Listening to a voice long silent

Here's a great article on Savio's death and the hearsay law.

There are no known witnesses to the death of Savio, 40, who was found drowned in an empty bathtub of her Bolingbrook home on March 1, 2004.

What is known is that she and Peterson were in the midst of a contentious divorce when she died. Their fights -- some physical -- are outlined in Bolingbrook police reports and letters that Savio wrote to a former assistant state's attorney and to an ex-TV news anchor.

Her sister told the coroner's jury that Savio believed if something should happen to her, her death would only look like an accident.

Under the new hearsay law, which took effect in December, Glasgow could ask a judge to admit Savio's letters and alleged statements to friends and family into court. He would have to prove to the judge by a preponderance of evidence that Peterson murdered Savio to keep her from testifying against him, that Savio's statements are credible and that the best interests of the court would be served if the statements were admitted into evidence.

"It allows testimony from the grave, so to speak, about threats of violence made toward the victim," said defense attorney Lawrence Wolf Levin. But he said Glasgow would be taking a risk by relying on a law that could face legal challenges. Opponents of admissible hearsay argue that it goes against the 6th Amendment, which reads, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him." "Nobody really knows whether this law will stand up and what its final viability will be," Levin said. A higher court could see it as a denial of due process and strike it down, making the Peterson case even harder to prove.

There's another unusual aspect to the case: Two official autopsies were performed on Savio.

State police immediately decided her death was not suspicious, and -- based on a state trooper's testimony -- a coroner's jury concluded she accidentally drowned.

But after Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in October 2007, Glasgow reopened the investigation into Savio's death. Her body was exhumed for the second autopsy, and the results, Glasgow later said, confirmed his suspicion she had been murdered.

Records from the investigation and second autopsy indicate that a small gash on the back of Savio's head was an attempt to make her death look like an accident, authorities say. She had bruises on both shins and her lower abdomen and abrasions on her hand, wrist and arms, according to the original autopsy report.

Read full 2 page story details

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-peterson-case-sundaymay10,0,6895496.story?page=1