Retired judge chosen to preside over Scott Peterson murder trial

The San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Wednesday, January 21, 2004 | Kim Curtis

[Devil_Anse]

TU-SCOW? As in, "tu-SCOW, yo-SCOTT"?

Thanks for the link. I liked Christine Charbonneau's letter better than the first letter!

[Velveeta]

To me, that means that a whole year in jail was just unacceptable to him.

Would you happen to know what his min./max. sentence could be if found guilty? I can't seem to find any info on that.

[pinz-n-needlez]

Me too. My mother used to warn me that I was supposed to live life, not watch it. lol.

Then I had children... ;-)

Pinz

[pinz-n-needlez]

You took the words right out of my brain. You pegged him perfectly.

I bet he wishes he could do it over, because he's been thinking nonstop about ow he could have done it better. (Never woondering if he should have done it at all)

Pinz

[Devil_Anse]

I seem to remember from Court TV that the maximum he could get is 15 years in prison.

I figure the minimum can't be higher than one year in jail, or the prosecutors wouldn't have offered him that one year in jail for the plea bargain. A plea bargain will stay within the statutory limits for the sentence set down for that type of crime. So we know the minimum is no higher than one year. I'm inclined to think, though, that there is no minimum amount of jail time required by the statute.

I'll look for the Florida criminal statutes and look up manslaughter.

[Velveeta]

Seems like quite a gamble to reject the plea.

[Devil_Anse]

Okay, I found out that manslaughter in Florida is called a "second degree" felony.

http://facafla.org/statutes828/775082.html

It says here that the range of sentence for a second degree felony is zero time in prison, to 15 years in prison.

[Devil_Anse]

It would be a gamble regarding his criminal case, but accepting the plea would have given a finality to the civil suit(s) against Schuss. I mean, all the plaintiff(s) in those civil suits would have had to do to prove that Schuss killed Rosenberg, would be to introduce the criminal court record of his guilty plea.

Picture Mr. Schuss testifying in the personal injury civil suit. "I didn't kill him, I punched him, but it wasn't my punch that killed him... yada yada yada." The plaintiff's attorney would then say to Schuss, "Well if you didn't kill him then why did you plead guilty to killing him????"

[Velveeta]

You're right (of course), thanks for the insight!

[Devil_Anse]

Yes! Then when one has children, one needn't leave her own home to observe crazy behavior! LOL.

[Devil_Anse]

Seems to me that the same can apply to our friend Scott, now that we know that Sharon has filed a civil suit against him. (Go Sharon!!)

I mean, he can't do the plea bargain we are always speculating about: plead guilty in return for a life sentence, instead of the death penalty. (Frankly, I never thought he was gonna do that anyway... it's by no means guaranteed that he would get the death penalty even if he WERE proved to have murdered Laci and Connor. JMO.)

[pinz-n-needlez]

lol Too often, one only need look in the mirror!

[drjulie]

"Hey--that may explain my son and me, lol! Maybe it's my imagination, but he seems to be such a solid citizen... except when he's dealing with me! LOL."

I had that experience with my daughter, too. She was difficult and argumentative with me & completely different with my husband!

[drjulie]

"....then I don't see why he didn't have a vasectomy. But then, we have already been asking ourselves why he didn't just get a divorce... and there seems to be no reasonable answer to that question."

I believe that he didn't want to tarnish his image. Can you imagine....Laci wants children, Scott says no, has a vasectomy, everyone is scornful - friends, her family, his family, etc. He looks bad. If he decided to get a divorce after her pregnancy he would look really bad. Again, can you imagine....he's a guy who has abandoned a wife and child. Again, friends, family, POTENTIAL GIRLFRIENDS, label him as a "bad guy." If he kills Laci (assuming no one suspects him) he looks really good. Who isn't going to feel sorry for a guy who just lost his wife and child in such a horrific manner. He would elicit sympathy from other women. It's a completely different way of thinking that is (fortunately) hard for us to understand.

[drjulie]

"A decent man, when he got to seeing red over them, would step back, take a deep breath, and remind himself that "this too shall pass." But a man who's NOT decent... no telling!"

I wanted to be very careful so what I was saying would not be interpreted as blaming the victim. I agree. I'm not arguing that he's a decent man. However, there are probably a good number of people out there who are capable of this kind of behavior but never do it. I'm proposing this analysis as something that might be helpful to the prosecution because I think that a jury is going to want some insight as to why/how this happened in a seemingly normal, happy, middle class, well educated couple.