Will Drew Peterson Be Condemned From the Grave?

Feb. 22, 2010— -- Drew Peterson is facing words from the grave that could send him to jail for the rest of his life.

Peterson, the 56-year-old ex-cop who loved to talk, has been silent for the last year -- locked up -- charged with killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio, whose body was found in a bathtub in 2004.

The prosecution's case against Peterson is being constructed around Savio -- in an unprecedented attempt to use hearsay evidence from the dead.

"It is being built on the words, the alleged words, the unproven words of a dead person being conveyed through her friends, relatives and acquaintances," said Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky.

The pre-trial hearing came to an end Friday, after the judge heard testimony from more than 60 witnesses, including Savio's family and friends, who say that Savio told them she expected her husband to kill her.

The hearing centered on a 2008 Illinois state law, dubbed "Drew's Law," which allows for hearsay evidence in first-degree murder cases if prosecutors can show a defendant killed a victim to prevent him or her from testifying.

Savio's sister, Susan Doman, who testified in the pre-trial hearing earlier this month, said Savio predicted Peterson would kill her.

"She said, 'Drew is going to kill me and it's going to look like an accident...He can make me disappear,'" Doman recalled.

Peterson, who was charged in connection with the death of Savio in May 2009, has pleaded not guilty to her murder.

"Nightline" sat down for an interview with Drew Peterson in January 2009, when the former Illinois cop was under siege from the media after his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007.

Peterson was named a person-of-interest and shortly thereafter police re-opened the case surrounding Kathleen's death in 2004, which had originally been ruled an accident.

Savio's body was exhumed as part of lengthy police investigation when Stacy Peterson went missing.