Posted on 11/27/2004 10:52:10 AM PST by SmithL
SAN FRANCISCO -- He was a philandering husband convicted of the shocking murder of his young and very pregnant wife.
His name wasn't Scott Peterson, though. It was Todd Garton, and in 2001, a California jury said he deserved to die.
"I signed the document that the jury found for death and I think about that a lot," said Fred Castagna, who served as jury foreman. "It was emotional during deliberations, but I don't lose sleep over it."
If the experience of Castagna and others involved in death penalty cases is any guide, the jurors in Peterson's murder trial will have to grapple with raw and deep religious, moral and legal issues as they decide whether he lives or dies.
Arguments in the penalty phase are scheduled to begin Tuesday, but experts say many of the jurors may already have made up their minds about what punishment the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman deserves.
Jurors who have sent people to death row say even though they were overwhelmingly convinced of their guilt, settling on the death penalty was one of the toughest decisions of their lives.
"I have strong religious beliefs and this wasn't like I had to decide what kind of ice cream to buy," said Brian Bianco, who served as foreman of the jury that convicted Richard Allen Davis of kidnapping and killing 12-year-old Polly Klaas.
Nevertheless, like Castagna, Bianco said he has never doubted that he made the right decision in sending Davis to death row after four agonizing days of deliberations.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Given what any right-thinking onlooker knows he did, death is the easy way out for this guy. He should be introduced to Bruce and the boys in prison for the rest of his life..."in the end, the criminal gets his due!"...so to speak.
Even if he were to get death row (which I doubt), there are hundreds of death row inmates in Calif. and in the last 2 or 3 decades they've actually executed about 3 or 4.
Odds are that Peterson won't die until he's an old man.
Hard labor above the Arctic Circle breaking rocks is what they should do in the meantime.
And from natural causes.
(He'll probably outlive his entire family.)
VERY COOL!
:>)
You just couldn't resist, could you? LOL!
agreed.....
Laci's mother already said the approximately same thing before the cameras way back when it became apparent that her son-in-law did this....."I want the person who did this to remember every day.....+ or words to that effect as she read her prepared comments. The jury hadn't been chosen, so they all likely saw.heard it many times......in fact, were I the prosecutor, I would replay this segment of the tape for other Rocha family members to agree with on the stand during the sentencing proceedings.
The cons in general population will give him justice consistent with Sharon Rocha's wishes until his life ends.
BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROCHA: Soon after Laci went missing, I make a promise to her that if she's been harmed, we will seek justice for her and Connor and make sure that that person responsible for their -- for their deaths will be punished. I can only hope that the sound of Laci's voice begging for her life and begging for the life of her unborn child is heard over and over and over again in the mind of that person every day for the rest of his life! The person responsible should be held accountable and punished for the tragedy and devastation forced upon so many of us!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Every time I get subjected to trash like this, I can only think of how the Virginia City Vigilantes handled this sort of thing.
This case should never have occupied the public's attention for more than 3 days.
The crime is unspeakable, and even allowing it to give this maggot the publicity he got, is a travesty.
In 1860, Peterson would have been tried and executed within two days of his capture.
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