Posted on 03/16/2005 9:59:57 AM PST by Howlin
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Shackled at the waist, Scott Peterson returned to court Wednesday to learn his fate for the slaying of his wife and her fetus, four months after jurors found the former fertilizer salesman guilty of their murders.
Peterson was escorted into San Mateo County Superior Court under heavy security, wearing a dark suit and handcuffs chained to his waist. Ten of the 12 jurors who sentenced him to death in December sat in the jury box.
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi was set to decide Wednesday whether to grant the former fertilizer salesman a new trial, sentence him to death - as the jury recommended - or give him life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Peterson, 32, was convicted Nov. 12 of two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife and her fetus. The jury recommended the death penalty a month later.
Hours before the hearing began, Peterson's former mistress, star witness Amber Frey, said she stood by her decision to turn to police. Peterson's lawyer is challenging the use of telephone conversations she recorded for the trial.
"As far as having not come forward there may not - and certainly in the jurors' eyes - there would not have been justice, so I stand by my choices and my decisions that I made," Frey told NBC's "Today" show Wednesday.
In asking for a new trial, defense lawyer Mark Geragos said Peterson's telephone calls to Frey should not have been admitted. He said Peterson never implicated himself in the crime during the calls and that authorities should not have tapped his phone.
Geragos also said prosecutors withheld evidence that a state prison inmate claimed he heard that Laci Peterson had interrupted a burglary at a neighbor's home in Modesto on Dec. 24, 2002, the day she was reported missing.
Scott Peterson claims he went fishing that day, and Geragos says the tip "points to the conclusion that Laci was alive after Scott left for the day."
"If the evidence were presented at a retrial, it is highly probable a different result would have occurred," Geragos wrote.
But prosecutor David Harris said the burglary happened two days after Laci Peterson's disappearance. He said the evidence was handed over a year before the trial started and would not have changed the verdict.
"His claim is reminiscent of the 'boy who cried wolf,' " Harris said.
The motion for a new trial, filed Feb. 25 in Redwood City, also claimed the judge erroneously dismissed two jurors, and erred in denying Geragos' motion for a second change of venue.
"Many condemned men have stopped breathing and disappeared with scarcely a ripple in the media pool.
A whistle will pierce through a cell block. "We've got a hanger," booms over the housing unit's loudspeakers. Guards spike open a cell door, handcuff a dead-body's hands before they cut the hangman noose. Tossing the corpse into a bright orange stretcher, the badges haul the remains of the suicide away. The property officer boxes up the deceased man's belongings, trustees hose out the cell, another condemned man is shoved inside the four-by-ten foot box, and the relentless, mind-numbing daily routine of Death Row grinds on and on and on.
Often it's fair easy to see the mental deterioration, suicide seems inevitable, and it's almost a relief when the condemned man ends his misery-filled existence.
A friend of mine, Ron Fuller, piled all his belongings onto his steel bunk and set them on fire. From six cells away, I could feel the heat radiating on my mind when I stuck my mirror outside my cell bars to see what the commotion was about. Crackling flames roared out of Ron's cell reaching up and licking the tier of cells above us.
Whistles blowing, heavy boots pounding, the guards arrived and brought the blaze under control. Handcuffing Ron, the uniforms yoked him out of his cell. Marching past my cell with a guard on each arm, Ron's unfocused eyes were spinning wildly, the hair on his chest and arms had been singed away, and I could smell charred flesh.
After treating his burns, Ron was turned over to the California Department of Corrections' psychologists who opined he was faking suicide. You see, the State of California isn't allowed to execute anyone who's insane -- it's the law. So the psyches employed by the State of California asserted Ron was playing insane in order to fend off the gas chamber.
Prison officials charged Ron a couple of hundred dollars for the cell's fire damage, tossed him inside anther four-by-ten-foot box and pretty much ignored him. Finally, he made a noose, tied it to his bars, stuck his head inside the loop, pulled it tight and quietly died."
Peterson's father yelled from the audience as Laci's brother, Brent Rocha, spoke to the court, saying "Laci and Conner are the true victims here."
"What a liar!" Lee Peterson said before the judge admonished him and he stormed out of the courtroom. Jackie Peterson, Scott Peterson's mother, also interrupted Rocha but her voice was inaudible.
Bay City News Wire WEDNESDAY MIDDAY NEWS ROUNDUP
At one point while Rocha was speaking, Peterson's mother, Jackie Peterson, said out loud "he didn't do it.''
A few moments later, Peterson's father Lee Peterson said to Rocha, "you are liar.''
Delucchi admonished the Petersons, who left the courtroom moments afterward.
CTV said that they weren't even in the courtroom when the judge read the sentence!
Lee Peterson, left, and Jackie Peterson leave the courthouse after the formal sentencing of their son Scott Peterson in Redwood City, Calif., Wednesday, March 16, 2005. The judge formally sentenced Scott Peterson to death Wednesday after calling the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, 'cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous.' (AP Photo/Monica Davey, POOL)
No they immediately left the courtroom after their outburst and the judge told them he was not going to have that, he did not care who they were, according to a reporter of CTV.
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi then allowed family members to speak, prompting a shouting match that led to Peterson's father storming out of the courtroom.
Wonder if his guards will just "look the other way" when ol' snotty scotty is out and about?? This is awful to say, but I hope Scott gets his in prison and doesn't make it out alive -- one way or another.
I hear that it is a little hot in hell, pack your shorts Scott.
Good riddance.
Scott will have hell on earth.
Ron Grantski, Laci Peterson's stepfather, waves to the crowd outside the courthouse after the formal sentencing of Scott Peterson in Redwood City, Ca, March 16, 2005. The judge formally sentenced Scott Peterson to death Wednesday after calling the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, 'cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous.' Also seen is Sharon Rocha, Laci's mother (L). REUTERS/San Mateo Times/John Green/POOL
Juror #8 reported that when the jury went to look at the boat, 2 of them got in. One of them sat on a seat and mimed the actions of tossing a body overboard.
At that, Scott's head went down, he had a very guilty look on his face, according to #8.
That is when Geragos objected, and started complaining about them trying to 'rock the boat.' More distraction and misdirection on his part.
Scott pounded another nail into his own coffin with his reaction.
Pinz
Bingo on the Blake verdict. Cameras will be in the court room. verdict will be read at 2:30 pm Pacific time.
I'm thinking there's a chance the verdict will be "not guilty" for Robert Blake. Call me crazy, but I'm on the record for "not guilty".
Verdict will be read at 5:30 pm, EST.
The hung charge is about solicitation of a particular person.
WOW!!! Thanks for the ping...I just got in. Not a surprise (the verdict) but what a scene in the courtroom...thanks for the blow by blow...will be watching Nancy Grace tonight...
I thought of that, but don't forget, one solicitation charge could be "not guilty", and the other simply one they couldn't come to agreement on.
Lee and Jackie Peterson had the gaul to ask to make a victim impact statement. But i think that their plan was not to make a victim impact statement, but to say something self-serving on Scott's behalf. Cuz when the judge asked Scott if he wanted to speak he hush hushed with Geragos for a few seconds beforing saying no.
LA juries are something else, aren't they.
I saw no evidence that Robert Blake was guilty. He has raised two good children, and he can raise one more.
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