Posted on 01/08/2003 9:24:19 AM PST by TomB
I read (somewhere) SD-UT is not going to post anymore of the unsealed documents. This may or may not be true. I hope someone will post them. Any info from anyone would be appreciated.
I saw the documentary on San Quentin. What a horrible place to be. Especially if a person is there with a reasonable doubt of his guilt.
There will be less and less info available on the Westerfield case as time goes by.
After a while, many will even forget DW and Danielle.
With all the questionable things that many posters discussed on these threads, one would hope that if he is not guilty, that Feldman (or whoever represents him now) works hard to gain a successful appeal.
As Spectre's Wife said, If he is guilty, it would be nice if there was some closure (confession?) and we all could put it out of our minds and feel assured that Danielle's killer is behind bars.
"That put everyone's attention back on the victim, and a man was arrested and then convicted for the murder because the parents stepped up to the plate," Walsh said he told Peterson. "That's what you need to do."
Noticed this on the Peterson threads.
After lying to/misleading police for 17 + hours.
Testimony of Damon Van Dam...look it up.
The point being made was that John Walsh was pointing out to Mr. Peterson that he and everyone else should forget about OLD NEWS (the affair with another woman he admitted to), and spend their time and energy finding his wife.
JW was comparing the admittance of the affair by Peterson to the admittance of the VD's that they had swapped sex partners.
JW is implying that neither the affair nor the swapping had anything to do with the disappearance of Laci / Danielle. Now that it is out in the open, everyone needs to move and and concentrate on finding Ms. Peterson.
(Damon tried to hide his info less time than Mr. Peterson, so the 17 hour thing won't help any comparative arguments.
everyone needs to move on and.....
By PATRICK GIBLIN
BEE STAFF WRITER
If Laci Peterson has been killed, statistics say she was likely slain by someone close to her.
Police still hold out hope for the pregnant, 27-year-old woman's safe return, but veteran investigators know that with each passing day since her disappearance on Christmas Eve, the chance diminishes.
"For much of our search, when we're looking in places under water, we're looking for a body," Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden said earlier this month.
According to the California Department of Justice, more than 63 percent of the people who were arrested in California on homicide charges in 2001 knew their victims.
That's why detectives usually start investigating family members when they suspect a homicide has occurred, said Mike Van Winkle, spokesman for the department's Division of Law Enforcement.
"About three years ago, we had a female agent who didn't show up for work," he said. "The husband said she left in the morning, but our detectives took a look at him anyway. Pretty soon, he told us where to find the body."
It makes sense statistically why police are increasingly focusing on Laci Peterson's 30-year-old husband, Scott Peterson. According to the California homicide figures:
Approximately 46 percent of victims were related to the killer in some other way.
Nearly 7 percent of victims were killed by their spouses.
About 7 percent of the victims were killed by a parent or child.
About 4 percent of the killers had an "other" relationship with the victim. That could mean they were dating or roommates, for example.
About 36 percent of the victims did not know the person who killed them.
But just because Scott Peterson is the husband does not mean he's guilty of anything, Van Winkle cautioned.
Neither does the news that he had a romantic relationship with a Fresno woman he met in late November, a criminal justice expert said Monday.
Jeanette Sereno, a lawyer and assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice with California State University, Stanislaus, warned that Scott Peterson's reported liaison doesn't make him guilty of homicide.
"In fact, just because he (might be) a suspect doesn't automatically make him the defendant," she said.
According to several studies on marriage -- including a 1998 study by the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of California at San Francisco -- nearly one-fifth of spouses will have affairs during their marriages. Yet few end up in homicide.
Laci Peterson's case has another factor -- she's pregnant. Their son is due on Feb. 10.
According to a 2001 study by the American Medical Association, the leading cause of death for pregnant women is homicide. The study randomly looked at the cases of 247 pregnant women who died and found that 50 of them were murdered.
The other women died from heart problems, car accidents, previously unknown medical problems or complications from the pregnancy.
"Typically, pregnant women don't participate in risky activities such as hiking, mountain climbing or drinking in bars," Sereno said. "They are eating well and seeing their doctors, so their deaths normally would be something out of their control."
Bee staff writer Patrick Giblin can be reached at 578-2347 or pgiblin@modbee.com.
Posted: January 28, 2003 @ 04:50:10 AM PST
Statistically speaking, I'm surprised they cleared the VD's in 24 hours, after they had been lying for 17 of them.
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