Opening Statements Expected to Start in Peterson Trial
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A big day in California. More than a year after Scott Peterson pleaded not guilty to charges that he murdered his wife Laci and their unborn child, opening statements finally expected to start today. Ted Rowlands is in Redwood City, California there. Ted, good morning.</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. According to family members, Scott Peterson himself is very happy with the jury that has been selected in this case, and is looking forward to his day in court.</s>ROWLANDS (voice-over): It's been almost 14 months since Scott Peterson was taken into custody and charged with the murder of his wife, Laci, and unborn son. Lead prosecutor Rick Distasso will lay out the state's case this morning to the six-women, six-man jury.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man murdered Laci Peterson.</s>ROWLANDS: Distasso is expected to tell the jury that Peterson killed Laci in their Modesto home the night of December 23rd, 2002, and that Peterson spent the next several hours covering up his crime, weighing down his wife's body with cement, and using his new boat to dump her in the San Francisco Bay.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scott told me he was not married.</s>ROWLANDS: The state's star witness is expected to be Amber Frey, the woman Peterson was having an affair with when his wife was murdered. Frey says Peterson told her that he had recently lost his wife and was ready to have a serious relationship with her.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact of the matter is...</s>ROWLANDS: Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, is expected to tell the jury that his client is the victim of a rush to judgment, and that detectives were so consumed with Scott Peterson that they missed or ignored evidence that points in other directions.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was abducted by someone other than my client, and that she was abducted while walking her dog.</s>ROWLANDS: Both sides have 2 1/2 hours to make a first impression with the jury.</s>CHUCK SMITH, FMR. HOMICIDE PROSECUTOR: In a high percentage of case, jurors make up their minds after hearing the opening statements.</s>ROWLANDS: Prosecutors are up first after 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Both families are expected to be in court in force. Along with the media, the entire courtroom will be packed. Seats are very difficult. There's a public lottery going on in the early morning hours out here for onlookers to get in to see opening statements in this case -- Bill.</s>HEMMER: Ted, thanks for that. Ted Rowlands there in California -- Heidi.</s>HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It's a publishing phenomenon. One best-selling book has spawned nearly a dozen others just to debunk the author's take on the origins of Christianity. The book in question is here, "The Da Vinci Code." And although it's a work of fiction, religious and biblical scholars fear that readers will take the book's claims as gospel. Harold Attridge, dean of the Yale University Divinity School, is joining us now this morning to talk about this white hot controversy. But before we start, a warning for our viewers who have not read "The Da Vinci Code," our discussion here will give away parts of the book. So if you don't want to hear that, you might want to turn it down just a second. Dean Attridge, thanks for being with us this morning. Let's get to the book's biggest claim, that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and actually had a child. Pure fiction?</s>HAROLD ATTRIDGE, DEAN, YALE UNIV. DIVINITY SCHOOL: Pure fiction as far as we can tell. No evidence for it whatsoever in the New Testament. It's clear that Mary was an important disciple of Jesus, and probably one of the earliest witnesses to the Resurrection. But there's no indication that they had a sexual or marital relationship.</s>COLLINS: Well, in fact,there's a little bit more evidence, actually not evidence, I should say, there are some claims that Jesus actually loved Mary Magdalene much more than anyone else, would often kiss her on the mouth. No evidence of this whatsoever.</s>ATTRIDGE: One of the things about the book is that it takes bits and pieces of fact and spins them into fiction. And in the case of that particular claim, we have a story and something called the Gospel of Philip, which is a second century or third century text, that seems to be an anthology of excerpts and various other kinds of text. And that text is very much interested in Christian rituals, and baptism, and Eucharist and anointing. And one of the rituals it's interested in, I believe, is the ritual kiss in the Eucharistic assembly. What we have in that little story about Jesus and Mary kissing is an explanation, a story about why Christians did what they did, which was not an uncontroversial thing.</s>COLLINS: So this was not deliberately covered up or left out.</s>ATTRIDGE: Well, this was -- the text, the gospel of Phillip, was part of a collection of materials only recently discovered in 1946 at Nacamodi (ph) in Egypt. So it was a text that was not incorporated into Christian scriptures. But the story about Jesus and Mary is part of a larger story about the relationship between Jesus and Mary, and that is recognized by the fathers of the church, many of whom called her the apostle to the apostles.</s>COLLINS: Right. OK, there's another claim that the book says, that Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting, that we all know is the Last Supper, actually depicts Mary Magdalene to the right of Jesus Christ, not the apostle John. It claims Mary is the Holy Grail. Your thoughts on that.</s>ATTRIDGE: Right, well there are two claims there. One, the story about the Grail being not a story about a cup, the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper, but rather about his relationship with Mary and the bloodline that they started. That's a fictitious claim that began, I believe, in 1980 or the early '80s. It has no historical evidence for it whatsoever. The interpretation of the Last Supper is something that art historians would be more competent to talk about than myself, but I think it's fairly clear, to me at least, the person represented by the John figure is a young man, a rather handsome young man, and I think at the conventions that are at work, there are convention of the renaissance that are interested in male relationships rather than male/female relationships.</s>COLLINS: OK, but now wait a minute, this is a fictional book.</s>ATTRIDGE: That's right. Correct.</s>COLLINS: I mean, that's how it's been sold. That's how it's been marketed. But a lot of people have read it, and you say that people are taking this thing much more seriously than they should.</s>ATTRIDGE: They are. And I think one of the reason for that is the claim at the beginning of the book that says the description of artwork and institutions in this book are fact. The descriptions are factual, but the interpretations are in many cases quite extraordinary, quite imaginative, and quite wrong. And I think people missed that distinction and take the interpretations as historical fact.</s>COLLINS: To read between the lines on your fictional books, you say. All right. Harold Attridge, thanks so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it a lot -- Bill.</s>ATTRIDGE: You're welcome.</s>HEMMER: Heidi, still watching Lakhdar Brahimi in Baghdad speaking at this moment. His speech continues there. We'll get you back there live in a moment. Also, in this country, an alarming trend among young teens. Your kids could be getting high off something you already have in your home. We'll explain that. Sanjay is back today. And tornadoes and flooding, lots of nasty weather across the country. Picking up the pieces for so many again today. A look at the aftermath when we continue here in a moment.