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.
Here we go!
From FNC, BREAKING: Judge says "Death."
I hope the judge sentences him to LIFE in prison, among the general prison population.
If there's going to be a new Peterson trial, I'm moving to France.
Too late. The judge already said "Death," when everyone entered the courtroom.
Oh good. I really didn't want to move to France.
This just in: DEATH per FOX
dead, we really didn't want you to go, but it would have been nice to have an enemy infiltrator over there...
Too late. The judge already said "Death," when everyone entered the courtroom.
It’s California. “Death” is code for “life in prison.”
You know there is no news in the country when this garbage gets on the air.
I thought they were still giving the victim impact statements?
Court TV is not reporting that the sentence has been imposed.
Oh, I see; it's the courthouse scuttlebutt!
What are you going to do when Michael Jackson gets his retrial?
Lacy's dad speaking now..
Only 30 more years and 1,000 appeals to go!
His death should be the same as Laci and Conner's. Dumped in the SF Bay to rot!!
Is Jackie at court.
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