The pretrial hearing was held as lawyers and the judge try to tie up loose ends regarding evidence and other issues.
The defense has filed a laundry list of motions. Many have to do with trying to get evidence thrown out of the case, including the testimony of Kathleen Savio's lawyer. Other motions include Peterson's many media appearances.
Before he was charged with the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, Peterson never met a camera he didn't like. After the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, the ex-cop did several television interviews. Prosecutors plan to use clips from seven of Peterson's TV appearances during the trial.
Wednesday, defense attorneys tried to get all the clips banned. The judge is allowing four of the on-camera interviews. The other three may be presented as transcript or audio only.
This was just one of many motions the defense has filed in this case. With others, Peterson's lawyers are trying to get thrown out what they call speculative evidence about how Peterson allegedly broke into Savio's home the night she was found dead in her bathtub in 2004.
"We don't want them to be able to say to the jury, 'Well, maybe someone came in through the window, maybe someone came in through the door, maybe someone came in through the garage, maybe someone slither in through the chimney. You figure out how they got in.' That's not right. They should have to prove how someone got into the house," said Steve Greenberg, Peterson's attorney.
The defense is asking the judge to throw out hearsay statements from Stacy Peterson's pastor and from Kathleen Savio's divorce attorney, Harry C. Smith. Savio supposedly told Smith, "If I die, you have to go to authorities and tell them Drew did it."
"Lawyers are not supposed to tell what their clients say to them to other people," said Peterson attorney Joe Lopez. "This is an important issue, not only in this case, but in all the other cases in the state of Illinois. You can't have lawyers going out there telling people what their clients allegedly told them. That's privileged."
Prosecutors called Smith to the witness stand Wednesday afternoon. He told the judge that Savio told him that it was OK to waive her attorney-client privilege. So far the judge has not ruled on that motion.
