Posted on 12/13/2004 3:59:13 PM PST by No Surrender Monkey
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - A jury decided Monday that Scott Peterson (news - web sites) should be executed for murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, whose Christmas Eve disappearance two years ago was the opening act in a legal drama that captivated the nation.
A cheer went up outside the courtroom as the jury announced its decision after 11 1/2 hours of deliberations over three days. The jury had two options in deciding the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman's fate: life in prison without parole or death by injection.
Peterson clenched his jaw when the verdict was read and leaned over to speak with his attorney, Mark Geragos. Laci Peterson (news - web sites)'s mother, Sharon Rocha, cried quietly — her lips quivering. Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie, showed no apparent emotion.
A crowd of several hundred gathered outside the courthouse to hear the verdict — a scene reminiscent of when about 1,000 people showed up last month for the conviction. The San Francisco Examiner came out with a special edition within minutes of the sentence, with the giant headline "DEATH."
Three jurors held a news conference following the verdict in which they described what they called a "very hard" decision.
"There are so many things, so many things," juror Richelle Nice said. "Scott Peterson was Laci's husband, Conner's daddy — the one person that should have protected them."
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi will formally sentence Peterson on Feb. 25. The judge will have the option of reducing the sentence to life, but such a move is highly unlikely.
If the judge upholds the sentence, Peterson will be sent to death row at San Quentin State Prison outside San Francisco, the infamous lockup where prisoners gaze out small cell windows overlooking the same bay where Laci Peterson's body was discarded.
But Peterson still might not be executed for decades — if ever — and it can take years for even the first phase of the appeals process to begin. Since California brought back capital punishment in 1978, only 10 executions have been carried out; the last execution, in 2002, was for a murder committed in 1980. The state's clogged death row houses about 650 people.
The jury's decision followed seven days of tearful testimony in the penalty phase of the trial. Shortly before reaching its decision, the jury had asked the judge to see 13 pieces of evidence, including autopsy photos and aerial pictures of San Francisco Bay.
In arguing for death last week, prosecutors called Peterson "the worst kind of monster" and said he was undeserving of sympathy. Geragos begged of jurors: "Just don't kill him. That's all I am asking of you. End this cycle."
The death sentence came almost two years to the date after the disappearance of Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old substitute teacher who married her college sweetheart and was soon to be the proud mother of a baby boy named Conner. The story set off a tabloid frenzy as suspicion began to swirl around Scott Peterson, who claimed to have been fishing by himself on Christmas Eve and was carrying on an affair with a massage therapist at the time.
The remains of Laci and the fetus washed ashore about four months later, just a few miles from where Peterson said he was fishing in the San Francisco Bay. The case went to trial in June, and the jury of six men and six women convicted Peterson last month of two counts of murder.
The case made more People magazine covers than any murder investigation in the publication's history. Court TV thrived on the case, providing countless hours of coverage on the investigation and gavel-to-gavel commentary throughout the trial. CNN's Larry King hosted show after show with pundits picking apart legal strategies, testimony and even Scott Peterson's demeanor.
Trial regulars showed up by the hundreds to participate in the daily lottery for the coveted 27 public seats inside the courtroom.
Prosecutors spent months portraying Peterson as a cheating husband and cold-blooded killer who wooed his lover even as police searched for his missing wife. They said he wanted to murder Laci to escape marriage and fatherhood for the pleasures of the freewheeling bachelor life.
The prosecution put on a short, but emotional case in the penalty phase, calling just four witnesses.
"Every morning when I get up I cry," Rocha told jurors. "It takes me a long time just to be able to get out of the house ... I miss her. I want to know my grandson. I want Laci to be a mother. I want to hear her called mom."
Rocha would later rise halfway out of her seat and scream at Scott Peterson, who was seated impassively at the defense table: "Divorce was always an option," she said. "Not murder!"
Defense attorneys argued during the trial's guilt phase that Peterson was framed and that the real killers dumped Laci's body in the water after learning of Peterson's widely publicized alibi. The defense fought hard to save Peterson's life, calling about 40 witnesses over seven days in the penalty phase.
In a brief news conference after the verdict, Geragos said he was "very disappointed." "Obviously, we plan on pursuing every and all appeals, motions for a new trial and everything else," he said.
Defense attorneys seized on anything from Scott Peterson's past in attempt to spare his life, including testimony that he never cheated or lost his temper on the golf course.
They told jurors of the Scott Peterson who was a smiling, snuggling toddler. He was the high school golf captain who tutored younger students. He sang to seniors on Sundays and once broke up a dog fight. He cared for mentally retarded children. He was the highly motivated son who worked his way through college.
And finally, he was the young professional who married the woman he fell in love with in college.
"I wish there was a phrase that I could give you that could turn this around and make you believe there is good, there is real, real good in this person," defense attorney Pat Harris said during closing arguments. "But I don't have that phrase ... that's up to you to decide."
Not in California.
It is an urban myth, Jeffrey and the priest were 2 out of how many thousands?``
I was not aware that "1000s" of celebrity status folks get incarcerated.
High profile cases dont go into the general population anymore.
And let's not have the prisoners do our dirty work. the people convicted and the people should kill him.
Time is UP, Scotty my boy......
Hopefully in a few years we can hear that they have declared you DEAD!
The three jurors who spoke with the media after the verdict made me so proud of them.
First, let me say that I believe Peterson's guilty as could be of these TWO murders and, while I could never delight in anyone being put to death, I think he deserves it.
But, Geragos did the worst job in memory as a defense lawyer. If he hadn't started the whole show off with all these silly "alternative theories" of the crime and phantom murderers and promises that he'd produce the "real killers", etc., etc., they would have had a shot at "reasonable doubt" at trial. If Peterson is ever actually executed, there should be some way to force Geragos to be the one to pull the switch. I figure that since his antics started the process toward the death chamber, he ought to have to follow through and finish the job.
I wouldn't want this guy as my lawyer for ANYTHING, much less a capital murder case.
Please don't send us any more of these California nuts to Gods country, the great state of Texas. But we are much more efficient.
Yea.....they seemed almost......normal?
Some people don't have the stomach for it,but I'd like to be the one flipping the switch.Geragos is a lousy lawyer.I'm glad he lost.Some people thought the evidence was slim,but he[Peterson ] sure did have a quilty smirk.I don't see how anyone else could have done the murders[Lacy and child]but him.
Laci was of Hispanic descent. Do you know how many Hispanics are in the California prison system? Thousands. And, how absolutely repugnant Scott Peterson's crime is in that community? Very. How many convicted murderers are at San Quentin for killing their pregnant wives? None.
According to the SQ website there are 5,967 prisoners there, and you pretend to know the crimes of every single one of them? Specify your source!
11 executions in the last 12 years.
My source is the public affairs rep for San Quentin who has been on the tube saying that they don't have anyone in Q who has been convicted of a similar crime, and that Scott was at risk.
Dead man walking!
Maybe the ghosts of Laci and baby Conner will haunt him as he gazes out the window of his Death Row cell.
I always thought the Brits did it great in the old movies: the judges would place a black scarf over their wigs as they intoned the sentence of death. "And may God have mercy on your soul."
Nope, he's on the Highway to Hell.
Hopefully, the same fate awaits my cousin's murderer. His attorney is still dragging out the pre-trail motions.
http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=25566
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