to be treated with dignity and respect through the process. And we would hope that this case comes to a speedy resolution for the sake of everybody. But the reality is, is the most important interest to be protected here is the interest of the person who can spend the rest of his life in jail. And that's Kobe Bryant's interest. Colorado law provides that victims have the right, and it's an ethereal right, kind of mushy, kind of out there that says that they have a right to speedy resolution of a matter. And that is what's hoped here. But the reality is that that right does not trump the constitutional rights of the defendant to go to trial when the case is ready to go to trial, so he has a fair shot at either being acquitted or for justice to be done.
[Blair:] Lida, Kobe Bryant is having a fair shot on the basketball court every night, going on with his life, while this woman is moving from town to town, job to job, can't talk to her friends, has had hundreds hundreds of death threats against her by e-mail, and otherwise mutilation threats. This is not the normal situation for a victim and you know that. What normally happens is yes; we protect the rights of the accused as well, because you are innocent until proven guilty. But not at the expense of a 19-year-old woman who can't even live her normal life. Even the prosecutor has received death threats. This is a situation that needs to be resolved. The judge needs to get this case to trial, and get it over with.
[San Miguel:] What do both of you think about the precedent, the possible precedent that's being set here in concerns of rape shield laws? The Colorado law says that this kind of information about past sexual history can come out, but it's behind it has to happen behind closed doors. What do you think is happening with that?
[Rodriguez-taseff:] Well, there's nothing really happening with that. The sky is not falling. Victims alleged victims have as much right to be protected from their sexual history being disclosed today, than they did before the case was brought. The judge and the Colorado Supreme Court agrees with this, are handling it perfectly. They're providing a closed forum for these issues to be aired. The issue here is whether or not this woman's sexual history is relevant to whether or not she's making up these charges and to a motive, or to her state of mind. Those are perfectly legitimate uses of this information.
[Blair:] I agree that that's the reason. And that they're legitimate reasons. To have this woman and her past sexual partners and friends testify for two days in closed session on every aspect, and I understand some of the even hard core aspects of her previous sex life, has nothing to do with whether she told Kobe Bryant no on that night. Shame on the Colorado Supreme Court for not putting a better hold on it.
[San Miguel:] We want to move on now to this case very interesting case here. You know, as if "The Passion of the Christ" had enough publicity going for it already, within such a release about a month ago or so. A gentleman name of Dan Leach said he saw the movie, "The Passion of the Christ" and then confessed to murdering a woman, who police had ruled, initially in January, as a suicide. Lida, let me start with you on this. Does the defense have anything to hang its hat on here regarding the confession? I mean it doesn't look like to me it was coerced or done under any kind of duress here.
[Rodriguez-taseff:] Absolutely doesn't look coerced. But the reality is that the caha that the Texas authorities had ruled this to be a suicide. They had investigated this. This is a 19-year-old woman who was pregnant, who was despondent. This man confesses after watching a movie. I mean come on. We've got to look very closely and authorities need to look very closely behind this confession to determine whether or not he's mentally ill, whether or not this confession is makes any sense...
[Blair:] Ah!
[Rodriguez-taseff:] And the reality is, Nelda, even in Texas, you know very well that people confess to things they didn't do for all sorts of reasons, including media attention; which we're giving it.
[San Miguel:] Even in Texas, Nelda.
[Blair:] Here it comes. Here it oh yes, even in Texas. Here it comes. He's mentally ill. Here it comes. He's going to be now you want him to be not competent to stand trial. You want him to be legally insane so he can get off of conning this woman after watching "CSI" on television, into writing a note about how bad her life is. Conning her into putting a pillowcase over her head in order to give her some kind of pseudo therapy. And then strangling her and leaving her that way. He's not only confessed
[Rodriguez-taseff:] Oh, no! Then why did the prose but...
[Blair:] He's not...
[Rodriguez-taseff:] But Nelda, why did the...
[Blair:] He's not only confessed Lida, let me finish. He's not only confessed...
[Rodriguez-taseff:] Go ahead.
[Blair:] ... but he's also given a courthouse interview a jailhouse interview to the newspaper of how he did it and why he felt bad. And let me mention one other thing. The real legal point on this one is whether or not this woman's pregnant. And we're not sure yet of the autopsy report. If she was pregnant, the new law in Texas, that makes a fetus a person, could make him guilty of capital murder. Which means he could get the death penalty. That's the real question.
[San Miguel:] That's a very that's an excellent point that's for another time. We have to move on because we're going to give both of you about 20 seconds each to talk about Michael Jackson. Grand jurors finally selected. A super-secret process. Had a lot of media lawyers grumbling about the restrictions on you know, you couldn't even shoot the shadows of the jurors. That was off limits. Lida, we'll start with you.
[Rodriguez-taseff:] Well, you know, this is an assault on the freedom of the press in this country. This is really troubling. The reality is, is if we want to trust our criminal process, we have got to believe in it and it has to be open. And it's always been a problem with these super-secret grand juries.
[San Miguel:] Nelda, 20 seconds for you.
[Blair:] Listen, absolutely. The problem is that you don't like that part of it, but this is the judge's courtroom. This is this judge's courtroom, it's a media case, and whatever the judge wants to do or not do is his decision. That's the way it's going to go.
[San Miguel:] All right. Ladies, we're going to have to leave it there. Another good segment this morning. Thank you so much. Lida Rodriguez-Taseff from Miami and Nelda Blair from Houston, thanks so much. We'll see you next time.
[Rodriguez-taseff:] Thank you, Renay.
[San Miguel:] You bet.
[Blair:] Great.
[San Miguel:] One more legal note for you. For years, a character known as The Bushman has sat on Fishermen's' Wharf in San Francisco and scared people for their spare change. The district attorney sued him and lost.
[The Bushman:] Growl! Growl!
[Unidentified Female:] Oh!
[The Bushman:] Growl! Growl!
[Unidentified Male:] I think he's a nut and I love him.
[The Bushman:] If you really work hard at this job, you can make up to $60,000 a year.
[Unidentified Male:] Sixty-thousand dollars?
[The Bushman:] That's being left alone.
[Unidentified Male:] We gave him a dollar. How come? Why did we give him a dollar? Because. Because he jumped out at us, didn't he? Yes. Were you scared? Yes.
[The Bushman:] Growl! Growl!
[San Miguel:] The district attorney, however, was not scared or amused and Johnson was charged with being a public nuisance. The city spent $25,000 on a three-week trial and it lost. And Johnson has returned to his familiar spot. The city it's not giving up, though. The Bushman has received at least two more citations since the trial. Seems it's Halloween every day in San Francisco.
[Callaway:] Why don't they just give him the $25,000 and then you know what? He wouldn't be panhandling.
[San Miguel:] Gotten rid of the middleman right there.
[Callaway:] It would have been all over with. Well, one of "American Idol's" more famous singers to get the boot? Well not to be counted out just yet. We'll have that story coming up. Look at him.
[San Miguel:] His 15 minutes still lasting.
[Callaway:] And we'd like your thoughts on whether or not you think the who knew whatwhen of 911 should be used as part of the presidential political campaign. Just e-mail us as wam@cnn.com. And we'll read them on the air. Stay with us everyone.