Briefly

California

Closing statements made in Peterson trial

Scott Peterson strangled or smothered his pregnant wife not simply to be with his lover, but to rid himself of an unwanted child and to pursue life as a freewheeling bachelor, a prosecutor contended Monday during closing arguments.

“The reason he killed Laci Peterson was Conner Peterson was on the way,” prosecutor Rick Distaso told jurors. “Things were going to change. No more of this running around, living this double-life thing.”

The trial is in its 23rd week after testimony from 184 witnesses.

Peterson is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife, Laci, and the fetus she carried. Prosecutors claim he killed her on or around Christmas Eve 2002, then dumped her weighted body into San Francisco Bay.

Cleveland

Clinic planning to transplant faces

The Cleveland Clinic says it is the first institution to receive review board approval of human facial transplant for someone severely disfigured by burns or disease.

Several independent medical teams around the world also are pursuing the procedure. The Cleveland Clinic said its approval Oct. 15 followed 10 months of debate on medical and ethical issues.

It has no current patients or donors for the procedure.

“We are at this point ready to begin screening patients,” said Dr. Maria Siemionow, the hospital’s director of plastic surgery research and training in microscopic surgery, who advocated the procedure.

Doctors at the clinic said finding an appropriate donor cadaver for the facial skin and underlying tissue might be more difficult than choosing a patient.

“It may not happen in our life, or it may happen sooner than you expect,” Siemionow said.