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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...

Scott Peterson is going to death row, in part, for killing his unborn son. Laci Peterson, on the other hand, was free to kill that very same unborn son without suffering a legal penalty of any type. Food for thought. …

Fox News...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A former neighbor of Scott Peterson drew on her own family's experience with capital punishment Tuesday to try to dissuade jurors from sentencing the convicted killer to death. Susan Medina, who lived across the street from Peterson and his wife, Laci, testified that, when she was a child in the Philippines, her grandfather was murdered and her father later watched as the killers were put to death in the electric chair. "My father was the sweetest man in the world," Medina told a rapt courtroom in a voice barely above a whisper. "He witnessed it. He...

Witnesses: Jury Wrongly Convicted Peterson REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — In tearful testimony, Scott Peterson's (search) family and friends pleaded with jurors to spare his life, contending that he was mistakenly convicted of killing his pregnant wife, Laci.Defense witnesses have already testified that Peterson sang to seniors on Sundays, distributed food and clothes in Tijuana and that he was a good friend and loving son.On the fifth day of the trial's penalty phase, Peterson's relatives questioned the jury's verdict."I don't believe he's guilty," said his uncle, John Lathamke to see him die. It would tear our family apart."But jurors showed no expression, some...

          CONVICTED BY SUSPICION -- WHY SCOTT PETERSON MAY BE INNOCENTby J. Neil Schulman, guest contributor.  [November 30, 2004]  [HollywoodInvestigator.com]  Scott Peterson may or may not have murdered his wife, Laci, and their unborn child.  But the Redwood City, California trial that has just convicted Peterson of murdering Laci with premeditation was a kangaroo court in which none of the elements necessary to achieve a murder conviction were offered, much less proved beyond a reasonable doubt.     The first element that needs to be proved in any murder trial is that a murder has occurred. ...

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...

PHIL SPECTOR, the record producer charged with murder, has employed O. J. Simpson’s lawyer to lead his defence. Robert Shapiro, who secured a not guilty verdict for Mr Simpson, was asked to represent Mr Spector shortly after his release on bail of $1 million (£600,000) yesterday. Mr Simpson, a former American football star, was acquitted of double murder in 1995. Mr Spector, 62, was charged after police found the body of a woman at his mock château in Alhambra, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles. She had been shot dead. The police named the victim as Lana Clarkson, 40, an...

Please Freep this poll!Do you think Scot Peterson will get the Death Penalty?

It was where she planned to start a family, and where prosecutors say he killed her. And now that a jury has convicted Scott Peterson of murdering his pregnant wife and unborn son, questions swirl around what will become of the couple's Covena Avenue home in Modesto. Once the site of media stakeouts, 24-hour police surveillance and impromptu shrines for Laci Peterson and the son the couple planned to name Conner, the house now lies at the heart of a legal morass involving criminal convictions, lawsuits and a loan. The single-story 1,770-square-foot home in the La Loma neighborhood was the...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Scott Peterson's defense lawyers want to seat a new jury in another county to weigh whether Peterson deserves to die for the murders of his pregnant wife and the fetus she carried, according to a motion filed Wednesday. Defense lawyer Mark Geragos filed the motion in San Mateo County Superior Court. The details will not be made public until after Judge Alfred A. Delucchi reviews the file Monday morning before the scheduled start of the penalty phase. The 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman was convicted Friday on one count of first-degree murder in the death of...

When a California jury convicted Scott Peterson for the murders of his wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner, on Friday, the celebrity trial that involved no celebrities came to a pleasing, if overdue, end. Any double-murder trial is serious business, but at times it seemed as if the five-month ordeal played out like a bad soap opera. That said, we disagree with Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, who told USA Today that the trial "doesn't have any inherent significance" and was "just a tabloid tale." In fact, the reverberations of the Peterson trial began nearly...

Two People, Two Deaths Paul Weyrich Thursday, Mar. 18, 2004 Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) stated in a letter to South Dakotans that he favored acting "expeditiously" on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. In his June 12, 2003 letter, Daschle stated: "I agree with the Republican Leader that Congress should consider this issue expeditiously." The rhetoric of the Senate Minority Leader fails to match the record. The Unborn Victims of Violence failed to reach the Senate floor quickly. After all, Tom Daschle has a voting record slanted in favor of legalized abortion, having voted for the Harkin (D-Iowa)...

April 17 — The father of missing pregnant woman Laci Peterson is not waiting for test results on a female torso and male fetus found on a San Francisco Bay-area beach to accuse his daughter's husband of murder. • Missing Woman's Dad Wants Husband Charged "It's her husband Scott," Dennis Rocha said in a telephone interview with WBZ-TV in Boston. "He never looked me in the eye. And he never pleaded for her. He just shows no remorse." Authorities are conducting tests to determine whether the torso and fetus found a mile apart on consecutive days are those of Laci...

Dr Gregory Jackson (Doctor-Lawyer) went to the judge Monday, complained they wanted to rush to a verdict and not look at the evidence. That was the cause of the mysterious "open mind" speech to the jury from the judge. He returned to the judge on Wednesday, claimed the jury wanted to reach a judgement to please the community, claimed they were into book deals and felt they wouldn't be as marketable and other jurors had threatened him and asked to be relieved because he felt he could be coerced into choosing guilty and could no longer be part of the...

Watching the Fox News Special about the wife/baby murderer. A gentleman from the prison system commented on how the inmates were interested in the verdict. He further stated that the prisoners would "make it known" to Peterson how they feel about a child killer.

In the news reports regarding the Conner Peterson case, the baby was continually referred to by media as "baby" or "person" or "child." I waited to hear the word "fetus" but did not hear it. Good. Finally the truth is getting out that a child inside a female’s womb is a human being. Naturally the abortionists will be up in arms about these reports. They would have delighted in hearing the term "fetus" repeated over and over again. I now await the reaction of Planned Parenthood reps, etc. It is alarming to realize the nonchalance on the part of many...

Women are cheering the conviction of coldblooded Scott Peterson, a psychopath with boy-next-door looks who murdered his pregnant wife — and sent chills through wives and moms everywhere. "I think the mothering instinct, knowing she was pregnant, hit home," said Anita, a tourist from Syracuse, N.Y., who rejoiced after hearing the news yesterday. "It made it more devastating." Peterson's emotionless face also struck a chilling chord with her. She suspected him because "he should have seemed more upset." A Post survey of Times Square tourists from across America didn't find a single woman who believed in Peterson's innocence. [snip]...

Our long national nightmare is nearly over. No, I don’t mean the terrorism nightmare. The other nightmare. The daily unrelenting media coverage of Scott Peterson’s murder of his cute, perpetually smiling, very pregnant wife Lacy, and their unborn child Conner. Don’t get me wrong. This was a horrible crime. But does it really merit pushing aside the news of French atrocities in the Ivory Coast, which make Abu Ghraib look like summer camp? Is it really worth taking the attention of cable news channels away from politics, war, cabinet resignations, and other important news? Thousands of other murders take place...

Fox News has just aired the announcement by police authorities that the 'object' found in Berkley Bay, thought to possibly be the body of 8 month pregnant missing woman, Laci Peterson is a partially submerged, abandoned anchor. The search goes on.