What Do You All Think Of The Scott Peterson Trial So Far? [Archive] - Big Big Forums

Jolie Rouge

08-18-2004, 09:47 PM

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS ??

'Potential Development' in Peterson Case
By BRIAN SKOLOFF

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20040818%2F2340804497.htm&sc=1110&photoid=20040818NY116

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - In a surprise move Wednesday, the judge in Scott Peterson's murder trial postponed the cross-examination of Peterson's former mistress and sent the jury home for the rest of the week because of an undisclosed ``potential development.''

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi emerged from a 45-minute closed-door meeting with attorneys and apologized for the delay. ``There's been a potential development in this case that has to be checked out before we can go any further,'' he told the jury.

Groans could be heard in the packed courtroom.

Peterson's defense attorneys were preparing to cross-examine Peterson's former mistress, Amber Frey, and had even set up a big screen with a digital media presentation before the lawyers went behind closed doors.

The judge didn't say what the development was. Lawyers are barred by a gag order from discussing it.

Court officials later announced that Thursday's session would be canceled and the trial will resume Monday with Frey scheduled to be on the witness stand. No reason was given for the cancellation.

Delucchi had sent jurors home early on Tuesday so attorneys could discuss the scope of Frey's cross-examination. The judge ruled defense lawyers could not question her about relationships she had with other men - unless they were mentioned on the wiretapped telephone calls between Frey and Peterson that were played for jurors.

Some that were mentioned included a past relationship Frey had with another married man.

Two weeks ago, Delucchi dismissed jurors for the day after meeting with attorneys, saying, ``There's been some newly discovered evidence that requires an investigation on both sides.'' The details of that delay have not been publicly revealed.

Former prosecutor Michael Cardoza, who has been observing the trial, speculated Wednesday's development may influence how the defense questions Frey. ``It has to be some new information that might allow a different subject for cross-examination,'' Cardoza said. ``It's important to Amber's testimony.''

Jurors have heard 24 recorded calls between Peterson and his lover as authorities searched for his pregnant wife, Laci, between late December 2002 and February 2003. Authorities hope to show jurors the affair was Peterson's motive for killing Laci.

Throughout the tapes, Peterson is heard proclaiming his love for Laci while at the same time romancing Frey. He continuously apologizes for lying to Frey about his marriage and begs her to meet with him, even as authorities searched for his wife.

On one call recorded Feb. 10, 2003 - the day Laci Peterson had been expected to give birth to the couple's child - jurors heard Peterson calling Frey ``sweetie'' and directing her to a location in a parking lot at a hospital near Fresno where Frey found Peterson had left her a bag of birthday gifts.

Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his wife, Laci, in their Modesto home on or around Dec. 24, 2002, then dumped her weighted body from a small boat into San Francisco Bay. The badly decomposed remains of Laci Peterson and the couple's fetus washed up along a bay shore in April 2003, not far from where Peterson said he launched a solo fishing trip Christmas Eve, the day he reported her missing. His defense attorneys claim he was framed after the real killer learned of his widely publicized alibi.

Wednesday's development came as a surprise even to Frey's attorney, Gloria Allred. ``It is of course frustrating to Amber because she was ready,'' Allred said. ``Amber has suffered such enormous invasions of privacy.''

08/18/04 23:39

Hi_Ya!

08-18-2004, 11:09 PM

It's hard to say what the new development is, what with the gag order and all.

What got me what this part of the article:
On one call recorded Feb. 10, 2003 - the day Laci Peterson had been expected to give birth to the couple's child - jurors heard Peterson calling Frey ``sweetie'' and directing her to a location in a parking lot at a hospital near Fresno where Frey found Peterson had left her a bag of birthday gifts.

He should have been in deep mourning for the BIRTHday that poor little Conner never lived to experience, instead of calling his "Sweetie"! :mad:
It just makes you wanna cry. :(

Gia

08-18-2004, 11:35 PM

Hi_Ya!

08-18-2004, 11:52 PM

And here I was hoping the delay was because Scott had confessed to his Lawyer. :/

Char

08-19-2004, 02:01 AM

GUILTY ! But, I don't know if they can prove it or not. I mean, it's sooooooo obvious that he did it... He "had" to tell them he was out in a boat the day before Christmas ('cause that's when he dumped the body in the ocean), in case he was seen. And, a few months later, the body washed up ! Funny how nature has a way... Of teh millions of places he could have been, she turns up exactly where he said he was out on the boat. *DUH*

So yeah... he did it. But, here is what I would like to hear a court make perfectly clear; they always say "beyond a reasonable doubt", fair enough - but, that is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, not "guilty beyond ALL doubt". A reasonable doubt is totally different.. OJ was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but, they found him not guilty ! :mad: It's as though they think the saying is "guilty or not guilty beyond ANY doubt". I mean, there is always going to be some doubt, unless you yourself saw the person commit the murder, but, be REASONABLE.

hotwire

08-19-2004, 06:19 AM

i havent been following this as much as most people....so i have a few questions.
why were the phone calls recorded? did the police find out about amber and have her record them? or is there just some strange reason that she records phone calls? did she keep seeing him after she knew he was a suspect?
are the police even looking for anyone else as the killer, or do they just believe scott did it?

GaPeachy

08-19-2004, 06:24 AM

I think he is guilty!!!!!!!!!!Im not sure if the jury will convict him tho!!However i dont think he'll make it very long if he gets off.I have a feeling someone will take matters in there own hands should he be let off.
The tapes with Amber show me,he had no intentions of looking for his wife.Everybody is out looking for her and here he is on the phone with his girlfriend!Asking for a sleepover :rolleyes: :confused:

Tasha405

08-19-2004, 06:29 AM

I haven't been keeping up with much of it either but I'll try to answer some of your questions. I think Scott is the only suspect right now because I think they found her blood on his boat. Plus his story of fishing and her body coming up in that location doesn't look to good for him either.

I'm not sure why the phone calls were recorded or who done the recording.

I think Amber had tried to break it off with Scott but he kept calling her. I'm not really sure on any of this though. I'm just going by what I've heard from other people or remember seeing on the news months ago.

Oh and I also think he is GUILTY!!! Although it will probably end up like another OJ trial... evidence everywhere but no conviction.

hotwire

08-19-2004, 06:38 AM

Tasha405

08-19-2004, 06:39 AM

Has anyone heard the story of the guy who lives in Salt Lake City, who killed his wife? I dont rember his first name,but his last name was Hacking. She was also pregnant, but only about 5 weeks along. He admitted doing it, and told police where her body was (in a landfill) but they still havent found it yet. WHATS WITH THESE MEN! (and i use the word MEN, loosly). Do they honestly think they wont get caught!? if they dont want a wife....get divorced! better yet.....just dont get married! if they dont want kids...use a condom! or quit having sex.....or get a vascectomy! (sp?) JEEZ! it will be interesting to see how this case compares to scott peterson. they both need the death penalty.

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON OJ SIMPSON!ITA!!

The other case is about Lori Hacking. Her husband Mark killed her. Here's a link...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/08/10/missing.wife.ap/

DBackFan

08-19-2004, 07:08 AM

As soon as Amber realized the missing woman was Scotts wife she went to the police and they asked her to tape the phone calls. There were over 300 of them while the saerch for Lacey was on! He never went public on TV at first because he was afraid Amber would see him and realize he was married etc.

As far as I know and I follow pretty close....there was no blood found on the boat but there were 2 hairs of hers wedged in a pair of pliars!! :mad: .. he DID go out "fishing" as he says that day where the bodies washed up. There was concrete residue in his boat and none of the gear he had for fishing was appropriate for what he says he was fishing for.

There are a LOT of reasons to suspect him, even heading to Mexico with hair color changed and fake id's etc etc.

There were a lot of people questioned but Scott is now the main suspect. Hang the scum. :mad:

lassss

08-19-2004, 07:29 AM

Has anyone heard the story of the guy who lives in Salt Lake City, who killed his wife? I dont rember his first name,but his last name was Hacking. She was also pregnant, but only about 5 weeks along. He admitted doing it, and told police where her body was (in a landfill) but they still havent found it yet. WHATS WITH THESE MEN! (and i use the word MEN, loosly). Do they honestly think they wont get caught!? if they dont want a wife....get divorced! better yet.....just dont get married! if they dont want kids...use a condom! or quit having sex.....or get a vascectomy! (sp?) JEEZ! it will be interesting to see how this case compares to scott peterson. they both need the death penalty.

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON OJ SIMPSON!

ITA!! It happened here too in my town. Married guy was seeing a girl, she got pregnant and he killed her so the wife wouldn't find out. Well now he is in prison and everyone knows about it. There was a documentary on late one night about men who kill their wife/gf/other who found out they were pregnant. These guys don't want the kid, the divorce, child support etc so they kill them hoping to get away with it. I guess spending the rest of their lives in prison or being executed is better !?! :confused:

Tasha405

08-19-2004, 08:52 AM

YNKYH8R

08-19-2004, 01:23 PM

I don't know whether or not he's guilty, I haven't followed it too much.

The last thing I heard was finding what they believed to be blood but was not.

I think if the prosocuters are good they'll win. Unlike the OJ trial. If the prosocution can present evidence that cannot be explained away then there is a chance.

I don't believe the recordings say too much, motive is not all that important because it is not required to prove guilt in a case. People kill other people all the time for no reason whatsoever.

I don't understand the phone conversation thing though, if he was cheating on his wife it is obvious that he didn't care, so I wouldn't expect him to show any emotion over a missing wife he doesn't care about. Although I havn't heard any of the phone conversations and I heard that the defense will bring in tapes of there own.

It would all be a lot easier if they found the weapon. If those guys from CSI on CBS were on the case it wouldn't have even gone to trial :)

MsLynn

08-19-2004, 01:45 PM

justme23

08-19-2004, 01:48 PM

That 'technicality' according to www.websleuths.com (all they talk about is this case... I don't think they have enough to do in life) is some duct tape that his attorneys had PLENTY of time to have analyzed before he went to trial... they think this was just another ploy (he pulls a stunt every thursday) to try and get the jury off Amber... he should have done it AFTER she testified if he really wanted their minds off of her.

My bad... I didn't realize this was ANOTHER new development... I was still thinking of two weeks ago when he did this.

I still don't think he's guilty of murder... of being an ass and a horrible husband... yes... but there's not enough evidence for me to say 'yes, he killed her cause he screwed someone else'.

Hi_Ya!

08-19-2004, 11:20 PM

Has anyone heard the story of the guy who lives in Salt Lake City, who killed his wife? I dont rember his first name,but his last name was Hacking. She was also pregnant, but only about 5 weeks along. He admitted doing it, and told police where her body was (in a landfill) but they still havent found it yet. WHATS WITH THESE MEN! (and i use the word MEN, loosly). Do they honestly think they wont get caught!? if they dont want a wife....get divorced! better yet.....just dont get married! if they dont want kids...use a condom! or quit having sex.....or get a vascectomy! (sp?) JEEZ! it will be interesting to see how this case compares to scott peterson. they both need the death penalty.

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON OJ SIMPSON!
I followed this case also, another senseless murder! He could of just been a Man and fessed up to all his lies and hoped for his Wife's and Family's forgiveness. I can't imagine the grief her family is going through knowing Lori's body is buried deep in a landfill! :mad:

YNKYH8R

08-20-2004, 02:34 AM

I've seen too many of these, and i'm sick of seeing HIS case being the one so highly profiled, there are probably 100's if not 1000's of these cases active/on trial in the country right now. what makes his so special that he deserves the attention thats gonna give every sleazy person that knew him the ability to profit by selling books about it or their story to the stupid little tabloid.. it drives me nuts to see on case so hight publicized when I KNOW there are so many others are are IDENTICAL and if they could get the same or even 1/4 of the attention could possibly get the evidence they need to indict the husband....

ITA, I was watching this news program, when the story first broke, and another pregnent woman had the same thing hapen to her, except she was latino. Now why do you thing the media decided to run with the Peterson trial?
It is sad, I'll not take that away from the Peterson case, but other pregnant woman over time have been murdered, or worse. So why was Laci Peterson so special? (Other than the fact that she was a pregnant living breathing person.)

YankeeMary

08-20-2004, 05:47 AM

ITA, I was watching this news program, when the story first broke, and another pregnent woman had the same thing hapen to her, except she was latino. Now why do you thing the media decided to run with the Peterson trial?
It is sad, I'll not take that away from the Peterson case, but other pregnant woman over time have been murdered, or worse. So why was Laci Peterson so special? (Other than the fact that she was a pregnant living breathing person.)

I feel pretty positive that race and financial statis has alot to do with the media as well as investigators , but I also think the reason (IMO) the Laci murder was so hot is because it was so close to Christmas. As well as they were living the "American Dream" and seemed so happy to all involved. It still is not fair that others don't get the same attention such a weeks worth of searching and collecting evidence. EVERYONE CREATED EQUAL!!! Some how something got lost in the translation. I just pray that if he is quilty that he pays dearly for what he has done. I could never imagine the grief that Laci's parents must live through everyday. Such a shame. :mad:

YNKYH8R

08-20-2004, 05:55 AM

Thank you for your thoughts from my last post.

Now, if they find him not guilty, does anyone actually think they will continue to investigate the crime? Or do you think that they've put all their eggs into one basket?

YankeeMary

08-20-2004, 06:00 AM

No I think they will drop it just as they basically did with OJ. If OJ didn't kill Nicole and Ron then who did? I think it will be handled just like that one was unfortuantly. If he gets not guilty then they can never try him again so he will go free, just like OJ. I have really tried to remain open minded and not put the quity mark on him but dang he makes it so hard.

YankeeMary

08-20-2004, 06:16 AM

Maybe... maybe not. I know it sounds crazy, but do you remember them mentioning something about a van being seen in the area? and some references to a cult that killed pregnant women as sacrifices? IF he is found not guilty, they may or may not decide to follow up on those things.

Wouldn't you think they already investigated all that? If it were me I would have followed that till I could prove the cult didn't do it before I put an innocent man up on charges of double homicide, know what I mean? But then again, the big guys never so what we think they should..right?

Gia

08-20-2004, 06:23 AM

And yet ANOTHER sad case~ :(
http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/3664870/detail.html

Teen Accused Of Killing Pregnant Girlfriend Appears In Court
Victim's Family Calls For Death Penalty

POSTED: 5:40 pm PDT August 18, 2004
UPDATED: 6:11 pm PDT August 18, 2004

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A Sacramento teenager accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend was in court Wednesday.
Allan Solis was arraigned on two counts of murder in the death of Ruby Pena in an emotional but brief court appearance. One member of Pena's family is asking for the death penalty in this case.

Before he heard the charges against him Wednesday, Solis heard the agony from Pena's family, which was too upset to stay in court.

"He's just standing there. We had to see our little cousin in a casket dead, and he's just standing there," Alexis Marshal, Pena's cousin.
"He had no remorse whatsoever. I just didn't like it," said Clarence Gevara, Pena's uncle.

Solis is accused of stabbing his 16-year-old girlfriend in his Sacramento apartment last Thursday.

"It made me feel good inside to see him in that orange outfit 'cause that's what we're going to see him in for the rest of his life," said Vanessa Jinzo, Pena's cousin.
Solis could face the death penalty because he's charged with the two murders -- Pena and her 1-month-old fetus.

'Nobody knew that she was pregnant. We just found out the other day," Jinzo said.

Law professor Ruth Jones says the age of the fetus could make the case complicated. California's Supreme Court ruled the cutoff for fetal homicide at 7 to 8 weeks old. The District Attorney's Office argues that a jury can change that cutoff.

The defense will argue the fetus is too young.

"That's certainly something that we will be investigating factually and legally," said public defender Linda Parisa.
Prosecutors are using the same state law that allowed double murder charges in the Scott Peterson case.

Previous Story:
August 16, 2004: Man Accused Of Killing Pregnant Girlfriend Turns Self In
Copyright 2004 by TheKCRAChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://images.ibsys.com/2004/0819/3664969.jpg

http://images.ibsys.com/2004/0819/3664968.jpg

YankeeMary

08-20-2004, 06:59 AM

Such a waste...anyone know why he killed her?

Tasha405

08-20-2004, 07:00 AM

If those guys from CSI on CBS were on the case it wouldn't have even gone to trial :)
ITA!! They rock on that show!! LOL

justinenycole26

08-20-2004, 07:01 AM

What a pretty girl. And such a senseless death. I hope she did not suffer.

Tasha405

08-20-2004, 07:05 AM

Its so sad to see all of these cases like this. I mean, its sad no matter who it happens to but yall know what I mean. I just can't imagine getting someone pregnant and all of a sudden I decide I don't want to be married anymore, don't want a kid or I want to cheat so I go off and kill the woman and my unborn child. I just don't get it. Its so sad. :(

YNKYH8R

08-20-2004, 11:09 AM

The reality of it all is that with big media coverage there comes big pressure. Remember the DC sniper case, its like that? Sometimes the police are pressured by the DA to find a suspect, gather evidence, make it stick.

Now, I was away with the military when OJ was arrested and went on trial, so never heard about any of it. So it comes down to; does the prosocution have good solid evidence that points at the defendent, or is he trying to string along a lot of coincidences to link him to the death?

I favor the second view, if he had strong evidence, witnesses, muder weapon, whatever, then it would be ano brainer. I don't see that here. He cheated on his wife. His boat resides near where they found the body. If I'm missing something tell me, but these two things do not a killer does not make.

With OJ the evidence must have been seriously lacking. :(

Jolie Rouge

08-23-2004, 12:25 PM

Cell Phone Records Tracked Peterson's Whereabouts
lAugust 23, 2004 Posted: 2:37 PM EDT (1837 GMT)

www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/08/23/peterson.trial.ap/index.html

REDWOOD CITY, California (AP) -- The much-anticipated cross-examination of Scott Peterson's former lover was delayed Monday so a telephone company official who came from Florida could testify first.

Mary Anderson, of West Palm Beach, Florida, works for AT&T Wireless as the director of national subpoena and court order compliance.

Anderson testified about Peterson's cell phone records in the days after his pregnant wife, Laci, vanished.

Authorities used cell phone towers to track Peterson's calls and movements on December 24, 2002, the day Peterson reported his wife missing.

Amber Frey, who had an affair with Peterson, had been set to take the witness stand for cross-examination last week, but the judge delayed her testimony until Monday because of a "potential development." Details of the delay were not made public.

Frey was set for cross-examination later in the day.

Dominating the trial in recent days were hours of recorded telephone calls -- 40 in all -- between Peterson and Frey, and some observers said they changed the tone of the trial. Frey taped the calls at the request of police.

"I think the tapes changed the mood of the trial and has the jury thinking, 'We certainly understand now why police were so suspicious of Scott,"' said Loyola University Law School Professor Laurie Levenson.

The recordings have shown that as his lies unraveled and Frey peppered him with questions about his pregnant wife's disappearance, Peterson was apologetic but remained evasive. He continued to romance Frey while authorities were searching for his wife.

"I just need to tell you how much I care about you ... And I desire so much to be, you know, for the rest of our lives, your best friend, your biggest comfort, and the second-most joy in your life," Peterson tells Frey on one recorded call.

Just how defense attorneys will cross-examine Frey remains a mystery. Legal experts say jurors are likely sympathizing with Frey, a vulnerable single mother.

"The tapes have engendered a lot of anger toward Peterson and sympathy for Frey," said former San Francisco prosecutor Jim Hammer, who's observing the trial. "The mistake for defense lawyers would be to simply try to dirty her up, to talk about her sex life, her other relationships."

dream walker 2

08-23-2004, 04:06 PM

OK this is just my opinion.
I think Sccott is guilty of being unfaithful and an a$$ but murder NO! My husband was fishing in Canada the day our daughter was born and wouldn't even cut his trip short to come home. When our son was born he was visiting family in another state. So I had both my kids without him being there. But he loved both of them. and he was cheating on me. And why everyone is making this Amber person out to be a victim is bull, I wouldn't be surprized if she had something to do with Lacy's death. she is a full blown nut case. If any of you had read this, she dated another married man before Scott, whose wife was expecting also. So she had herself a baby shower just because the mans wife was having one. Now is that nuts or what? and she wasn't even pregnant. Just because he was having an affair, (a lot of men do when their wives are in their last months of pregnancy) (proven fact) doesn't mean he didn't love that unborn little boy.
I did hear on the news the other night that they had found some more evidence where they found Lacy's body which might prove Scott is innocent. Have no idea what it was. I just hope he is not guilty. it's scary to think a man could do such a horrible thing to his wife and unborn son.

My son and his wife had their first child last April. A son they named Conner, in honor of Lacy's little Conner that never had a chance.
I will always believe Amber was involved with Lacy's death. I don't think Scott killed them, but may have been involved someway. just my opinion

Njean31

08-23-2004, 06:51 PM

OK this is just my opinion.
I think Sccott is guilty of being unfaithful and an a$$ but murder NO! My husband was fishing in Canada the day our daughter was born and wouldn't even cut his trip short to come home. When our son was born he was visiting family in another state. Just because he was having an affair, (a lot of men do when their wives are in their last months of pregnancy) (proven fact) doesn't mean he didn't love that unborn little boy.

i want to ask if you are still with this man out of curiosity? i really have to say i beg to differ on the "it's common for a man to cheat on his wife in her last few months of pregnancy"......it may be a common fact in the realm of adulterous men... like say this is when they cheat more........but a normal, loving husband eagerly anticipating his newborns arrival and feeling that baby move and seeing it on an ultrasound imho, wouldn't.

oh, and i agree with you about amber except that she had anything to do with it. she is a female dawg.......i hate women who chase married men, get your own dern man you skanks and quit having babies with them :mad:

i know that you should never say what you'd do if you haven't been in that situation but i will say that if my husband wasn't with me during my children's births (unless he was in intensive care or prison) and cheated on me while pregant, i can safely say i'd be a single parent. i'm not judging you so please don't take it that way, i don't know your personal circumstances, i am just saying that I and all my friends and family would be single in that circumstance :(

littlebuggy

08-23-2004, 08:27 PM

ITA w/ Njean31 on all accounts.

In regard to the Amber Frey thing, she didn't know he was married. A friend of hers introduced them. That's why he wouldn't appear on camera for a long time after Laci dissappeared. When she did find out who he was she went to the police. Please don't think I am excusing women who go after married men, I think they are one of the lowest forms of human beings, (next to the married men whom they cheat with), but I truly think she didn't know he was married.

I live about 30 min. from Modesto, so I can't watch the local news without seeing something about this. Also, apparently now Scott might not be able to pay for his legal fees, so now he is trying to get help from the state, those of us who pay taxes, to help him with his high priced lawyer.

Jaxx

08-23-2004, 09:14 PM

I've been watching Nancy Grace on court tv and they were playing the phone calls
between him and Amber and all i have to say is................GUILTY

YNKYH8R

08-24-2004, 08:08 AM

I've been watching Nancy Grace on court tv and they were playing the phone calls
between him and Amber and all i have to say is................GUILTY

I don't understand how you come to this conclusion? :confused:

I'm not trying to flame you, just curious. :o

MsLynn

08-24-2004, 11:16 AM

YNKYH8R

08-24-2004, 11:25 AM

well i would say guilty...I KNOW I HAVEN'T SEEN ALL THE EVIDENCE.. but ya'll haven't either. what i want to know is why an innocent man, would sell off stuff, rake up thousands of dollars, change his appearance and run for the border???? this is all facts in the case.. his lawyer hasn't disputed he did all this... these are just not the actions of an innocent man. I don't think it had anything to do with amber. but again those are just my opinions

If I was getting hounded by reporters, having my life disrupted, and basically wanted to get away from it all, I might consider doing the same thing.

I mean the press just pounced on this. He probably wasn't expecting all the publicity. I know I wouldn't have.

msmom79

08-24-2004, 11:54 AM

Famous Words From My Mother,you Play You Pay Im So Glad For All The Opinions Here.i Hate To Say It But He's Guilty!!!! And That Constant Smirk On His Face Makes Me Sick.i Think The Reason This Case Is So Open ,is So More People Will Know What Is Happening In This Mean World.i Dont Know How People Can Live With Themselves,after Killing Someone,how Can They Have No Feelings At All.i Just Dont Get It.i Hope This Is Not Another Oj,cause My Honest Opinion Is Scott Did This!! Even If He Gets Off From This,he Will Pay In The End.people Dont Take To Kind To Hurting Babies! And We All Answer To God,or The One You Believe In. Jmo Here Im So Glad To Hear All Of Your Opinions.there Are Some Pretty Good Ones Here.keep Me Updated On Any New News Releases Out There.i Try To Watch Some Of This Trial Daily.its Pretty Interesting.if You Have Not Listened To Any Of It,tune In To Court Tv And Watch Some Of The Trial,you Might Just Change Your Opinion,but Thats What We Have Trials For. Hugs Everyone Ann

Tasha405

08-24-2004, 12:11 PM

If I was getting hounded by reporters, having my life disrupted, and basically wanted to get away from it all, I might consider doing the same thing.

I mean the press just pounced on this. He probably wasn't expecting all the publicity. I know I wouldn't have.
Yeah but if that had been my husband that was missing... I would want every camera from around the world there so I could get a message out to everyone that I possibly could. Hoping that maybe someone somewhere knew where he was. Instead of being on the phone with another woman, he should have been calling around to see if he could find his wife and their unborn child.

This man changes his looks and runs for the border... that to me makes him look guilty even if he's not.

And I totally agree with Njean31 about the cheating husband part!

YNKYH8R

08-24-2004, 01:12 PM

Yeah but if that had been my husband that was missing... I would want every camera from around the world there so I could get a message out to everyone that I possibly could. Hoping that maybe someone somewhere knew where he was. Instead of being on the phone with another woman, he should have been calling around to see if he could find his wife and their unborn child.

I would do the same if my wife went missing. I would have all cameras on me. Because I love my wife. :)

But he obviously didn't care, he was cheating. :(

He might have thought that she just ran off, he might have thought she found out about the affair. So, if he thinks she's run off and left him, why would he stop phoning Amber if he really cared about her. In his mind it was the perfect oppertunity to get in real good with her, now that the wife was gone.
But then they found her body....

What if he had never had the affair. What if there was no Amber Frye.

Would he still look guilty?

I'm just saying....that is all. Something to think about.

Why? Because it is so easy for us to sit back and say he's guilty, because we want him to be. Because she was pregnant, it was Christmas, and she's beutiful. And she probably reminds everyone of someone they know.

What if the defendent was a twevle year old boy? Perception is everything in America.
Even if he is found innocent, by jury of his peers, he will still be guilty in the eyes of America. Because we wanted him to be guilty so badly.

YankeeMary

08-24-2004, 01:57 PM

I would do the same if my wife went missing. I would have all cameras on me. Because I love my wife. :)

But he obviously didn't care, he was cheating. :(

He might have thought that she just ran off, he might have thought she found out about the affair. So, if he thinks she's run off and left him, why would he stop phoning Amber if he really cared about her. In his mind it was the perfect oppertunity to get in real good with her, now that the wife was gone.
But then they found her body....

What if he had never had the affair. What if there was no Amber Frye.

Would he still look guilty?

I'm just saying....that is all. Something to think about.

Why? Because it is so easy for us to sit back and say he's guilty, because we want him to be. Because she was pregnant, it was Christmas, and she's beutiful. And she probably reminds everyone of someone they know.

What if the defendent was a twevle year old boy? Perception is everything in America.
Even if he is found innocent, by jury of his peers, he will still be guilty in the eyes of America. Because we wanted him to be guilty so badly.

You are soooo right!!! I am holding so hard to not quilty but geeezzzz he does look so guilty and everyone here has made so many good point as to him being guilty, I am so thankful I am not on that Jury...what a hard decision those people have to make. I am finding it harder and harder to find that "reasonable doubt".

Jolie Rouge

08-31-2004, 08:02 AM

Peterson Defense Questions Slay Timeline
By BRIAN SKOLOFF

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Laci Peterson may have been alive and surfing the Web as late as midmorning on the day she disappeared, Scott Peterson's lawyers suggested Monday in an attempt to raise doubts about the prosecution's timeline of the crime.

Lydell Wall of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, returning to the stand for cross-examination, testified that someone used Peterson's home computer to search shopping Web sites for a scarf and a sunflower umbrella stand on Dec. 24, 2002, between 8:40 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.

``Who was the person who logged on at 8:40 a.m.?'' defense lawyer Mark Geragos asked.

Wall could not answer. He said authorities never asked him to determine exactly who used the home computer that morning.

Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his pregnant wife in their Modesto home either late on Dec. 23 or early on Dec. 24, then drove to San Francisco Bay and dumped her body from a boat he kept at a warehouse. The remains of Laci Peterson and the couple's unborn son washed ashore months later, not far from where Peterson said he set out on a fishing trip the day his wife vanished.

Defense lawyers contend someone else abducted and killed Laci, then framed their client after learning his widely publicized alibi.

Police allege Peterson disposed of the body on the morning of Dec. 24. With Monday's cross-examination, defense lawyers tried to show that the prosecution's timeline left little time for Peterson to get rid of the body.

Prosecutors allege Peterson made a cell phone call at 10:08 a.m. Dec. 24 at or near his home. Wall testified that Peterson was browsing Web sites at his office at 10:30 a.m. the same morning. Records indicate Peterson surfed Web sites there for 26 minutes.

Former prosecutor and trial watcher Michael Cardoza said the defense was trying to establish Laci Peterson was alive in the morning.

``That really is important to their case,'' Cardoza said. ``It really shoots holes in the prosecution's timeline.''

08/30/04 19:09

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20040830%2F1909123527.htm&sc=1110

someone used Peterson's home computer to search shopping Web sites for a scarf and a sunflower umbrella stand on Dec. 24, 2002, between 8:40 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.

Okay -- who "shops" on multiple sites for two seperate items online for five minutes ?? Sounds like someone was working for an alibi ... IMHO

Tasha405

08-31-2004, 08:16 AM

I would do the same if my wife went missing. I would have all cameras on me. Because I love my wife. :)

But he obviously didn't care, he was cheating. :(

He might have thought that she just ran off, he might have thought she found out about the affair. So, if he thinks she's run off and left him, why would he stop phoning Amber if he really cared about her. In his mind it was the perfect oppertunity to get in real good with her, now that the wife was gone.
But then they found her body....

What if he had never had the affair. What if there was no Amber Frye.

Would he still look guilty?

I'm just saying....that is all. Something to think about.

Why? Because it is so easy for us to sit back and say he's guilty, because we want him to be. Because she was pregnant, it was Christmas, and she's beutiful. And she probably reminds everyone of someone they know.

What if the defendent was a twevle year old boy? Perception is everything in America.
Even if he is found innocent, by jury of his peers, he will still be guilty in the eyes of America. Because we wanted him to be guilty so badly.If there hadn't been an affair then the whole case would be different. He probably would have spent more time looking for his wife and unborn child. It doesn't matter if he thought his wife was missing or had just left, he done nothing (in my eyes) to look for her or get help. He just called his little g/f to keep in touch with her. Not worried one bit about his wife and child. He didn't want to be on TV because he didn't want Amber to find out he was married. This guy is nothing more than a dog to me, guilty or not.

I see your point though, I guess people do want him to be guilty because of the affair and everything else but I even thought the other guy was guilty before he finally told that he killed his pregnant wife. Of course, she was just missing at first too. :rolleyes: I just don't get how someone could be so evil and hurt the people they are supposed to love.

Jolie Rouge

08-31-2004, 11:00 AM

Prosecutors: Dogs find Laci Peterson's scent at marina
Scott Peterson says he went there on day he reported wife missing
Tuesday, August 31, 2004 Posted: 9:17 AM EDT (1317 GMT)

REDWOOD CITY, California (AP) -- Prosecutors in the Scott Peterson murder trial introduced evidence from dog-handlers that authorities claim places his dead wife at the same marina where he said he launched his boat the day he reported her missing.

Christopher Boyer, a volunteer for the Contra Costa County search and rescue team, was to return to the witness stand Tuesday. Prosecutors claim search dogs picked up Laci Peterson's scent at the Berkeley Marina where Peterson, the former fertilizer salesman, launched what he claims was a solo fishing trip on the morning of December 24, 2002 -- the day he later would report his wife missing.

Earlier Monday, defense lawyers suggested Laci Peterson may have been alive and surfing the Web as late as midmorning on the day she disappeared, hoping to raise doubts about the prosecution's timeline of the crime.

Lydell Wall of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, returning to the stand for cross-examination, testified that someone used Peterson's home computer to search shopping Web sites for a scarf and a sunflower umbrella stand on December 24, between 8:40 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.

"Who was the person who logged on at 8:40 a.m.?" defense lawyer Mark Geragos asked.

Wall could not answer. He said authorities never asked him to determine exactly who used the home computer that morning. Laci Peterson had a tattoo of a sunflower on her ankle.

Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his pregnant wife in their Modesto home either late on December 23 or early on December 24, then drove to San Francisco Bay and dumped her body from a boat he kept at a warehouse. The remains of Laci Peterson and her fetus washed ashore months later, not far from where Peterson claims he set out on a solo fishing trip the day his wife vanished.

Defense lawyers contend someone else abducted and killed Laci, then framed their client after learning his widely publicized alibi.

Police allege Peterson disposed of the body on the morning of December 24. With Monday's cross-examination, defense lawyers tried to show the prosecution's timeline left little time for Peterson to get rid of the body.

Prosecutors allege Peterson made a cell phone call at 10:08 a.m. December 24 at or near his home. Wall testified that Peterson was browsing Web sites at his office at 10:30 a.m. the same morning. Records indicate Peterson surfed Web sites there for 26 minutes.

Former prosecutor and trial watcher Michael Cardoza said the defense was trying to establish Laci Peterson was alive in the morning.

"That really is important to their case," Cardoza said. "It really shoots holes in the prosecution's timeline."

Later, Geragos played for jurors one of many wiretapped telephone conversations made by police in the weeks after Laci Peterson vanished. Jurors last week heard only a portion of the call between Laci Peterson's brother, Brent Rocha, and Scott Peterson.

Geragos played the entire call Monday. Rocha is heard confronting Scott Peterson about his affair with Amber Frey, and Peterson admits to the affair but expresses love for his missing wife.

"You know Laci and I are happy together," Peterson says.

"I told you, Scott, the day after she left she loved you so much," Rocha says.

Peterson is heard expressing concern a volunteer center set up to help find Laci Peterson had closed after the affair became public.

"I still want to go down there and, you know, open it up and work," Peterson says. "I had nothing to do with her disappearance, Brent."

www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/08/31/peterson.trial.ap/index.html

dream walker 2

09-01-2004, 01:36 AM

In reply to Njean31

No, I didn't stay married to my husband, I left him right after my daughter was born. I didn't know he was cheating on me until after our divorce, he married his girlfriend a week after the divorce, she was pregnant. So his cheating wasn't the reason for the divorce, I didn't even know at the time. Though I suspected something was up. I raised my two kids myself with NO help from him.
I took my sis to the hospital to have her baby while her hubby was on a hunting trip at the time. He wasn't cheating on her, just wasn't going to cancel this big hunting trip he had planned for months with friends. They are still married and that was 30 some yrs ago.
I didn't mean to sound like I think ALL men cheat on their wives during pregnancy, but I know a lot of them do. I don't think its just men in my family, my brother did, a couple of my brother-in-laws did. I have 2 close friends that their husbands couldn't be found the night their babies were born. One didn't show up for 2 days. So some men DO and some men DON'T. I just believe more Do than don't. again my opinion. lol :confused:
(ABout Amber)
If I was dating a man, and he never invited me to his house or let me call him at home and we had to sneak around (amber) I think I would be a little suspicious wouldn't you? She knew he was married, just like the man before Scott she dated that was married, I just think any woman that dates married men, would do anything. She was sneaky and conniving.

I just don't think he would have been arrested or even been a suspect if he hadn't been cheating on Laci. Thats what made everyone think he was guilty. again this is just my opinion, he may be as guilty as sin. will we ever know what really happened?

YNKYH8R

09-01-2004, 06:03 AM

Okay -- who "shops" on multiple sites for two seperate items online for five minutes ?? Sounds like someone was working for an alibi ... IMHO

Good question and point. Although there are times I shop, or browse really quickly online myself. :o

But, remember, we are looking for reasonable doubt here, the burden of proof is on the prosocution. ;)

YNKYH8R

09-01-2004, 06:23 AM

If there hadn't been an affair then the whole case would be different. He probably would have spent more time looking for his wife and unborn child.

Right, he wouldn't have looked guilty.

[/QUOTE] It doesn't matter if he thought his wife was missing or had just left, he done nothing (in my eyes) to look for her or get help. He just called his little g/f to keep in touch with her.[/QUOTE]

Well, he didn't do exactly nothing, I mean he did report her missing.

joni1269

09-01-2004, 08:01 AM

G-U-I-L-T-Y

Good thing we aren't on his jury!! LOL

Jolie Rouge

09-21-2004, 08:52 PM

Detective: Peterson's Actions Suspicious
By BRIAN SKOLOFF

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Investigators probing Laci Peterson's disappearance had ``about 41 reasons'' why they believed her body had been dumped in San Francisco Bay, the lead detective assigned to the case testified Tuesday at Scott Peterson's double-murder trial.

Modesto police Detective Craig Grogan ticked off a list that provided jurors with the first detailed narrative of the 17-week trial. And as he laid out the case, Grogan suggested that police had more than enough reason to focus suspicion on Scott Peterson.

Prosecutors allege Peterson killed his pregnant wife on or around Dec. 24, 2002, in their Modesto home, then dumped her body into the bay. Her remains and that of her fetus washed up in April 2003, not far from the marina where he launched his boat on Christmas Eve for what he claims was a solo fishing trip. Defense lawyers maintain someone else abducted and killed Laci.

Grogan's account had jurors leaning forward in their seats, scribbling notes as he made his points:

``The dog tracking at the Berkeley Marina that indicated Laci Peterson's scent was there.''

``The defendant told us that he was at the Berkeley Marina.''

``He had a two-day fishing license that was purchased on Dec. 20 and filled out for the 23rd and 24th.''

``The fishing tackle in the boat ... was freshwater tackle.''

Peterson told some witnesses on the night Laci vanished he had been golfing all day. ``We considered that possibly that was what his initial alibi was meant to be.''

Peterson loaded large umbrellas into the back of his pickup truck that Christmas Eve morning. ``It would enable him to be able to explain to anyone seeing him load something in his truck.''

Peterson had recently researched deep water currents in the bay, as well as information on some lakes in the area.

``The fact that he paid cash for the boat and didn't register the boat.''

Grogan then looked toward the jury as he summed up: ``The ultimate conclusion was that Laci Peterson's body was in San Francisco Bay and that we needed to search there.''

Despite these clues, Grogan noted that police remained open to other possibilities. ``We had a policy that if someone called in and said they knew where Laci Peterson's body was ... that we would go there and search it.''

Jurors were also shown part of a ``Good Morning America'' interview on Jan. 28, when Peterson told ABC's Diane Sawyer that he had told police about his affair with massage therapist Amber Frey on the first night Laci was reported missing.

In fact, Peterson didn't come clean with police about the affair - his motive, prosecutors allege, for the murder - until after he was confronted.

In a wiretapped phone call also played for jurors Tuesday, Peterson apologizes to Grogan for not being honest about the affair.

``They caught me answering a question about ... that I told you about a girlfriend ... is not true. We both know that,'' Peterson tells the detective, suggesting he had been caught off-guard in the interview.

On the taped call, Peterson soon begins to sob uncontrollably. ``I'm losing it. I miss (Laci). ... I'm just a mess without her,'' he says.

The detective then attempts to elicit a confession from Peterson, saying, ``You and I both know what happened to Laci.''

``Do you know what happened to her?'' Peterson replies.

``We both do,'' Grogan says. ``I want the door open between us. If you want to end all of this nonsense, all you need to do is call me, all right? We can sit down. I will not treat you badly. You can tell me what happened. We can get Laci back where she needs to be.''

``I'm not involved in my wife's disappearance,'' Peterson insists, his sobs now replaced with a firm, steady voice. ``We're going to find her.''

09/21/04 19:22

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20040921%2F1922002097.htm&sc=1110&photoid=/cp/news/top/i/scottpeterson200.jpg&maxphotos=3&phototerm=laci&

buglebe

09-21-2004, 09:52 PM

Maybe he just thought he could get away with it. Maybe he will. All murders are not solved. And some are solved 20 years after the fact.

msmom79

09-21-2004, 10:05 PM

There Is Nothing That Scott Peterson Can Say To Me ,that Would Make Me Think He Is Not Guilty.if You Have Watched Court Tv And Seen The Tapes And Interviews That He Has Had With Alot Of People,then You Know That Scott Can Turn The Tears On And Off When He Needs Too!! I Dont Feel Sorry For Him ,he Put Himself In This Situation.and I For One Hope He Gets What He Deserves!! Jmho Ann Keep The Updates Coming As I Dont Get To Keep Up To Much Since Im Back To Work,so I Know Someone Will Post Here And Keep Us All Updated Thanks Everyone!!

KrystallizedFlame

09-21-2004, 10:41 PM

This is my opinion: Guilty. The following items were found in his vehicle when the police picked him up in San Diego:

$15,000
-BROTHER'S I.D.-John Edward Peterson
-2 VISA CARDS & 1 MASTERCARD - Scott's Name
-1 MASTER CARD - Scott/Tradecorp
-1 AMERICAN BUSINESS CARD - Scott/Tradecorp
-SISTER'S VISA CREDIT CARD -Ann E. Bird
-MOTHER'S CHEVRON CARD - Jackie Peterson
-LARGE TENT
-TENT COVER
-WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEM
-CAMP KIT WITH COOKING UTENSILS & ROPE
-CAMP STOVE
-COOKING GRILL
-FIRE STARTERS
-FILET KNIFE
-2 FOLDING KNIVES
-TENT CHAIR
-COMPASS
-DRIED AND CANNED FOOD
-CLIMBING EQUIPMENT & ROPES
-DOUBLE EDGED DAGGER WITH A T-HANDLE
-HAND SHOVEL
-DUCT TAPE
-FOLDING SAW
-BACKPACK
-MASK & SNORKEL
-FISHING ROD & REEL
-ZIPLOC BAGS
-SCISSORS
-CAMP AXE
-HAMMOCK
-LEATHERMAN TOOL
-BINOCULARS
-THOMAS GUIDE MAP BOOK OF CALIFORNIA
-THOMAS GUIDE MAP BOOK OF CENTRAL VALLEY
CITIES AND SURROUNDING AREAS.
-9 PAIR OF SHOES
-RUBBERIZED BOOTS - Lace up
-HIKING BOOTS
-LOW TOP HIKING BOOTS
-2 PAIR BROWN SLIP-ON CASUAL SHOES
-FLIP FLOPS (Sandals)
-2 PAIR DRESS SOCKS
-2 NECKTIES
-10 PAIR ATHLETIC SHOCKS
-1 PULLOVER SWEATER
-1 SCARF
-1 BLACK DRESS BELT
-RAIN PANTS
-SWEATSHIRT
-AT LEAST 6 PAIR UNDERWARE BRIEFS
-4 PULLOVER LONG-SLEEVED SPORT SHIRTS
-1 BUTTON DOWN SHIRT
-2 PAIR CASUAL PANTS
-1 PAIR RUNNING PANTS
-1 PAIR LEVI JEANS
-1 JERSEY
-3 T-SHIRTS
-2 LONG-SLEEVED CASUAL SHIRTS
-1 PAIR ATHLETIC SHORTS
-COWBOY HAT
-12 TABLETS OF VIAGRA
-24 BLISTER PACKS OF SLEEPING PILLS
-WATER BOTTLE
-2 PAIR BLACK DRESS SOES
-2 PAIR SHORTS
-4 CELL PHONES
-16 MUSIC CD'S
-COLUMBIA FOUL WEATHER JACKET
-SLEEPING BAG
-LEATHER GLOVES
-WATERPROOFING SPRAY
-Undated bill of sale with an unverified signature
of Michael Griffin, registered owner of the vehicle
-Application for duplicate title for the vehicle also
signed by Michael Griffin

And he told the officers he was on his way to the golf course to go golfing. Where is the Golf Clubs? These items in his possession alone tells me he was planning to go live off the land in Mexico.

But like I said this is only my opinion.

And I live no more than 2 miles from the Peterson house. :(

Jolie Rouge

09-22-2004, 04:01 PM

Laci Peterson Said Killed Before Holidays]
By BRIAN SKOLOFF

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Laci Peterson's fetus likely died around Dec. 23, 2002, a day before the pregnant schoolteacher was reported missing, an expert testified Wednesday in the murder trial of her husband.

Prosecutors allege that Scott Peterson killed his wife on or around Dec. 24, 2002, in their Modesto home, then dumped her body into the bay. Her remains and that of her fetus washed up in April 2003, not far from the marina where he launched his boat on Christmas Eve for what he claims was a solo fishing trip.

Peterson's lawyers maintain someone else abducted and killed Laci.

Dr. Greggory DeVore, an expert in fetal medicine, said he was asked by prosecutors to examine Laci's medical records and bones taken from the dead fetus to help determine when it died.

The age of the fetus is important because prosecutors claim it was expelled dead from Laci's decaying corpse. Defense lawyers maintain the baby was born alive after Laci vanished, proving that her husband could not be the killer given the baby's due date of Feb. 10.

The coroner who performed the autopsy on the fetus estimated its age at death to be about nine months, or full term. A forensic anthropologist testified previously that the fetus' age was between 33 and 38 weeks.

DeVore said the Dec. 23 death date for the fetus was an average taken from several different examinations. The fetus could have also died on Dec. 21 or Dec. 24, he said. He estimated the fetus' age at its time of death to be about 33 weeks and one day.

DeVore never physically examined Laci Peterson before her death.

On cross-examination, defense lawyer Mark Geragos quickly pointed out the ``varying results'' from different doctors regarding the age of the fetus, and noted DeVore's opinions were simply based on averages and estimates. ``We know that two out of three of these calculations are wrong, is that correct?'' Geragos asked, noting that Laci Peterson's baby was still alive when she visited her doctor on Dec. 23.

DeVore agreed but defended his estimates. Geragos also noted to the obviously flustered DeVore that a test using another scientific method would indicate the fetus died on Dec. 28.

09/22/04 16:42

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/enhancedstory.jsp?maxphotos=4&phototerm=Scott+Peterson&maxstories=4&storyterm=Laci+Peterson&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20040922%2F1642073928.htm&sc=1110

HaveKids,LostMind

09-23-2004, 12:33 AM

From all I've seen and heard on Court TV, the guy is guilty. I am not so sure the jury will be able to convict though, sadly. :(

Jolie Rouge

09-23-2004, 07:21 AM

Agent: Peterson altered look, tried to elude police

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/LAW/09/23/peterson.ap/story.peterson.booking.jpg[i]
Scott Peterson's booking photo from April 2003.

http://cdn-channels.netscape.com/cp/crime/features/i/petersonandgar135.jpg
Scott Peterson in court September 2004.

REDWOOD CITY, California (AP) -- Scott Peterson altered his appearance and loaded his car with cash in the days before he was charged with murdering his pregnant wife, an agent with the state Department of Justice testified.

Special Agent Alex Quick, who tailed Peterson just before his arrest on April 18, 2003, a few days after the bodies of his wife and her fetus were found, testified Wednesday at Peterson's double-murder trial.

Quick, one of up to 10 agents who followed Peterson, told jurors that the former fertilizer salesman had altered his appearance, bleaching his dark hair and eyebrows blonde and growing a thick goatee.

The agent said he began following Peterson at about 7 a.m. on the day of Peterson's arrest. Peterson drove "erratically" north from San Diego into Orange County, and it appeared that Peterson knew he was being followed, he said.

"He made an exit off the freeway and immediately got back on," Quick said, adding that Peterson later made an obscene gesture toward him.

Peterson continued driving several more hours and was eventually arrested near San Diego. Police found a large quantity of cash in his car, Quick said.

On cross-examination, defense lawyer Mark Geragos noted one of the first things Peterson asked authorities was if "they found my wife and son."

Geragos also pointed out that Peterson immediately told police he had about "$10,000 cash" in the car.

Earlier Wednesday, an expert testified that Laci Peterson's fetus likely died around December 23, 2002, a day before she was reported missing.

Prosecutors allege that Scott Peterson killed his wife on or around December 24, 2002, in their Modesto home, then dumped her body in San Francisco Bay. Her remains and that of her fetus washed up in April 2003, not far from the marina where he launched his boat on Christmas Eve.

Dr. Greggory DeVore, an expert in fetal medicine, said he was asked by prosecutors to examine Laci's medical records and bones taken from the dead fetus to help determine when it died.

The age of the fetus is important because prosecutors claim it was expelled dead from Laci's decaying corpse. Defense lawyers maintain the baby was born alive after Laci vanished, proving that her husband could not be the killer given the baby's due date of February 10.

The coroner who performed the autopsy on the fetus estimated its age at death to be about nine months, or full term.

DeVore said the December 23 death date for the fetus was an average taken from several different examinations. The fetus could have also died on December 21 or December 24, he said.

On cross-examination, Geragos quickly pointed out "varying results" from different doctors regarding the age of the fetus, and noted DeVore's opinions were simply based on averages and estimates.

"We know that two out of three of these calculations are wrong, is that correct?" Geragos asked, noting that Laci Peterson's baby was still alive when she visited her doctor on December 23.

DeVore agreed but defended his estimates.

Geragos noted to the obviously flustered DeVore that a test using another scientific method would indicate the fetus died on December 28.

"I kind of disagree with that," DeVore said.

Geragos said DeVore's initial estimate was December 25. DeVore said that was based on preliminary calculations.

The defense lawyer then again sought to discredit DeVore's findings by questioning his method of determining the death date using the date of conception, estimated at two weeks after Laci's last menstruation.

"You're assuming ... that the date of conception was May 20, correct?" Geragos asked.

DeVore looked at a calendar.

"Yes," he replied, adding that it was only an average.

"If the actual conception was prior to that or after ... how does that affect your opinion?" Geragos prodded.

"Well, you'd have to adjust accordingly," DeVore replied.

Defense lawyers maintain someone else abducted and killed Laci.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/09/23/peterson.ap/index.html

advocate

09-23-2004, 02:01 PM

So far there hasnt been a shred of evidence that he killed his wife, only circumstantial things and proof that the police screwed up. He was an idiot, yes, but I doubt he killed her.

Jolie Rouge

09-28-2004, 07:29 AM

Lawyers defend Peterson's 'suspicious' acts
Monday, September 27, 2004 Posted: 10:37 PM EDT

REDWOOD CITY, California (AP) -- The lead detective assigned to investigate Laci Peterson's disappearance backed up a key defense theory Monday that the pregnant schoolteacher had planned to walk the couple's dog the morning she vanished.

Prosecutors claim Laci had stopped walking the dog weeks earlier at her doctor's request and that Scott Peterson set the dog loose to make it appear as if someone had abducted her.

Defense lawyer Mark Geragos also used Modesto police Detective Craig Grogan to attempt to show that Laci Peterson knew about her husband's relationship with massage therapist Amber Frey. Prosecutors allege the affair was his motive for the murder.

Grogan, a prosecution witness, recounted last week why authorities maintain Scott Peterson is the only person who could have killed his wife. But Geragos used Grogan on Monday to offer a host of explanations for some of Peterson's behavior that police deemed "suspicious." Defense lawyers maintain someone else abducted and killed Laci while she walked the dog in a nearby park. The dog was found by a neighbor running loose in the street the morning Laci vanished, according to previous testimony.

But Grogan acknowledged Monday that Scott Peterson told police on the first night of the investigation that Laci had planned to walk the dog that morning. Sharon Rocha, Laci's mother, told Grogan that Laci walked the dog every morning, the detective testified.

Geragos also noted that Peterson was cooperative even as police sought search warrants for his home and a warehouse where he stored the boat prosecutors allege he used to dispose of his wife's body. "He basically said, 'If you had asked me I would have let you search [the warehouse]' ... is that correct?" Geragos asked.

"Yes, he said something like that," Grogan said.

Geragos then suggested that Laci knew about her husband's affair. Grogan testified that a relative of Scott Peterson told him that Peterson had told her Laci knew about the affair with Frey and, according to the police report, she was extremely angry and upset.

Grogan acknowledged the woman told him that "Laci insisted that they not tell the parents about it," Geragos quoted from the report. "She described Scott as being very excited about becoming a father and that he and Laci seemed very happy together?" Geragos asked the detective.

"That's correct," Grogan said.

Geragos then attacked another key point in the prosecution's case against Peterson -- that he kept his newly purchased boat a secret from Laci. Grogan acknowledged that Peterson told him early in the investigation that Laci knew about the boat and had been at the warehouse where he stored it on December 20, four days before she vanished.

Another detective testified previously that a woman said she saw Laci at the warehouse on that day. It is a crucial point because the prosecution's only piece of potential physical evidence linking Laci to the boat is a strand of dark hair found in a pair of pliers on the vessel. Experts have testified that DNA testing indicates the hair likely came from Laci.

But defense attorneys have argued that the hair may not be Laci's, that it may have fallen from Scott Peterson's clothing or even came from Laci herself when they say she saw the boat for the first time December 20.

In later testimony, Geragos suggested Laci Peterson's murder may have been the result of mistaken identity. He noted that authorities had received a tip early on from a lawyer he identified only as "Michelle" who worked as a prosecutor in Merced County and lived near the Petersons' home in Modesto. Geragos described her as looking very similar to Laci Peterson and noted the woman had given birth to a child in October 2002. The woman walked her dog -- the same kind the Petersons had -- in the Petersons' neighborhood. The woman had recently been threatened after prosecuting a case.

She called police after Laci vanished to report that the alleged abductors "might have mistaken Laci Peterson for her, correct?" Geragos asked the detective.

"Correct," Grogan replied.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/09/27/peterson.trial.ap/index.html

MsLynn

09-28-2004, 01:19 PM

Maybe he just thought he could get away with it. Maybe he will. All murders are not solved. And some are solved 20 years after the fact.

yeah but if he did it they can't charge him with it, YOU CAN'T BE TRIED TWICE FOR THE SAME CRIME.. its called DOUBLE JEOPARDY!!

sucks sometimes when they come up with all the evidence after the trial.

Jolie Rouge

11-01-2004, 10:00 PM

Final Arguements : Prosecutors Use Peterson Alibi Against Him
By BRIAN SKOLOFF

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Scott Peterson's own claim that he was out fishing near where his pregnant wife's body later turned up is proof enough to convict him of murder, prosecutors said Monday in closing arguments.

Desperate to escape a ``dull boring married life with kids,'' Peterson strangled or smothered Laci Peterson and dumped her body in San Francisco Bay, prosecutor Rick Distaso said.

Distaso showed jurors an aerial photograph of the bay, pointing with a laser to the rocky beach where Laci's body washed up with that of her fetus, a boy the couple planned to name Conner, and the nearby area where Scott Peterson says he took a solo fishing trip the day his wife disappeared.

``The only person that we know without any doubt that was in the exact location in the exact spot where Laci and Conner washed ashore ... is sitting right there. ... That alone is proof beyond a reasonable doubt in this case,'' Distaso said. ``You can take that fact to the bank and you can convict this man of murder.''

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations as early as Wednesday.

Distaso said Peterson killed his wife the night of Dec. 23 or the morning of Dec. 24, 2002 - adding that he does not have to show exactly when or how Peterson committed the crime, ``I only have to prove that he did it.''

Jurors were shown a split-screen image, one side showing Laci alone at a Christmas party and the other showing Scott and his mistress, Amber Frey, embracing at a different party that same night.

Peterson craved ``the rich, successful, freewheeling bachelor life'' that Frey represented, Distaso said. Weeks before Laci disappeared, the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman said he ``lost'' the woman he loved.

``Laci Peterson was dead to Scott Peterson a long time before he killed her,'' Distaso told the jury.

Some jurors nodded as Distaso spoke. Peterson looked down, sometimes scribbling notes.

The defense will probably present its closing arguments Tuesday. Peterson's lawyer claim someone else abducted and killed Laci.

Distaso also attacked Peterson's alibi that he had been fishing the day his wife disappeared. On Dec. 20, Distaso said, Peterson bought a two-day fishing license, lures and his first salt-water fishing pole.

``There's the lures. They're not even open,'' Distaso said, holding up the lures for the jury. ``I don't know anyone who's caught a fish ... with a lure that's still in the pack.''

When he got home, Peterson told neighbors that he had been golfing. ``He just screwed it up, screwed up his alibi,'' Distaso said.

Prosecutors are seeking two murder convictions, for Laci and the fetus.

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi ruled Friday that jurors will be allowed to consider a lesser murder charge that would spare Peterson a possible death sentence if convicted. If convicted of the lesser charges, Peterson could get two sentences of 15 years to life.

11/01/04 16:35 http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=ne-us-12-l1&flok=FF-APO-1 110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041101%2F1635518360.htm&sc=1110

laughsalot

11-01-2004, 11:53 PM

I have closely followed this trial on court tv. There are several things that have been proven, he is a compulsive liar, he was having an affair, he did go fishing that morning, he was a crappy husband, he is selfish, etc, etc. In my opinion there is just not enough evidence for me to be able to say without a doubt that he did murder his wife and unborn child. Guilt has not been proven.
Maybe I have watched too much tv and read too many books but I want to see the evidence, I want to know exactly what the motive was. I guess I want it to fit together like a puzzle. In this case their are tooo many missing pieces.

Jaxx

11-02-2004, 12:11 AM

He's guilty!! I have been watching court tv since the trial started and i believe
that he killed Laci and Conner and i hope he gets the death penalty

justme23

11-02-2004, 12:12 AM

I personally never thought the man was guilty... but, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they find him guilty, even w/out enough evidence to do so.

kimp67

11-02-2004, 05:52 AM

buglebe

11-02-2004, 07:54 PM

Is there a verdict yet or when is there supposed to be one?

laughsalot

11-02-2004, 11:15 PM

They have been having closing arguements this week. I know the defense was at it today but I had to work until late and I didnt get to check it out.

Jolie Rouge

11-09-2004, 12:32 PM

Jolie Rouge

11-09-2004, 04:08 PM

Juror dismissed in Peterson trial
Tuesday, November 9, 2004 Posted: 5:52 PM EST (2252 GMT)

REDWOOD CITY, California (CNN) -- A juror has been dismissed from the Scott Peterson double murder trial and has been replaced by an alternate.

After completing four days of deliberations, the jury now must begin anew. No reason for the move was announced.

But earlier Tuesday, the judge in the trial held a hearing over possible juror misconduct. Attorneys from both sides discussed the matter in the judge's chambers, CNN's Rusty Dornin reported.

The controversy stems from a report that one juror may have conducted research on the case.

Sources told CNN that the dismissed individual was juror No. 7, described by CourtTV.com as an Asian woman who appeared to be in her 50s.

The number of the chosen alternate was not known. Four other alternate jurors remain available.

Peterson, 32, is accused of killing his wife and the couple's unborn son, Conner, on December 23 or 24, 2002, and dumping her body, weighted with homemade cement anchors, into San Francisco Bay.

The bodies washed ashore separately in April 2003, near where Peterson said he had launched his boat during a fishing trip the day his wife disappeared.

Monday, Judge Alfred Delucchi called the jury of six men and six women into the courtroom and asked them to set aside personal biases and reach a verdict. The order came after the panel showed signs of division and indications of deadlock.

Delucchi reread to the panel instructions he gave them when he initially put the case in their hands.

"The attitude and conduct of jurors at all times is very important," he said, reading off a list of juror expectations. "It is rarely helpful for a juror at the beginning of deliberations to express an emphatic opinion on the case."

Delucchi ordered the jurors Monday to return to deliberations. Peterson showed little emotion during the five-minute hearing.

Delucchi also told attorneys on both sides that the next time there is a potential problem with the jurors he is going to read them what is known as a "dynamite charge" -- further instructions on how to break a deadlock and reach a consensus. The dynamite charge is typically a last-ditch effort to avoid a mistrial.

If convicted of first-degree murder, to which he has pleaded not guilty, Peterson could be sentenced to death.

Jurors have the option of convicting him on the lesser charge of second-degree murder if they decide the slaying was not premeditated. A conviction on that charge could mean a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

The option of the lesser charge was a victory for prosecutors because evidence against Peterson was largely circumstantial, and undecided jurors might have an easier time returning a second-degree conviction.

After jurors returned to deliberations Monday afternoon, the panel asked the court if they could see one of the anchors allegedly used to weight down Laci's body, tidal chart information of San Francisco Bay and telephone recordings with Amber Frey, Peterson's mistress at the time his wife disappeared.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/11/09/peterson.trial/index.html

nanajoanie

11-09-2004, 04:46 PM

I think he's guilty.
If he didn't want the responsibility of being a Husband and a Father he should have just gotten a divorce and given up all rights to their child! :mad: :(

Seems he's given it all up in the end except his life. Really hoping the courts pull the switch on this dude. :mad:

YNKYH8R

11-10-2004, 11:04 AM

This whole process is agrivating me. Why, becase of stupid moves by jurors. :mad: And now they are talking about the possibility of there being a good appeals case. I don't blame them. I feel really bad for those who want him guilty. I'm guessing they'll have a verdict on the 19th. Of course the one question remains, the juror who was asked to leave which way was she leaning? I give this a 20% chance of any type of guilt.

Jolie Rouge

11-10-2004, 12:37 PM

Judge Removes Foreman From Peterson Jury
5 minutes ago
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - The judge in the Scott Peterson murder trial removed the foreman from the jury Wednesday, the second time in two days a juror has been sent home.

The judge did not disclose why he removed juror No. 5., a man in his mid-40s who has both medical and law degrees. The juror was replaced by an alternate whose son-in-law now owns a restaurant that Scott and Laci Peterson themselves once owned.

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi told the new panel to start all over with their deliberations — for the second day in a row. "You must therefore set aside all past deliberations and begin deliberating anew," he said Wednesday.

Jurors sat impassively, some grim-faced, as the judge announced the change. They have endured a five-month trial and have been sequestered since deliberations began Nov. 3.

The dismissal marks the third time a juror has been removed in the high-profile case.

On Tuesday, a juror was removed after reportedly doing her own research on the case — a violation of court rules. In June, a juror was dismissed after he was spotted talking to Laci Peterson's brother.

The trial started with six alternates, and Wednesday's move leaves the jury pool with just three remaining alternates.

Juror No. 6, a man who works as a firefighter and paramedic, was elected as the new foreman. During the trial, he at times seemed uninterested in the proceedings. He was seen rolling his eyes on occasion, specifically during the playing of tape-recorded conversations between Peterson and his girlfriend, Amber Frey. "He was one of the jurors who seemed most bored during Amber Frey's testimony," said Jim Hammer, a former prosecutor who has been observing the case. "He seems very mainstream, which is good for the prosecution."

Hammer said it is too soon to say the jury is in disarray. "I wouldn't call it a runaway jury," he said.

Jurors are deliberating whether Peterson, 32, killed his pregnant wife on or around Christmas Eve 2002 and dumped her weighted body in San Francisco Bay. The former fertilizer salesman faces up to life in prison or the death penalty.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&e=2&u=/ap/laci_peterson

Jolie Rouge

11-10-2004, 12:41 PM

Too soon for the headline I think ....

Our national nightmare ends — thankfully
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 4, 2004

Finally, it’s over. The endless talk-show appearances. The months of speculation. The tawdry spectacle.

A weary nation can get back to business.

We’re not talking elections, silly. We’re talking Scott and Laci.

With the jury launching deliberations in the high-profile California murder case, the national soap opera soon will end its two-year run. Thank goodness.

For some hard-to-fathom reason, the tragic tale of the deaths of Laci Peterson and her unborn son — perhaps at the hand of their husband-father Scott — has captured more air time and ink than any of thousands of other crime or human- interest stories during the same period.

Was it that the deaths supposedly occurred on Christmas Eve? Was it the taped telephone conversations with Scott’s former lover, proving him to be if not a murderer, then a cad? Was it the facade of wholesomeness, masking a more seamy, disturbing reality? Was it prurient viewer interest, pure and simple?

What we do know is that no one forces audiences to stay by their televisions. Content that doesn’t draw viewers fades faster than an ice cube on an August day. We know also that before Laci, there was Chandra Levy. And before Chandra, there was Jon Benet Ramsey. And before that came the godfather of them all, the O.J. Simpson case.

It’s become de rigueur to have a national fixation on some crime drama or another. Call it the ultimate form of reality TV.

Marty Kaplan, associate dean of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, told The Washington Post that the Peterson trial coverage is “pure white sugar, addictive and without nutrition. ... There’s no redeeming value. No morality plan. No public-policy fig leaf.”

Well said.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=77600&ran=82015

Jolie Rouge

11-10-2004, 12:45 PM

Seinfeld moments in Peterson jury watch
By JEFF JARDINE
BEE LOCAL COLUMNIST

REDWOOD CITY — Dana Clohan worked her long wooden needles and yarn like she was on automatic pilot as she sat in a San Mateo County courtroom. Scott Peterson's courtroom. The Los Gatos woman glanced at her knitting only occasionally as she created a growing expanse of black fabric.

"My jury-watch sweater," she said. "I've almost got the back done." While 12 jurors huddled a couple of rooms away to deliberate the evidence in America's murder trial du jour, Clohan did what others at the court are doing until some kind of decision — or none at all — is reached.

She waited. Clohan and several other private citizens came to the court Friday, just hoping to be there in the event that the jury would reach a verdict on its third day of deliberations. She simply came a bit more prepared for the waiting game — doing time, as some call it — than most.

This is what I call the Seinfeld Phase of the trial. It's about nothing — nothing but waiting for something to bring a dramatic end to the nothingness.

You see, you're not supposed to read a newspaper in the courtroom. The shuffling distracts the proceedings even when there aren't any in progress. Clever folks tear the crossword puzzle from the local paper and bring it in anyway.

You're really not supposed to bring a book to read in court either, although the bailiffs don't enforce that rule during deliberations.

Reporters and other court visitors talk, but the bailiffs frequently tell the gallery to keep it down because the noise will disturb the trial in progress in the courtroom next door.

So you look around, noticing things about Peterson's courtroom that hadn't captivated your imagination during the five-month-long trial.

The wood-grain paneling? Upon closer inspection, it's not wood or even paneling. It's vinyl wallpaper. So … so … un-Martha.

There are more than a dozen paintings or wall hangings, and only one – a brass government seal above the bench – is level, and that's only because it's round. The others are crooked, like casualties of a low-magnitude earthquake.

Each of the two long coat racks on the wall has 12 hooks. The courtroom holds a maximum of 125 people.

The court clerk is a chocoholic. When she opened the door to her storage area, a big bag of Reese's peanut butter cups tumbled out and landed on her bright-red ceramic Hershey's Kisses jar.

Scintillating stuff, indeed, when you have time to burn … .

Yet, there is a tension that pervades the courthouse — the idea that at any moment, jurors could send a note to the judge telling him they have reached a verdict. "There's an energy that goes with waiting for a verdict that is unbelievable," said Paula Canny, a defense attorney who has been observing the case. "The hardest thing is the wait, and this isn't even my case. Everybody needs therapy."

That tension heightens each time one of the attorneys passes through the courtroom and into the judge's chambers. At one point Friday morning, Pat Harris — Scott Peterson's co-counsel — sauntered in. He wore an open-collar shirt with no suit coat or tie. What could that mean? Where are the analysts to dissect this startling development? After lunch, Harris returned — this time wearing the tie and the coat — followed 10 minutes later by prosecutors Rick Distaso, Birgit Fladager and Dave Harris. They all went into the judge's chambers.

"They pay you all to just sit around?" Distaso joked as he passed through the courtroom.

About 40 minutes later, the attorneys left, offering no explanation.

And at 3:50 p.m., Judge Alfred Delucchi popped in to tell the gallery there would be no verdict this day. "Have a nice weekend," he said. "What are you going to do to keep yourselves occupied?"

The reporters left to file their stories, the TV types to do their live shots about nothing.

Dana Clohan, meanwhile, packed up her knitting supplies. She's a veteran observer of murder trials. She started accompanying her tax-attorney husband to court for his cases, but found herself dropping in on murder trials because they are far more compelling. She sat in on the Richard Allen Davis and Cary Stayner trials and went to Los Angeles for a day of the O.J. Simpson case. During the Peterson trial, she periodically sat in on another murder trial on the same floor of the San Mateo County Courthouse. In that one, a jury convicted the defendant of using a claw hammer to kill his neighbor.

Friday, Clohan finished the back of her jury watch sweater-in-progress.

She got a clerk to snip the last piece of yarn and then leaked the day's breaking story. "Big news flash," she joked, holding up her needles and yarn. "I'm starting the front now."

Remember, you read it here first.

http://www.modbee.com/reports/peterson/trial/story/9399152p-10302532c.html

laughsalot

11-10-2004, 03:36 PM

arggggggggg What on earth is going on with the jurors?! Its looking like it could be a mistrial, or hung jury.

Jolie Rouge

11-12-2004, 03:27 PM

Scott Peterson convicted of murder
First-degree verdict could bring death penalty
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:57 p.m. ET Nov. 12, 2004

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Scott Peterson was convicted Friday of murdering his pregnant wife and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay in what prosecutors portrayed as a cold-blooded attempt to escape marriage and fatherhood for the bachelor life.

Peterson, 32, could get the death penalty. He was convicted of one count of first-degree murder for killing his wife and one count of second-degree murder in the death of the son she was carrying.

The jury of six men and six women will reconvene Nov. 22 to begin hearing arguments on whether Peterson should die by lethal injection or be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The verdict came after a five-month trial that was an endless source of fascination to the tabloids, People magazine and the cable networks with its story of an attractive, radiant young couple awaiting the birth of their first child, a cheating husband and a slaying for which prosecutors had no witnesses, no weapon, not even a cause of death.

Scott Peterson stared straight ahead with no show of emotion as the verdict was read, then looked at each of the jurors as they were polled to confirm their decisions. The jurors looked serious and unsmiling, and none appeared to look back at Peterson.

Cheers broke out among the hundreds of onlookers who gathered outside court — some of them pumping their fists in celebration upon finding out the news on the radio.

Laci Peterson’s mother, Sharon Rocha, sobbed as the verdicts were read, and her son Brent wrapped his arm tightly around her. Laci Peterson’s friends in the gallery, arms around one another, cried. Sobs and loud sighs could be heard in the courtroom.

After the jury was dismissed, prosecutor James Brazelton reached forward and patted the shoulder of the lead detective, whose testimony in the case proved pivotal.

Turbulent trial

The verdict followed seven tumultuous days of deliberations in which two jurors were removed for unspecified reasons and the judge twice told the panel to start over.

On Wednesday, Judge Alfred A. Delucchi dismissed the foreman, a man in his mid-40s who has medical and law degrees. The judge did not disclose his reasoning. Juror No. 5 was replaced by an alternate whose future son-in-law now owns a restaurant that Scott and Laci Peterson once owned in San Luis Obispo, and the newly reconstituted jury began deliberating that day.

That action came a day after the removal of another juror who apparently did her own research on the case, violating the judge’s order to consider only evidence presented at trial. Each time a juror is dismissed, the panel must begin deliberations anew.

Husband quickly aroused suspicion

Laci Peterson, 27, a substitute teacher, was eight months pregnant when she vanished around Christmas Eve 2002. Four months later, her headless body and the remains of her fetus were discovered along the shoreline about 90 miles from the couple’s home in Modesto — not far from where her husband claimed he was fishing alone the day of her disappearance.

Peterson was soon arrested in the San Diego area, more than 400 miles from home, carrying nearly $15,000, his hair and goatee bleached blond.

Police never were able to establish exactly when, how or where Laci died.

At trial, prosecutors presented 174 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, from wiretapped phone calls to videotaped police interrogations, depicting Peterson as liar and a philanderer who was sweet-talking his girlfriend, massage therapist Amber Frey, at the same time he was trying to show the world he was pining for his missing wife.

Prosecutor Rick Distaso told the jury that Peterson, a former fertilizer salesman, could not stand the thought of being trapped in a “dull, boring, married life with kids,” and either strangled or smothered his wife and dumped her weighted-down body overboard from his fishing boat.

“He wants to live the rich, successful, freewheeling bachelor life. He can’t do that when he’s paying child support, alimony and everything else,” Distaso said. “He didn’t want to be tied to this kid the rest of his life. He didn’t want to be tied to Laci for the rest of his life. So he killed her.”

The jury heard how Scott Peterson had bought a two-day ocean-fishing license days before Laci Peterson disappeared, yet claimed his fishing trip was a last-minute substitution for golf because of blustery weather. Prosecutors also offered evidence suggesting that he used a bag of cement mix to make concrete anchors to sink his wife’s body into the bay.

Alternative culprit argued

Peterson never took the stand. His lawyers argued that he was the victim of a frame-up. They suggested that someone else — perhaps homeless people, sex offenders or suspicious-looking characters spotted in the neighborhood — abducted Laci Peterson while she walked the dog, then killed her and dumped the body in the water after learning of Scott Peterson’s fishing-trip alibi.

Peterson’s lawyers also offered evidence that the fetus may have died days or weeks after his wife’s disappearance, when he was being watched closely by the police and the media.

And they explained his lies and inconsistent statements about his affair and his activities around the time of Laci Peterson’s disappearance as the mutterings of a man in the midst of a breakdown over his missing wife.

Defense attorney Mark Geragos acknowledged that the jurors probably hated Peterson, but he pleaded with them not to convict him simply because the prosecution had made him look like a “jerk and a liar.”

Geragos also noted the lingering questions about how Laci Peterson died. “Maybe the logical explanation for the fact that we have no evidence of her struggling in that house, dying in that house is because it didn’t happen in that house,” he said.

In addition, Geragos said police found that someone had used a computer in the Petersons’ home on the morning Laci Peterson vanished — after authorities contend that she was already dead — to search Web sites for a scarf and a sunflower-motif umbrella stand. He suggested that the user was Laci Peterson.

Made for cable TV

The story proved irresistible to the cable networks, which almost every night brought in experts to pick apart the two sides’ legal strategies and expound on some of the soap opera aspects of the case, which included hours of secretly taped calls in which Scott Peterson spun out elaborate tales to Frey.

Frey herself testified, saying Peterson told her during their affair that he had “lost his wife.” But she said that in all their recorded conversations, he repeatedly professed his love for his wife and never said anything to incriminate himself in her slaying.

In January, the case was moved from Modesto to Redwood City after defense attorneys argued that Peterson had been demonized in his hometown to the point that he could not get a fair trial.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6385208/

Jolie Rouge

11-12-2004, 03:29 PM

TIMELINE Peterson disappearance timeline

Dec. 24, 2002
Laci Denise Peterson, a substitute teacher, vanishes Christmas Eve in Modesto, Calif. She is nearly eight months pregnant, due to give birth to a baby boy in February.
Her husband, Scott Peterson, is questioned about her disappearance but never named a suspect, telling police he saw his wife the morning she disappeared as she left their house to walk the dog. He says he went fishing that day at the Berkeley Marina on San Francisco Bay.

Dec. 31, 2002
Nearly 1,400 attend a New Year's Eve vigil for Laci Peterson.

Jan. 22, 2003
Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie Peterson, tells MSNBC's Dan Abrams that she disagrees with implications that her son was uncooperative with police in the investigation.

Jan. 24, 2003
Modesto police produce a 28-year-old Fresno woman, Amber Frey, with whom they say Scott Peterson had an affair. Frey makes a formal statement, saying Scott Peterson led her to believe he was single and apologizing to Laci Peterson's family. Police say Frey is eliminated as a suspect.

Feb. 4, 2003
Scott Peterson trades in his wife's SUV for a new vehicle.

Feb. 5, 2003
Laci Peterson's family holds a press conference to discuss news that Scott Peterson sold his wife's SUV and announce upcoming searches.

Feb. 10, 2003
Family and friends hold a candlelight vigil to remember Laci Peterson on the date her son, Connor, was to have been born.

Feb. 15, 2003
Two searches take place in the Lake Don Pedro area near La Grange, Calif.

Feb. 22, 2003
Search takes place in the New Melones Reservoir area near Sonora, Calif.

March 6, 2003
Modesto detective announces that the Peterson investigation has cost the department more than $250,000 in overtime.

April 13, 2003
Body of an unidentified baby is found in the grassy shallows along the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay.

April 14, 2003
A dog walker comes upon the remains of a female body in a shoreline park in Richmond, Calif., about a mile south of where the infant body was found.

April 15, 2003
Authorities say autopsies are inconclusive and DNA analysis is required to identify the bodies and determine if they are related.

April 18, 2003
Scott Peterson is arrested at the Torrey Pines golf resort in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla. The California attorney general announces that DNA testing has established with more than a billion-to-one certainty that the bodies found along the San Francisco Bay shore were Laci Peterson and her son. Authorities say Scott Peterson will be charged with two counts of capital murder with the special circumstance of double homicide, which would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

April 21, 2003
Scott Peterson pleads not guilty to two counts of murder alleging that he "intentionally, deliberately and with premeditation" killed his wife and their unborn child.

April 23, 2003
Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton says during the taping of a TV show that he will seek the death penalty if Scott Peterson is convicted.

May 2, 2003
Prominent Los Angeles lawyer Mark Geragos, who has represented celebrities and served as a television commentator in coverage of Laci Peterson’s murder, says he will defend Scott Peterson. Geragos waives a bail hearing for Peterson that had been scheduled for May 6.

May 27, 2004
Twelve jurors –- six men, six women -- are picked for Scott Peterson's trial.

June 1, 2004
Opening statements begin in the trial.

June 23, 2004
Justin Falconer, a juror seen conversing with Laci Peterson's brother, is removed from jury service. The judge denies the defense’s request for a mistrial.

July 6, 2004
Testimony begins by witnesses who found the remains of Laci and Conner. The jury also sees horrific pictures of their decomposed bodies.

Oct. 5, 2004
Prosecutors rest their case after presenting 174 witnesses over 19 weeks.

Oct. 12, 2004
The judge delays the start of the defense case for a week.

Oct. 26, 2004
The defense calls its final witness.

Oct. 29, 2004
The judge in the case rules that the jury can consider convicting Scott Peterson of second-degree murder, which would not carry the death penalty. But the judge says jurors cannot consider convicting him of voluntary manslaughter.

Nov. 1, 2004
Closing arguments begin.

Nov. 3, 2004
Jurors begin deliberating.

Nov. 9, 2004
The judge removes a juror who reportedly violated his instructions by doing her own research into the case. An alternate juror is selected, and the jury is instructed to begin deliberations anew.

Nov. 10, 2004
The foreman is removed from the jury, and another alternate juror joins the panel. No reason is given for the removal.

Nov. 11, 2004
The jury takes a break from deliberations for the Veterans Day holiday.

Nov. 12, 2004
Jury convicts Scott Peterson of first-degree murder in the death of Laci and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son, Conner.

Jolie Rouge

11-13-2004, 12:55 PM

Will Peterson Be Put to Death?
Scott Peterson failed to persuade the 12-member jury that someone else killed Laci and his unborn son. Now he must persuade them to spare his life. Sentencing Hearing Next for Scott Peterson
By BRIAN SKOLOFF

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Scott Peterson's lawyers failed to persuade the jury that someone else killed his pregnant wife. Now, they'll try to persuade the same 12 people to spare him from the death penalty.

But Peterson himself is unlikely to take the stand and beg for mercy - doing that would require him to admit to the murders, and throw away any chance of overturning the convictions on appeal.

Six men and six women convicted Peterson Friday of the first-degree murder of his wife, Laci, and the second-degree murder of the fetus she was carrying. The couple had planned to name their son Conner. The jury also agreed on a ``special circumstance'' that calls for capital punishment - namely that he killed another person - the fetus - while committing a felony - the intentional and premeditated killing of his wife.

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi sent them home until Nov. 22, and urged them to avoid news coverage of the case until the penalty phase begins. During this next stage, the defense and prosecution will present exacerbating and mitigating factors in hopes of swaying the jury's decision. The jury will begin deliberating the former fertilizer salesman's fate on Nov. 30, and be sequestered again until they reach a decision.

The verdicts provided a made-for-cable-TV conclusion to a case that has captivated the nation since Laci Peterson disappeared 23 months ago. Prosecutors portrayed the murders as a restless husband's cold-blooded attempt to escape marriage and fatherhood for the pleasures of the bachelor life.

Scott Peterson, 32, stared straight ahead, then looked at each of the jurors as they were polled to confirm their decisions. Serious and unsmiling, none appeared to return his gaze.

Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, sobbed. Laci's friends in the gallery cried, and loud sighs could be heard across the courtroom. As the courtroom emptied, throngs of well-wishers clapped and cheered. Gwendolyn Kemple, a distant relative of Rocha, was crying and shaking, saying ``We're just elated.''

Outside the courthouse, it was pandemonium - roars went up from the crowd of about 1,000 with each verdict. In Modesto, drivers honked their horns and others shouted with satisfaction when the news broke on television. Well-wishers descended on Laci's home, leaving notes and flowers.

Laci Peterson's family avoided the throngs by leaving through an underground parking garage, but Scott Peterson's family faced the crowds outside the front door of the courthouse. As police rushed them away, someone in the crowd booed Jackie Peterson, Scott's mother. Someone else shouted ``SHE didn't kill her!''

The families, lawyers and others directly involved in the case remain under a gag order until Peterson's sentence is determined. Defense attorney Mark Geragos, who was in Los Angeles when the verdict was announced, did not disclose whether his client plans to appeal.

The verdicts came after a little more than seven hours of deliberation by the final 12 jurors, following a five-month trial and a chaotic final week. The judge removed two jurors for reasons that have not been publicly disclosed.

Prosecutors said Scott Peterson killed his 27-year-old wife in their Modesto home on Dec. 23 or Dec. 24, 2002, and then drove his boat and her body 90 miles west and dumped it in San Francisco Bay. The substitute teacher was eight months pregnant when she vanished. Four months later, her remains and those of her fetus washed up just north of the marina where Peterson launched his fishing boat the day of her disappearance.

Annette Anderson, who lives across the street from the Peterson home, said she was happy for the Rocha family and relieved to know Scott Peterson would not be returning to the neighborhood. ``If he were to come back here, then I would be afraid, I'd up and move,'' she said.

The case became a reliable cover story for tabloids and cable networks. The details - a radiant, 28-year-old woman awaiting the birth of her first child, a cheating husband, and a slaying for which prosecutors had no eyewitnesses, no weapon, not even a cause of death - drew devoted followers who debated every development with endless fascination.

As word of the verdict spread, about 1,000 people gathered outside the courthouse, huddling over portable radios, cell phones and TV news tents. ``He's a sicko. He needs to fry,'' said Bob Johnston, 42, of San Jose. ``I wanted to see that justice was served.''

Police never were able to establish exactly when, how or where Laci died, but the circumstantial evidence proved persuasive. Prosecutors presented 174 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, from wiretapped phone calls to videotaped police interrogations, depicting Peterson as liar and a philanderer who sweet-talked his massage therapist girlfriend, Amber Frey, while publicly pining for his missing wife.

Peterson never took the stand. His lawyers suggested someone else abducted and killed Laci while she walked the dog, then framed her husband after learning of his fishing-trip alibi. They attributed his lies as the mutterings of a man in the midst of a breakdown over his missing wife.

11/13/04 02:59

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041113%2F0259570237.htm&sc=1110&photoid=20041112NY133

kimp67

11-13-2004, 08:39 PM

I think that it's a shame that in this day & age, in this country that someone could be convicted of first-degree murder without one bit of solid evidence! Circumstantial evidence, yes there was, but not ONE piece of solid proof!

:mad:

Jolie Rouge

11-13-2004, 09:35 PM

:rolleyes:

Jolie Rouge

11-15-2004, 11:13 PM

Laci's legacy
Lia Macko - executive producer, MSNBC

We learned Friday that Scott Peterson won't be on the golf course with OJ searching for his murdered wife Laci's real killer. Victims' rights advocates breathed a sigh of relief, crowds cheered, and throngs of well wishers left notes and flowers at Laci's home. Despite cocky claims of innocence by the Peterson defense team, the June dismissal of a juror who seemed more likely to grab a beer with Peterson post-verdict than convict him, several juror dismissals in the past week, and the lack of a weapon or even an eyewitness, a panel of twelve moved beyond reasonable doubt to convict the defendant of the premeditated murder of his wife and the second degree murder of his unborn son.

Though it would be undignified to label any outcome in a murder trial a victory, the Peterson verdict does signal something important — and perhaps necessary —about evolving community tolerance for acts of domestic homicide and violence. Statistics on this front are staggering and the demographics would shock many. Murder is the number one cause of death of pregnant women in the United States. A third of female murder victims in recent years were killed by their spouses or others close to them, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, and according to the FBI, just more than 800 spouses killed their partners in 2002. Nearly one-third of American women report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to a 1998 Commonwealth Fund survey.

The Peterson case reminds us that perpetrators of domestic homicide and violence often defy stereotypes— this group includes physicians, businessmen, athletes, police chiefs, and religious leaders. The many televised and published portraits of Laci and Scott Peterson as a young, attractive and loving couple remind us that real life villains often look benign, and that yes, these acts of violence could indeed happen to your next door neighbor, friend, or daughter.

The distrubing facts and images of the case— the dark, evil Christmas Eve disappearance of a beaming and vital expectant mother— remind us that the unthinkable is possible. But the Peterson verdict helps transmit a message of deterrence to would be abusers that diminishes the aura of permissiveness haunting this realm of law since the conclusion of OJ's trial, the so-called trial of the century. Instead of reinforcing that a husband can get away with the murder —literally —in the state of Californina, the Peterson jury said the opposite, concluding that even in the absence of direct evidence, an unlikely defendant can be found guilty of murder.

Poll Question on November 13, 2004
Scott Peterson verdict: was justice served?
* 13528 responses

Yes -- 82%
No -- 18%

Poll Question on November 15, 2004
Do you believe Scott Peterson should get the death penalty?
* 50431 responses

Yes -- 61%
No -- 39%

Jolie Rouge

11-22-2004, 11:41 AM

Peterson penalty phase delayed
Judge keeps trial jury, rejects changing venue
Monday, November 22, 2004 Posted: 1:28 PM EST (1828 GMT)

REDWOOD CITY, California (AP) -- The judge in the Scott Peterson murder trial denied defense motions Monday for a new jury and a new venue, and rescheduled the penalty phase of the case to begin November 30.

The penalty phase had been set to begin Monday, 10 days after he was found guilty of first-degree murder for killing Laci Peterson and second-degree murder for killing her fetus. Jurors must choose between a life sentence or execution. "We're going to have to go with this jury," Judge Alfred A. Delucci said, rejecting defense claims that the ousting of two jurors after deliberations began would taint the outcome.

As for moving the case elsewhere, the judge said it would be impossible. "Where could I send this case in the state of California that hasn't been inundated with the media coverage?"

When deliberations do begin, jurors are expected to hear testimony much more laden with emotion than they did during the five-month guilt phase of his trial.

A delay was possible because defense lawyers filed a motion last week seeking to have a new jury seated in another county to weigh the sentence. The lawyers say San Mateo County is too prejudiced against Peterson for this jury to be impartial. The judge planned to review the motion Monday morning.

The penalty phase is like a miniature trial, absent most of the typical rules of evidence. Unlike the guilt phase of a trial, it allows jurors to hear pleas for leniency and heartfelt recollections of the victim.

This phase will begin with opening statements from both sides, followed by testimony from friends and family members and closing arguments, before the jurors are once again sequestered for deliberations. "Witnesses are pretty much allowed to say whatever they want," said Robert Talbot, a University of San Francisco School of Law professor who has observed the trial. "Laci's family will be talking about the impact on their lives without Laci there and not having a grandchild. The Petersons are going to attempt to show there is something of value in him that shouldn't be destroyed by the death penalty."

Talbot said defense lawyers also are allowed to "argue lingering doubt," playing to jurors who may still be somewhat uncertain about the prosecution's case.

The Peterson penalty phase wasn't forecast to be like most murder trials, where the convicted person has a history of violence, anti-social behavior or a childhood marred with abuse. "You're not going to have any of that here because there isn't poverty in his background and there isn't parental abuse or a criminal record. He seemed to have a pretty good childhood," Talbot said.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/11/22/lacipeterson.ap/index.html

Jolie Rouge

11-24-2004, 09:35 PM

Peterson turns to state Supreme Court
Defense team seeks venue change, new jury for penalty phase
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Posted: 10:40 PM EST (0340 GMT)

(CNN) -- Attorneys for convicted murderer Scott Peterson Wednesday asked the California Supreme Court to change the location of the penalty phase of Peterson's trial and let a new jury decide whether he deserves to die.

The trial judge and an appeals court have both turned down those requests.

The penalty phase in Peterson's trial is scheduled to begin next Wednesday in Redwood City, California. Jurors will decide whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison without possibility of parole.

After 184 witnesses testified over a period of 23 weeks, Peterson was convicted November 12 of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the death of his wife, Laci, and of second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son.

Their bodies turned up separately on the shore of San Francisco Bay in April 2003, almost four months after a pregnant Laci Peterson disappeared from the couple's Modesto home.

Peterson's lead attorney, Mark Geragos, argued that the penalty phase should be moved out of Redwood City because of the community's animosity toward his client.

Geragos also said that the departure of two jurors during deliberations had compromised the jury's ability to render a fair verdict.

On Tuesday, California's 1st District Court of Appeals rejected an emergency request filed by Geragos after the trial judge, Alfred Delucchi, denied Geragos' motion Monday. (Full story)

Geragos said "massive media interest in and community fervor" about the case had polluted the panel.

"That the jury was in fact influenced by such extrinsic factors was demonstrated by the comments of Juror Number 5, before his dismissal ... to the effect that 'given what's transpired' in the jury room, he feared that his ability to weigh the evidence fairly and openly had been so compromised 'that I would never know personally whether or not I was giving the community's verdict, the popular verdict, the expected verdict,' " according to court papers filed November 17.

In documents it filed opposing the defense requests, the prosecution countered that when asked to explain his comments, the juror "completely retracted his claim."

"What is of even more significance is that at the time the [juror] made his statements in a repeated attempt to get off the case, the jury had not yet taken a vote," the prosecution papers said.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/11/24/peterson.trial/index.html

Jolie Rouge

11-27-2004, 01:33 PM

Peterson Jurors Face Wrenching Choice
By PAUL ELIAS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - 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 have to grapple with raw and deep religious, moral and legal issues as they decide whether he lives or dies.

Arguments in the penalty phase are scheduled to begin Tuesday, but experts say many of the jurors may already have made up their minds about what punishment the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman deserves.

Jurors who have sent people to death row say even though they were overwhelmingly convinced of their guilt, settling on the death penalty was one of the toughest decisions of their lives. ``I have strong religious beliefs and this wasn't like I had to decide what kind of ice cream to buy,'' said Brian Bianco, who served as foreman of the jury that convicted Richard Allen Davis of kidnapping and killing 12-year-old Polly Klaas.

Nevertheless, like Castagna, Bianco said he has never doubted that he made the right decision in sending Davis to death row after four agonizing days of deliberations.

It took a jury just 70 minutes to condemn Garton, who was convicted of hiring a hit man to kill his 29-year-old pregnant wife. ``There wasn't any real reason to mull it over,'' Castagna said. ``It was pretty clear that this guy was evil, that he had concocted this scheme to get his wife killed. ``

Garton, convicted of two first-degree murder charges, is one of three men in California sentenced to die because a fetus perished during a slaying. Peterson could be the fourth.

Castagna said the five months of sometimes graphic testimony during the guilt phase of the trial ``pretty much drove'' the death verdict. ``You can't help but consider the fact that you'll have to decide punishment if you find him guilty,'' Castagna said. ``That's always in the back of your mind, but you try not to let it influence you.''

Determining punishment before deliberations in the penalty phase is a common experience for many death penalty jurors, according to an ongoing study by the Capital Jury Project at Northeastern University. About half the 1,300 capital case jurors questioned for the study said they had made their sentencing decisions during the guilt phase of the trial, according to chief investigator William Bowers. ``That's perhaps the most profound thing we found,'' said Bowers, who sometimes serves as an expert witness for those facing the death penalty. ``That's a major departure of how it's supposed to work. You're supposed to wait for instructions.''

What's more, Bowers said that many jurors vote for death because they fear the killer will someday be set free, even if a sentence of life without parole is an option, as it is in the Peterson case. ``There's a pervasive anxiety that the defendant will be back on the streets,'' Bowers said.

That anxiety played a major role in the 1988 death sentence of William Dennis, who was convicted of the Halloween night machete slashing of his ex-wife and her eight-month-old fetus as the victim's 4-year-old daughter cowered behind a couch. ``What it came down to for us was that we were not convinced that life without the possibility of parole meant that,'' said jury foreman Forrester Sinclair. ``We decided we had to have him removed from society forever.''

Peterson faces death or life in prison without parole for the murders of his wife Laci and the fetus she carried. His lawyer has asked the California Supreme Court for a new jury and a change of venue for the trial's penalty phase. An appeals court turned down the request last week.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041127%2F1325874992.htm&sc=1110

On the Net:

Capital Jury Project: http://www.cjp.neu.edu/

11/27/04 13:25

Jolie Rouge

12-01-2004, 11:45 AM

Laci Peterson's Mother Takes the Stand
By BRIAN SKOLOFF

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Scott Peterson simply watched as his former mother-in-law rose out of the witness chair and screamed at him for killing his pregnant wife, Laci.

Sharon Rocha, wearing a gold heart-shaped pendent with a picture of her daughter in it, took the stand Tuesday in the penalty phase of Peterson's murder trial. She wrapped up the state's case the same day it began, giving the most emotional testimony of four family members called to the stand. Laci's older brother, younger sister and stepfather also spoke. ``She wanted to be a mother. That was taken away from her,'' Rocha said to Peterson, who was convicted Nov. 12 for the 2002 murders of his wife and the 8-month-old fetus she was carrying.

Rocha went on, her voice cracking. ``Divorce was always an option - not murder,'' Rocha said in a voice so loud that some jurors jumped.

At one point, Peterson dabbed his eyes with a tissue. Jurors will recommend whether the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman should be executed or get life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2002 murders.

Throughout the testimony, prosecutors displayed photographs of Laci, including one from Mother's Day 2002. Taken a week after Laci's 27th birthday, the picture showed Laci, her mother and her grandmother.

Mother's Day, Rocha told the jury, would never be the same.

``The first Mother's Day (after her death) I laid on the floor and I cried most of the day because she should have been there,'' she sobbed, her chest heaving. ``I can hear her giggling,'' Rocha said, gazing at a larger-than-life image of her daughter displayed on a white wall screen. ``She didn't just smile, she would giggle. She would kind of bend over when she would laugh.''

Earlier, prosecutor Dave Harris said Laci's death left a hole in her family's hearts ``that can never be repaired.''

``When the defendant dumped the bodies of his wife and unborn son into the bay, those ripples spread out and they touched many, many lives,'' Harris told jurors.

The only appropriate punishment, he said, is death.

Prosecutors had argued at trial that Peterson strangled or smothered his wife in their Modesto home on or around Christmas Eve 2002, then dumped her body into San Francisco Bay. The remains were discovered four months later a few miles from where Scott Peterson claims to have been fishing the day his wife vanished. ``It was just the worst thing you could think about, like a nightmare,'' Amy Rocha, Laci's younger sister, said, describing how she felt as she helped search for her sister.

Brent Rocha, Laci's older brother, said he tries to remember the good times they shared, but those memories are ``overshadowed all the time by how she died ... and maybe her knowing who did it.''

``I don't think I've ever heard her be more excited than the day she called me up to tell me she was pregnant,'' he said. ``She was going to be a great mother.''

The defense was expected to begin presenting its case Wednesday. Witnesses testifying on Peterson's behalf can speak about anything that might show him in a favorable light as his attorneys try to convince jurors his life is worth sparing.

12/01/04 05:29

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041201%2F0529255637.htm&photoid=20041130RED01_RED01

Jolie Rouge

12-09-2004, 08:18 AM

WHAT THE JURY DIDN'T HEAR

During Scott Peterson's 21-week trial, jurors heard from 184 witnesses and reviewed hundreds of exhibits. They saw a lot, but they didn't see everything. Some evidence was deemed irrelevant or prejudicial; lawyers determined other items didn't fit with their trial strategy. Here's a list of some of the evidence jurors didn't hear,....

www.courttv.com/trials/peter...r.html?link=rss

Tracking dogs found Laci Peterson's scent in areas that suggested she left her home by car, not foot, and had been in her husband's boat.

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi barred this particular evidence as "iffy."

Jackie Peterson told her son to "deny everything" when talking to detectives, prompting one investigator to conclude his parents "know more about what really happened to Laci Peterson."

Investigator Steve Jacobson wrote this report after listening to a phone call Jan. 17, 2003, a few days after reports of Peterson's mistress surfaced in the press: "On January 17th Scott receives a voice mail from his mother. His mother tells him he should 'deny, deny, deny' and that she was told that years ago by an attorney.

His mother tells him his sister Susan (Caudillo) needs to get a yes or no answer from him. His mother thinks that may not be a good idea. His mother said he must deny 'anything.'"

Peterson told police that marina workers saw him returning from the bay and asked him about his fishing trip.

Those men — if they existed and were ever located — never took the stand.

When Jackie Peterson heard police were searching the San Francisco Bay again, she told her son that no one — "not even you, Scott" — would be stupid enough to dump bodies in the very location of their alibi.

Modesto Police Department report on the wiretap: "On January 26, 2003, at 1828 hours, Scott called home and talked with his mother. Scott told his mother that Detective Grogan called him today and told him police were back searching again in the bay.

Scott's mother asked if Det. Grogan was crazy and asked why he called him.

Scott replied that he thought Det. Grogan was just trying to get a reaction from him.

Scott's mother said, 'I can't imagine anyone being stupid enough to say they went fishing in the Berkeley Bay after having committed a crime there. I mean not even you Scott.'"

more at the site -- I just thought these were among the most telling ....

IMHO - Scott's parents could be charged as "accomplices after the fact".

Peterson's mother breaks down on stand
Testimony part of defense bid to save California man's life
Thursday, December 9, 2004 Posted: 5:54 AM EST (1054 GMT)

REDWOOD CITY, California (AP) -- A frail-looking Jackie Peterson tearfully pleaded with jurors Wednesday to spare her son's life, saying that "if you were to take Scott away from us ... we would lose a whole family."

"It would be like Laci never existed," she said, crying so hard at times she was unintelligible.

While defense lawyers flashed Peterson family photographs on a large screen, Jackie Peterson, who uses a portable oxygen tank for a lung ailment, begged jurors to see the good in her son. "He's an exceptional young man and he's my son," she said. "I know he's not perfect ... but he is genuinely a loving, caring, nurturing, kind, gentle person."

Scott Peterson wiped tears from his eyes as his mother testified.

Defense lawyers are trying to convince jurors that Peterson deserves life in prison, not the death penalty.

The 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman was convicted November 12 of two counts of murder for killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and her fetus.

Prosecutors say he killed Laci in their Modesto home on or around Christmas Eve 2002, then dumped her body into San Francisco Bay. The remains of Laci and the fetus were discovered about four months later near where Peterson claims to have been fishing alone the day his wife vanished.

During her 40-minute testimony, Jackie Peterson also described for jurors how her father was murdered when she was a child and her mother was an invalid who couldn't take care of her and her two brothers, so they were sent to an orphanage.

"We knew that God loved us and that just took over everything," she said, adding that her own health has deteriorated in recent years because of stress. "My life is hard," she said.

Jackie Peterson's testimony was expected to conclude the defense's case in the penalty phase of Peterson's trial. Defense attorneys have called 36 witnesses over seven days in the penalty phase. Prosecutors called just four of Laci's family members on the first day November 30.

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi told jurors, who were dismissed midday Wednesday after Jackie Peterson's testimony, to expect closing arguments and the start of deliberations Thursday.

Earlier Wednesday, a family friend broke down in tears when asked how a death sentence for Peterson would affect her life. "It's just going to be an extremely sad day if that's what happens. It's not going to bring back Laci and it's not going to bring back Conner. All it's going to do is add another tragedy," said Shelly Reiman, who first met Scott and Laci Peterson while the couple attended college in San Luis Obispo. "The Scott I knew is a very gracious, caring person," Reiman said.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/08/laci.peterson.ap/index.html

-----

TOO BAD NO ONE WAS THERE TO SPEAK FOR LACI & CONNER BEFORE *THEIR* DEATH SENTENCE WAS CARRIED OUT.

Donnagg123

12-09-2004, 10:59 AM

TOO BAD NO ONE WAS THERE TO SPEAK FOR LACI & CONNER BEFORE *THEIR* DEATH SENTENCE WAS CARRIED OUT.
ITA. I can't believe the mother of Scott is saying that if Scott is killed by the death penalty that it would be like Lacey never existed. That is such crap. It is not like Scott and Lacey were one person. And besides how 'bout the fact that it was Scott who made Lacey "not exist"?? I hate when all of the pity is given to the criminal instead of the victim. What about Laceys family? Or for that matter, why don't we just let all criminal on death row out 'cause that is causing another family to suffer?? :rolleyes: :rolleyes: I think she is just going to say anything she can to keep her son off death row. Not that there is anything wrong with that as I am a mother too, and can empathize with her. HOWEVER, I hate that she is trying to sway the jury by showing pity for Lacey when I get the feeling she doesn't give a crap about Lacey or her death. JMO

YNKYH8R

12-09-2004, 12:21 PM

The way that the media is presenting this almost makes me feel like that defense shouldn’t even try. No seems to be moved to want to save this man.

Jolie Rouge

12-09-2004, 03:15 PM

Prosecutor: Peterson a 'monster'
Jury set to weigh life and death
Thursday, December 9, 2004 Posted: 4:30 PM EST (2130 GMT)

REDWOOD CITY, California (CNN) -- Calling him "the worst kind of monster," a prosecutor Thursday urged jurors to recommend that Scott Peterson die for killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner, nearly two years ago.

Thirty-nine defense witnesses, who testified on behalf of Peterson during the penalty phase of his trial, "painted a picture of Scott being pretty much perfect, and when he met Laci they were the perfect couple, that they complemented each other, both full of life and loving," prosecutor David Harris told jurors.

"But unfortunately, they didn't know what you know. They didn't know the other side of Scott Peterson. They didn't know the side of Scott Peterson that you know ... who isn't loving, who isn't kind."

Defense attorney Pat Harris, however, told the jury that Peterson "has a lot of good in him."

Peterson, 32, will be sentenced to the death penalty or life in prison without parole for killing 27-year-old Laci, who was eight months' pregnant.

On November 12, the jury convicted Peterson of first-degree murder in her death and second-degree murder, punishable by 15 years to life in prison, in Conner's death.

After a lunch break, defense attorney Mark Geragos will present his portion of the closing argument, and jurors will receive instructions before they begin deliberating. The jury will be sequestered during deliberations.

Jurors agreed with prosecutors' contention that Peterson strangled or smothered Laci and dumped her body into San Francisco Bay. She was reported missing on Christmas Eve 2002.

Prosecutors said the motive was Peterson's desire to live life as a freewheeling bachelor, unencumbered by a wife and child. During the trial, jurors heard hours of taped telephone conversations between Peterson and his mistress, massage therapist Amber Frey.

During the penalty phase, Peterson's friends and relatives have taken the stand to plead for his life, calling him a kind person who could benefit others in prison. Peterson's mother cried on the stand Wednesday as she begged jurors to spare her son's life. "We would lose a whole family," Jackie Peterson testified. It "would be like they never existed ... such a waste, irreversible."

( :rolleyes: )

But prosecutor David Harris urged jurors to reject the argument that life in prison without parole would be worse punishment than death. "If you have life, he gets to sit in a cell, read a book, write letters; he gets to have life," he said. "All the things that Laci and Conner would love to do, all the things that Laci's family would love to be able to share with Laci and Conner."

He noted that while others were praying for the safe return of Laci and her baby, "the man who knew where they were - laughed and lied. ... He is the worst kind of monster."

California law prohibits jurors from considering the emotional effect on defendants' families when deciding on a sentence, and Judge Alfred Delucchi has instructed jurors not to allow sympathy to be a factor.

CNN's Rusty Dornin contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/09/peterson/index.html

Jolie Rouge

12-09-2004, 03:18 PM

Key dates in the Peterson trial
Monday, November 15, 2004 Posted: 1:32 PM EST (1832 GMT)

(CNN) -- Here are the key dates in the Scott Peterson trial:

December 24, 2002: Laci Peterson, 27, is reported missing from her home in Modesto, California. She was 8 months pregnant at the time.

December 26, 2002: Police search the Peterson home.

January 24, 2003: Amber Frey, a massage therapist from Fresno, comes forward at a police news conference to say she was having an affair with Scott Peterson. The affair began November 20, she said, after he lied and said he was single.

February 18, 2003: Police get a second search warrant and remove 95 items from the Peterson home.

March 5, 2003: Modesto police say they are treating the investigation as a homicide case.

April 13, 2003: The remains of a male infant are found on the shore of San Francisco Bay.

April 14, 2003: A decapitated female body washes up on the shore of San Francisco Bay near where the infant's body was found the day before.

April 18, 2003: The remains are identified as Laci Peterson and her baby. Scott Peterson is arrested in San Diego.

April 21, 2003: Peterson is charged in Stanislaus County Superior Court before Judge Nancy Ashley with two felony counts of murder with premeditation and special circumstances. Peterson pleads not guilty.

June 12, 2003: Judge Al Girolami imposes a gag order on participants, saying the restrictions are necessary to preserve Peterson's right to a fair trial amid "massive" publicity.

June 26, 2003: A California Superior Court judge orders that 176 recently discovered wiretaps of Peterson's telephone calls be handed over to the defense as part of discovery.

August 6, 2003: Defense attorneys say Peterson was offered a plea bargain and threatened with the death penalty three months before he was charged.

November 17, 2003: The judge decides to bind Peterson over for trial on murder charges in the deaths of his pregnant wife and their unborn child.

December 3, 2003: Peterson pleads not guilty.

January 8, 2004: Girolami permits a change of venue.

February 2, 2004: Newly appointed Judge Alfred Delucchi bars cameras from the San Mateo County courtroom for the duration of the trial.

March 4, 2004: Jury selection begins.

May 27, 2004: The jury is seated in the case. There are six men and six women, and six alternates.

June 1, 2004: The trial begins.

June 21, 2004: Delucchi tells jurors they must take care to ensure their actions in and around the courtroom are not misconstrued. Delucchi's warning came after Juror No. 5 said something on June 18 to Brent Rocha, the brother of Laci Peterson, as the two passed through a security checkpoint at the entrance to the courthouse.

June 23, 2004: Juror No. 5, Justin Falconer, is dismissed from the jury.

August 10, 2004: Frey testifies that Peterson told her he was a widower, and that he lied about where he lived and traveled. Jurors started hearing tape recordings of her conversations with Peterson, made by police after she discovered the truth and went to authorities shortly after Laci Peterson disappeared.

August 18, 2004: Delucchi sends the jury home after a lengthy conference with lawyers in his chambers over an evidentiary dispute. A source close to the case told CNN that prosecutors tried to block Peterson's defense from using taped conversations that have not been introduced into evidence. But the source said Delucchi allowed the defense to use the tapes if they directly pertain to Frey's testimony over the past week and a half.

August 24, 2004: Frey finishes her testimony.

October 5, 2004: The prosecution rests.

October 26, 2004: The defense rests.

November 1, 2004: The prosecution makes its closing arguments.

November 2, 2004: The defense makes its closing arguments.

November 3, 2004: Jury deliberations begin.

November 9, 2004: A juror is replaced by an alternate.

November 10, 2004: The alternate juror who replaced Falconer is replaced by an alternate.

November 12, 2004: The jury finds Peterson guilty on both counts.

Jolie Rouge

12-09-2004, 03:26 PM

The way that the media is presenting this almost makes me feel like that defense shouldn’t even try. No seems to be moved to want to save this man.

Sorry - my sympathies are with the victims. Scott didn't seem to be concerned with their lives. He wanted to be footloose and fancy-free - no alimony, no child support, no custody problems, no worries. Lacey and Conner were given a Death Sentence for being an inconvient impediment to Scott's lifestyle. What was their crime ? Who spoke for them to spare their lives ? How terrified was Lacey as she realised what was happening at the hands of the man who vowed to "honor and cherish" ?

Jolie Rouge

12-13-2004, 01:13 PM

Verdict Reached In Penalty Phase

Court TV learns that a verdict has been reached and will be announced at 1:30 p.m. PT

Jolie Rouge

12-13-2004, 01:46 PM

Jury Agrees on Sentence for Scott Peterson
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - The jurors deciding whether Scott Peterson (news - web sites) should be executed or spend life in prison for killing his pregnant wife reached a verdict in the trial's sentencing phase Monday, a court official said.

The decision came on the third day of deliberations and after the jury requested autopsy photos and other evidence that had been presented during the guilt phase of the trial.

After the jury broke for lunch, a court administrator told The Associated Press to "tell everyone we're having a verdict at 1:30."

Earlier Monday, jurors had asked to review 13 pieces of evidence, about half of which remain under seal. They asked to see aerial photographs of San Francisco Bay and the widely publicized picture of Laci Peterson wearing a red maternity pantsuit with her hands folded across her lap.

It was not immediately clear what the rest of the evidence was, although 12 of the items requested were presented by the prosecution at trial. The autopsy photos were shown to the jury during trial but remain out of public view. The aerial photographs and the candid picture of Laci Peterson, taken during a Christmas party shortly before she disappeared, are public.

Jurors debated about three hours Monday after taking the weekend off following 8 1/2 hours of deliberations last week. The judge will formally sentence Peterson on Feb. 25. The same jury of six men and six women found Peterson guilty Nov. 12.

Defense attorneys called 39 witnesses over seven days in the penalty phase of Peterson's double-murder trial. Prosecutors called just four of Laci's family members, all on the first day, Nov. 30

The 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife and second-degree murder for killing her fetus. Prosecutors say he strangled or smothered Laci Peterson on or around Christmas Eve 2002 and dumped the body in San Francisco Bay.

The remains of Laci Peterson and the fetus washed ashore about four months later, just a few miles from where Peterson claims to have gone fishing alone the day his wife was reported missing.

If jurors are unable to agree on a sentence, prosecutors must decide whether to retry just the penalty phase or to accept a default sentence of life in prison.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041213/ap_on_re_us/laci_peterson_15

Jolie Rouge

12-13-2004, 03:02 PM

D E A T H

Jolie Rouge

12-13-2004, 03:09 PM

Jury Recommends Execution for Peterson
1 minute ago Top Stories - AP
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - A jury decided Monday that Scott Peterson 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.

Cheers 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.

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi will formally sentence Peterson on Feb. 25. The judge will have the option of reducing the sentence to life, but such a move is highly unlikely.

Peterson clenched his jaw when the verdict was read but showed no other emotion.

In arguing for death, prosecutors called Peterson "the worst kind of monster" and said he was undeserving of sympathy. The defense begged jurors to "go back there and please spare his life."

The decision came almost two years to the date after the disappearance of Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old substitute teacher who married her college sweetheart and was soon to be the proud mother of a baby boy named Conner. The story set off a tabloid frenzy as suspicion began to swirl around Scott Peterson, who claimed to have been fishing by himself on Christmas Eve and was carrying on an affair with a massage therapist at the time.

The remains of Laci and the fetus washed ashore about four months later, just a few miles from where Peterson claims to have gone fishing in San Francisco Bay. The case went to trial in June, and Peterson was convicted Nov. 12 of two counts of murder.

All the while, the case never stopped making headlines.

The case graced more People magazine covers than any murder investigation in the publication's history. Court TV thrived during the case, providing countless hours of coverage on the investigation and gavel-to-gavel commentary throughout the trial. CNN's Larry King hosted show after show with pundits picking apart legal strategies, testimony and even Scott Peterson's demeanor. Trial regulars showed up by the hundreds to participate in the daily lottery for the coveted 27 public seats inside the courtroom.

Peterson will now be sent to death row at San Quentin State Prison outside San Francisco, the infamous lockup where prisoners gaze out small cell windows overlooking the same bay where Laci Peterson's body was discarded.

Peterson still might not be executed for decades, if ever. That is because California's death row has grown to house more than 640 condemned men and women since the state brought back capital punishment in 1978. Since then, only 10 executions have been carried out. It can take years for even the first phase of the appeals process to begin.

California's last execution was on Jan. 29, 2002, when Stephen Wayne Anderson — described by supporters as the poet laureate of Death Row — was put to death by lethal injection for the Memorial Day 1980 murder of 81-year-old Elizabeth Lyman during a break-in at her home.

As many as three murderers face possible execution in 2005, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Margot Bach.

Prosecutors spent months portraying Peterson as a monster, a cheating husband and cold-blooded killer who wooed his lover even as police searched for his missing wife. They said he wanted to murder Laci to escape marriage and fatherhood for the pleasures of the freewheeling bachelor life.

The prosecution put on a short, but emotional case in the penalty phase of the trial, calling just four witnesses. "Every morning when I get up I cry," Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, said during the penalty phase. "It takes me a long time just to be able to get out of the house ... I miss her. I want to know my grandson. I want Laci to be a mother. I want to hear her called mom."

Rocha would later rise halfway out of her seat and scream at Scott Peterson, who was seated impassively at the defense table: "Divorce was always an option," she said. "Not murder!"

Defense attorneys argued during the trial's guilt phase that Peterson was framed and that the real killers dumped Laci's body in the water after learning of Peterson's widely publicized alibi. The defense fought hard to save Peterson's life, calling about 40 witnesses over seven days in the penalty phase.

They seized on anything from Scott Peterson's past in attempt to spare his life, including testimony that he never cheated on the golf course or lost his temper.

They told jurors of the Scott Peterson who was a smiling, snuggling toddler. He was the high school golf captain who tutored younger students. He sang to seniors on Sundays and once broke up a dog fight. He cared for mentally retarded children. He was the highly motivated son who worked his way through college.

And finally, he was the young professional who married the woman he fell in love with in college. "I wish there was a phrase that I could give you that could turn this around and make you believe there is good, there is real, real good in this person," defense attorney Pat Harris said during closing arguments. "But I don't have that phrase ... that's up to you to decide."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20041213/ap_on_re_us/laci_peterson

:rolleyes:

They seized on anything from Scott Peterson's past in attempt to spare his life, including testimony that he never cheated on the golf course ...

:rolleyes:

No, but he made a habit of cheating on his wife and lying to just about everyone he met.

Jolie Rouge

12-14-2004, 02:54 PM

Appeals, pace may delay Peterson's death
Tuesday, December 14, 2004 Posted: 4:43 PM EST

(CNN) -- Action on a jury's recommendation to kill Scott Peterson by lethal injection for murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, could be decades away in the state that has more than 600 people on death row.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi will formally sentence Peterson on February 25. Delucchi can overturn the jury's death sentence recommendation and order Peterson to remain in prison for the rest of his life, but that option is unlikely, an attorney said. "It's very rare for a judge in California to reduce a death penalty verdict," former San Mateo County prosecutor Dean Johnson said Tuesday. "(It's) even more rare for Judge Al Delucchi to do so. He gives deference and respect to the expression of the conscience of the community, as expressed by this jury."

Jurors in November convicted Peterson of first-degree murder in the killing of his wife and second-degree murder in the killing of her fetus. Laci disappeared Christmas Eve 2002. Her corpse and that of the fetus washed ashore along San Francisco Bay four months later and a few miles away from where Peterson said he had been fishing the day she vanished.

Monday, jurors recommended death for Peterson's punishment instead of life in prison without parole.

But death sentences carry mandatory appeals, and the last person executed in California, in 2002, waited more than 20 years. Consequently the judges discretion, the appeals process and the state's pace suggests a lengthy delay before Peterson's execution.

After sentencing, Peterson will go to California's San Quentin State Prison, which houses California's 641 death-row inmates -- the largest population in the nation.

Peterson's attorneys likely will file more appeals than the one required by law. Those appeals could drag his case out for years.

One cornerstone of those appeals could be the judge's dismissal of the jury's foreman during the guilt phase of Peterson's trial, former U.S. attorney Kendall Coffey said. The foreman was one of three jurors Delucchi dismissed during course of the trial and deliberations.

California's pace in executing death-row inmates will be a factor in how long Peterson lives. Since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978, only 10 people have been executed, compared with 336 people in Texas, the state with the highest rate of executions.

In Modesto, where Scott and Laci Peterson lived, people reacted with relief at the sentence recommendation, which came just before the second anniversary of her disappearance. After the announcement, a single candle burned at the doorstep of the Peterson home with a sign saying, "Laci and Conner, may you rest in peace."

California is one of several states with laws dealing with the killing of a fetus. In 1970, the state Legislature added "or a fetus" to the state murder law, according to the National Right to Life Committee's Web site, which tracks state laws dealing with the fetus-killing laws. California law now states, "Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought."

After the addition, the California Supreme Court in 1994 ruled that the term "fetus" applies under the law after the embryonic stage of seven to eight weeks. State law also makes a defendant eligible for capital punishment if convicted of more than one murder, and the California Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that fetal homicide is included in that provision.

Peterson was eligible for the death penalty because of the provision.

Jurors said Scott Peterson's lack of emotion was one reason for their decisions, first to find him guilty and then to recommend he be sentenced to death.

"If Scott Peterson had lost his wife and baby and was innocent, and was now on trial for his life, this would be a man who was emotionally devastated, and it would show on his face," Johnson said. "But they looked across that courtroom and they saw another stone-faced, emotionless, sometimes even happy Scott Peterson. That complete disconnect was what destroyed Scott Peterson. Ultimately, the strongest piece of evidence against Scott was Scott himself."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/14/peterson.appeals/index.html

Jolie Rouge

12-14-2004, 03:00 PM

Jury: Scott Peterson Deserves to Die
By BRIAN SKOLOFF

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Upon learning of his death sentence, Scott Peterson sat defiantly still and tight-jawed, the same vacant expression he wore throughout a murder trial in which he never spoke. And to hear the jurors tell it, Peterson's apparent lack of emotion - from the day his wife disappeared through the last day of testimony two years later - was the final piece that doomed him.

The jury had been told that Peterson did not wear his emotions on his sleeve. But juror Richelle Nice told ABC's ``Good Morning America'' on Tuesday that she noticed Peterson becoming emotional during the penalty phase of his trial. ``Is it just that he doesn't show emotion for Laci and Conner?'' she asked.

She said her thoughts were with Laci Peterson and the fetus she carried. "They can rest in peace,'' she said. ``Justice was done.''

A cheer went up outside the courthouse Monday as the jury announced its decision after 11 1/2 hours of deliberations over three days. The same six men and six women who convicted Peterson of murdering his pregnant wife recommended that he be sent to death row at San Quentin State Prison outside San Francisco, the infamous lockup overlooking the bay where Laci Peterson's body was discarded.

Inside, Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, cried quietly - her lips quivering after the verdict was read. Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie, showed no apparent emotion.

Three jurors said at a press conference afterward that they couldn't let go of the fact that the bodies of Laci Peterson and her fetus had washed ashore a few miles from where Scott Peterson claimed he went fishing the day she disappeared.

Juror Greg Beratlis said the jury was convinced of Peterson's guilt by ``many, many things,'' but added: ``Those bodies were found in the same place. That played in my mind, over and over.''

Most unsettling, the jurors seemed to agree, was Peterson's dispassionate demeanor. ``He has no remorse,'' juror Michael Belmessieri said Tuesday on CBS' ``The Early Show.'' ``He lost his wife and his child - it didn't seem to faze him,'' said juror Steve Cardosi. ``And while that was going on ... he is romancing a girlfriend. That doesn't make sense to me. At all.''

Peterson did not testify during the six-month trial. ``Anything - a plea for his life, or just his opinion on everything that went on in the last two years. ... I would have liked to have heard his voice on that,'' Beratlis said.

Nice even took issue with Peterson's manner Monday in the moments before the sentence was read, chatting casually with his attorneys. ``Today - the giggles at the table,'' she said. ``Loud and clear.''

Peterson was convicted Nov. 12 of one count of first-degree murder in the death of Laci, and one count of second-degree murder for the killing of her eight-month old fetus. 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. Judge Alfred A. Delucchi will formally sentence Peterson on Feb. 25. The judge will have the option of reducing the sentence to life, but such a move is highly unlikely.

But Peterson still might not be executed for decades - if ever - and it can take years for even the first phase of the appeals process to begin. Since California brought back capital punishment in 1978, only 10 executions have been carried out. The state's clogged death row houses 641 prisoners. In a brief news conference after the verdict, defense attorney Mark Geragos said he was ``very disappointed.'' ``Obviously, we plan on pursuing every and all appeals, motions for a new trial and everything else,'' he said.

The tale of adultery and murder set off a tabloid frenzy as suspicion began to swirl around Scott Peterson in the days and weeks after Laci's disappearance. The heat was turned up when Amber Frey, the massage therapist who Scott Peterson was romancing on the side, came forward.

The jury's decision followed seven days of tearful testimony in the penalty phase. In arguing for death last week, prosecutors called Peterson ``the worst kind of monster'' and said he was undeserving of sympathy. Geragos begged of jurors: ``Just don't kill him. That's all I am asking of you. End this cycle.''

Prosecutors spent months portraying Peterson as a cheating husband and cold-blooded killer who wanted to murder Laci to escape marriage and fatherhood for the pleasures of the freewheeling bachelor life. ``They had no reason to doubt it was Scott who did what he did,'' said Laci Peterson's stepfather, Ron Grantski, the only member of her family to speak to reporters. ``He got what he deserved.''

Defense attorneys argued during the trial's guilt phase that Peterson was framed and that the real killers dumped Laci's body in the water after learning of Peterson's widely publicized alibi. The defense fought hard to save Peterson's life, calling 39 witnesses over seven days in the penalty phase.

When the time came for a verdict and sentence recommendation, jurors were convinced Peterson desperately wanted out of the married life. ``I don't think divorce was an option,'' Beratlis said. ``I think it was freedom.''

Heather Richardson, the maid of honor at Scott and Laci Peterson's wedding, said she thought jurors were right to think Scott Peterson killed his pregnant wife because he wanted freedom. ``The child was the turning point for him,'' she told NBC's ``Today'' show Tuesday. ``He would have never divorced her.''

12/14/04 14:15

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/enhancedstory.jsp?maxphotos=5&phototerm=Peterson+guilty&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041214%2F1415618074.htm&photoid=20041213SCOTT116

Jolie Rouge

12-14-2004, 03:18 PM

Jurors point to Peterson's lack of emotion
Death sentence recommended in killing of pregnant wife
Tuesday, December 14, 2004 Posted: 12:40 PM EST (1740 GMT)

REDWOOD CITY, California (CNN) -- Jurors who decided that Scott Peterson deserves to die say his lack of emotion played a large role in their decision.

Peterson was convicted last month of killing his wife Laci and the fetus she carried. On Monday, jurors recommended that he pay for the crime with his life.

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi will formally sentence Peterson on February 25. He has the option of reducing the sentence to life, but that is seen as unlikely.

If Delucchi upholds the jury's recommendation, Peterson will be sent to death row at San Quentin State Prison outside San Francisco.

The jury's death penalty recommendation surprised some observers, who pointed to the lack of physical evidence tying Peterson to the killings.

But jurors who spoke to the media after Monday's recommendation say the callousness of the crime -- and Peterson's lack of emotion or remorse -- helped to condemn him. "It just seemed to be the appropriate justice for the crime, given the nature and how personal it really was, against his wife and his child," said jury foreman Steve Cardosi.

Juror Richelle Nice, the mother of four children, pointed to Peterson's demeanor. "No emotion, no anything. That spoke a thousand words," Nice said.

"Scott Peterson was Laci's husband, Conner's daddy -- the one person that should have protected them."

'Got what he deserved'

Laci Peterson's stepfather was happy with the jury's recommendation, saying Scott Peterson "got what he deserved" for killing his 27-year-old pregnant wife. "It's still a nightmare. It should never have happened. It's hurt too many people for no reason," Ron Grantski said. "But justice was served."

The conclusion of the trial came at a "very hard" time of the year for Laci Peterson's family, Grantski said.

Christmas Eve will be the second anniversary of Laci Peterson's disappearance.

Cheers went up from a crowd of several hundred outside the courthouse Monday as the jury announced its decision after 11 1/2 hours of deliberations over three days.

Peterson, a 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman, clenched his jaw when the verdict was read and leaned over to speak with his attorney, Mark Geragos, but showed no other emotion, according to The Associated Press.

Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, cried -- her lips quivering. Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie, showed no apparent emotion, according to the AP.

The jury had two options in deciding Peterson's fate: life in prison without parole or death.

On November 12, the same six-man, six-woman jury convicted Peterson of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the death of Laci and of second-degree murder in the death of the fetus.

Members of Scott Peterson's family, many of whom had taken the stand to ask jurors for mercy, did not comment on the sentence.

Stanislaus County District Attorney Jim Brazelton, whose office prosecuted the case, said Monday's sentencing verdict was a "just conclusion."

"We appreciate the hard, long work that the jury did. It wasn't a piece of cake for them," he said. "This was about six months of long, hard days of listening to a lot of testimony, paying attention to all of that testimony and putting it in the proper places."

What happens now?

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Peterson will remain in the San Mateo County Jail until he is formally sentenced on February 25.

Peterson's defense attorneys will begin working on motions for a new trial, Toobin said. The defense is expected to argue that it was improper for the judge to remove jurors during the guilt phase of the trial.

Geragos told reporters after the sentencing verdict that the defense would pursue "every and all appeals."

It could be years before even the first phase of the appeals process begins. The sentence might not be carried out for decades, if ever.

California's death row has grown to house about 650 condemned men and women since the state restored capital punishment in 1978, according to the AP.

Only 10 executions have been carried out since then. The last one was in 2002 -- for a murder that happened 22 years earlier.

A nation riveted

From the start, the story of a beautiful young, missing pregnant woman immediately grabbed the public's attention.

But as the investigation unfolded, details of the case elevated it to the level of near-daily coverage by cable TV networks and tabloid publications.

Laci was reported missing from the couple's Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002, the same day her husband said he went fishing alone in San Francisco Bay. Police searched the Peterson home, but found no clues.

A month later, massage therapist Amber Frey revealed she had had an affair with Peterson, saying he told her he was single. (The Peterson-Frey phone calls)

After the jury recommended death for Peterson, some spectators outside the courtroom celebrated.
By mid-February 2003, police had removed dozens of items in a second search of the Peterson home and also began taping Peterson's phone calls.

He was not arrested until April 2003, after the remains of Laci and Conner washed up on the shore of San Francisco Bay.

At the time of his arrest in San Diego near the Mexican border, Peterson's hair was dyed and he had grown a goatee. A few days later, he was charged with two counts of murder.

Prosecutors said -- and jurors agreed -- Peterson killed Laci by strangling or smothering her, then dumped her weighted body into the bay.

Laci's body was discovered a few miles from where Peterson said he went fishing the day his wife was reported missing.

Prosecutors said Peterson killed his wife because he wanted to live as a freewheeling bachelor, unencumbered by a wife and child.

Citing adverse local pretrial publicity, Peterson's defense asked for and received a change of venue from the couple's hometown of Modesto.

Jury selection began in March. The trial began in June, and testimony concluded in September. Jurors began deliberations November 3, and nine days later they announced their guilty verdicts.

Emotional penalty phase

Emotions ran high during the penalty phase, and jurors heard wrenching testimony from relatives of both Scott and Laci.

On the first day, a number of jurors broke into sobs as Laci's mother, Rocha, recalled she spent her first Mother's Day without her daughter lying on the floor crying. "She was taken away from me," Rocha screamed at Peterson. "Divorce is always an option, not murder."

Peterson's mother, Jackie, was the last witness to testify, and begged jurors to spare her son's life.

During his closing arguments, prosecutor David Harris called Peterson "the worst kind of monster."

But defense attorney Pat Harris told the jury that Peterson would be a good candidate to help others in prison. Peterson "has a lot of good in him," the defense attorney said.

In the end, the 12 people sitting on the jury disagreed.

CNN's Rusty Dornin contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/14/peterson.case/index.html

Jolie Rouge

12-14-2004, 03:19 PM

Report: Fewer executions in 2004
Group opposed to death penalty finds five-year decline
From Bill Mears -- CNN Washington Bureau
Monday, December 13, 2004 Posted: 8:11 PM EST

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Use of the death penalty by states continued a five-year decline in 2004, according to an annual report by a nonprofit group that opposes capital punishment.

According to statistics to be released Tuesday by the Death Penalty Information Center, 40 percent fewer executions were carried out this year than in 1999.

The center also found that fewer Americans support capital punishment and that fewer prisoners are being sent to death rows.

In its annual survey, the center found that 59 people had been executed this year as of mid-December, and The Associated Press reported that no more executions were scheduled. In 1999, 98 people were put to death.

The vast majority of executions this year, 85 percent, occurred in the South, up 10 percentage points from 1999. Twelve percent were in the Midwest, and just 3 percent in Western states.

No one from the Northeast has been executed in the past two years, but Connecticut is scheduled to put a convicted murderer to death next month.

Michael Ross has refused to pursue further appeals, and his execution would be the first in the state since 1960. He has admitted to killing eight women in Connecticut and New York in the 1980s.

A federal Justice Department survey of the death penalty released last month showed similar statistics, including a 30-year low in the number of defendants given death sentences. (Full story).

The center also released a Gallup poll that showed half of Americans surveyed preferred the death penalty to life in prison without parole for convicted killers and 46 percent supported life without parole.

A survey five years ago showed 56 percent supported execution.

Questions have been raised about the death penalty in high levels of at least three state governments this year.

New York's highest court found its capital punishment law to be unconstitutional.

Leaders in New Jersey and California have called for a moratorium on executions amid questions about the methods and legal procedures surrounding the issue.

In January 2003, outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan granted clemency to all 167 inmates then on his state's death row.

Last year, a dozen people were freed from death rows, more than any other year since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, according to the AP. This year, five people have been released, the AP reported.

"The events of the past year and the statistical evidence all point in one direction," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

"The public's confidence in the death penalty has seriously eroded over the past several years. Because of so many failures, the death penalty is rightly on the defensive. Life-without-parole offers the public a better alternative without all the risks and expense."

Since 1976, 944 people have been put to death. Texas has had the most executions, at 336, more than a third of the nation's total.

Thirty-eight states and the federal government allow capital punishment, but six of those states have not executed anyone since 1976.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/12/13/death.penalty/index.html

Jolie Rouge

12-14-2004, 09:22 PM

Do you agree with Scott Peterson's death sentence?

Yes, he deserves to die. 56%

No, he should live with his crime. 16%

There was too much reasonable doubt. 15%

Death is never the answer. 14%

Jolie Rouge

03-02-2005, 01:42 PM

Scott Peterson's Half-Sister Writes Book
By KIM CURTIS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A new book written by Scott Peterson's half-sister paints the now-familiar picture of him as a lying philanderer fixated on himself and uninterested in the search for his missing wife. But it also sheds new light on Jackie Peterson, describing her as a mother willing to go to any lengths to save her son.

Author Anne Bird was given up for adoption by Jackie Peterson in 1965 and did not reconnect with the family until five years before the 2002 murder of Peterson's wife, Laci, and her eight-month-old fetus. During that time, she said, she grew close to all the Petersons but felt the deepest connection to Scott, in part because their physical resemblance was so strong. ``He really was the golden boy,'' Bird wrote. ``He was a real charmer, the kind of guy who lights up a room. I had always considered myself a good judge of character, and I thought Scott was about as solid and genuine as they came.''

``Blood Brother: 33 Reasons My Brother Scott Peterson is Guilty'' went on sale Tuesday.
http://channels.netscape.com/fotosrch/2/20050301FX109.jpg

Bird offered her half-brother a guest room in her house after Laci's disappearance, when he was being hounded by the media. While her husband was suspicious of Peterson early on, Bird supported him. When her husband pointed out that Peterson never seemed upset and never mentioned his missing wife, Bird suggested he might just be traumatized. ``When are you going to stop making excuses for him?'' her husband responded.

As Peterson's behavior grew more strange, Bird wrote that she began to doubt his innocence. Some examples, as depicted in the book:
He flirted with Bird's 22-year-old baby sitter.
He surfed Internet porn sites from Bird's home computer.
He dismissed Amber Frey as a ``down and dirty'' fling and told Bird about having sex with two strangers in an airplane's bathroom on a long flight.

Jackie Peterson's actions also bothered Bird, who noticed her being critical of her daughter-in-law. Jackie Peterson once called Bird to complain about the ``by-the-book'' wording of a thank-you card Laci had sent, according to the book. On another occasion, she wrote that her mother told Bird's baby sitter: ``I wish Scott could meet someone like you.''

Jackie Peterson also tried to persuade Bird to testify during the penalty phase of Peterson's double-murder trial, but she refused. ``She would go to any lengths to save him, do anything for her little boy, fight to the death if she had to,'' Bird wrote.

Peterson was convicted in November, and a jury recommended the death penalty the following month. A judge will sentence him March 16.

The 214-page book closes with a chapter about Bird's final visit to Peterson in jail a little more than a month ago. He assured her he would be released after his appeals. She went out to the parking lot and cried. ``Scott was going to be locked away for the rest of his life, and it wasn't registering,'' she wrote. ``He thought it was temporary. I guess they all do. I guess that's how they survive.''

03/02/05 00:07

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050302%2F0008140492.htm&sc=1110

Made me think of this .....

WHAT THE JURY DIDN'T HEAR

During Scott Peterson's 21-week trial, jurors heard from 184 witnesses and reviewed hundreds of exhibits. They saw a lot, but they didn't see everything. Some evidence was deemed irrelevant or prejudicial; lawyers determined other items didn't fit with their trial strategy. Here's a list of some of the evidence jurors didn't hear,....

www.courttv.com/trials/peter...r.html?link=rss

Jackie Peterson told her son to "deny everything" when talking to detectives, prompting one investigator to conclude his parents "know more about what really happened to Laci Peterson."

Investigator Steve Jacobson wrote this report after listening to a phone call Jan. 17, 2003, a few days after reports of Peterson's mistress surfaced in the press: "On January 17th Scott receives a voice mail from his mother. His mother tells him he should 'deny, deny, deny' and that she was told that years ago by an attorney.

His mother tells him his sister Susan (Caudillo) needs to get a yes or no answer from him. His mother thinks that may not be a good idea. His mother said he must deny 'anything.'"

Jolie Rouge

03-07-2005, 08:37 PM

Anne Bird tells NBC's Matt Lauer about her brother's strange behavior and why she's convinced he killed Laci
Dateline NBC
Updated: 9:01 a.m. ET March 3, 2005

He's in jail now, convicted of the murders of his wife and unborn son and waiting to hear if a judge will affirm his execution. But if you could ask Scott Peterson one question, what would it be? How about "Why?" Last month, his former girlfriend Amber Frey offered some clues when she spoke with us about her relationship with Peterson.

Now another woman tells us even more. She was there with Scott in the weeks after Laci's disappearance — a witness to his actions, and reactions, his comments and behavior during that period. In this exclusive interview, an intimate member of the Peterson family tells her story to NBC’s Matt Lauer.

Matt Lauer: During that time, Anne, that Scott is living in your house, did you ever pull up a chair next to him and say, "Scott, what do you think happened to Laci?"

Anne Bird: Well, I asked often. I think I was kept, you know, as a confidante. And I think that's why I ended up getting so much information.

Her name is Anne Bird — a name you probably don't know. But you may feel that you know her face. Because a face that resembles Anne's has peered out of tabloid covers TV screens and mug shots for the past two years.

You see, Anne Bird is the sister of a notorious murderer — Scott Peterson. Scott so trusted Anne, he even lived in her home during the most intense weeks of the search for his wife, Laci, even as he was emerging as a suspect.

This is the first time that Anne Bird has spoken publicly about her brother.

Bird: Scott is charismatic, charming, courteous, polite. When you're talking to him, he looks directly at you. And you're the only person he's focusing on.

Lauer: Does that come naturally? Or does it almost seem rehearsed, practiced?

Bird: Seems a little bit of both.

Bird's story is about separation, reunion, deep love and loyalty, and finally, the worst realization one family member can have about another, because Bird saw a side of Scott Peterson that no one else has seen.

Bird: I just know that he did this. It's very hard to comprehend. And it hurts.

This sister came to believe not only that her long-lost brother Scott was a killer. She thinks she knows how he did it, and even, why. But to understand the whole story you have to go back to the beginning, long before Anne Bird had ever heard of Scott Peterson or had any idea they were related.

Lauer: How would you describe your childhood?

Bird: Great family. Loving parents. Loving siblings.

Lauer: Not a care in the world kind of happy.

Bird: Pretty easy, yeah.

She grew up as Anne Grady, the daughter of a well-to-do couple in San Diego.

Lauer: At what stage in your childhood, Anne, did you find out that you'd been adopted?

Bird: I believe I was around six.

But Anne says her adoptive parents were so loving, her home life so comfortable, being adopted didn't much matter to her.

Bird: I was never angry. I was never upset. I loved my parents. I never felt abandoned or deserted.

She says she had some mild curiosity about who her birth parents might be, but she never followed up on it. But then, one summer day in 1997, when she was 32 years old:

Lauer: This guy Don calls on the phone one day out of the blue and he says, "Guess what, I'm your brother?

Bird: Yes.

Lauer: What was your reaction to that?

Bird: I felt weird. I felt like I kind of had vertigo or something. You know, I wasn't really kind of absorbing everything.

Don was adopted, too. He told her he had not only found her, his sister, he had found their biological mother. Almost before Anne knew it, don arranged a meeting at a beachfront hotel in nearby La Jolla. And Anne Bird met the mother she'd never seen before — a woman named Jackie Peterson.

Bird: I really wasn't nervous until she opened the door. And then she was standing in front of me.

Lauer: You're 32 years old. You'd never laid eyes on her before. Was it a great feeling? Was it an uneasy feeling? How would you describe it?

Bird: You know, maybe a little bit overwhelming.

But she says Jackie kept the conversation light — even trivial. Asking about Anne's favorite foods and colors, not delving any deeper.

Lauer: So, this is a woman who gave you up for adoption when you were born.

Bird: Right.

Lauer: And she didn't, during that first meeting, sit down and say, "I'd like to explain myself? I'd like to tell you why?”

Bird: No. I kept waiting. I wanted to hear some kind of explanation as to how I ended up where I did.

Anne learned that her biological mother, Jackie, had suffered a terrible childhood. Her father was murdered when she was just two years old — murdered just before Christmas. Then Jackie's mother suffered a breakdown. Jackie grew up in an orphanage.

Bird: And then she said, "Those nuns never talked to me about sex." And I thought maybe that's what happened. I wasn't sure.

Lauer: That she had had sex, gotten pregnant.

Bird: And nobody talked to her about it.

Lauer: And there was no way she could keep the baby.

Bird: Right.

Whatever happened back then, now Jackie Peterson was married with a grown son whom she adored — Anne's half-brother, a young man named Scott Peterson.

Lauer: Before you met Scott, who would be your biological brother-- what had you heard about him?

Bird: That he was called "The Golden Child."

A couple of months later in August of 1997, Anne Bird met Scott -- the golden child -- at Jackie's home in Morro Bay, California.

Bird: He was coming in through a screen door, and I was opening it up for him. And I could see his face. And it looked similar to mine. And I was looking at his smile. And I thought, "OK, now I know who they're talking about."

Lauer: This is the golden child.

Bird: The tanned, golden child. Yeah.

Lauer: What was that first meeting like? What'd you say to him, and what did he say to you?

Bird: You know, I think he said, "You must be my sister, Anne." And I thought, "Yes." You know. It was just kind of a neat -- we just kept smiling.

Lauer: Did you hug? Did you embrace?

Bird: Yeah. Gave each other a hug.

Lauer: How would you describe him? What was he like, that first time you met him?

Bird: Wonderful. Amazing. You know, my car was having some problems, and he went out and looked at my car. You know. We talked about all different kinds of things. It was just a neat meeting.

Lauer: Would you say, Anne, that your first encounter with Scott was a lot easier than your first encounter with Jackie? In other words, did you two hit it off a lot better than you and Jackie hit it off?

Bird: Yes. Yes.

And soon enough, Anne would meet Scott's young wife, Laci, never once suspecting that Laci's name and Scott's would one day be known to millions of people for the darkest reasons imaginable.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7047103/?GT1=6305

Jolie Rouge

03-07-2005, 08:42 PM

Matt Lauer: Describe Laci for me. What was she like?

Anne Bird: Oh, well, she's full of energy, full of life. She loves people. She's funny. She's got a, just a hilarious sense of humor.

Lauer: Why do you describe her in the present tense?

Bird: I have a really tough time referring to her as somebody who has passed on.

In the late summer of 1997, Anne Bird's life expanded in ways she found almost miraculous. She'd been given up for adoption at birth, but now was reunited with her biological family. She met her mother, Jackie Peterson, and her brother, Scott Peterson. And soon she met scott's new bride, Laci.

Bird: The first thing that I noticed about her was how pretty she was. Her skin is amazing, her hair, her smile, her dimples and her huge, dark eyes, and these thick long eyelashes. And so sweet. You know, so welcoming to me.

Anne lived in San Francisco, Scott and Laci in Modesto, 85 miles away. But they saw each other often and talked on the phone a lot.

Lauer: Is it fair to say that you and Scott and Laci, then over the course of the next year or so, really developed a pretty strong bond?

Bird: I think so, yeah.

In her new book, “Blood Brother,” Anne describes Scott and Laci as the perfect couple. "The golden boy and his doll-like bride: what could be better?"

Bird: To me, they appeared to adore each other. I looked at them thinking, "Gosh. You know, I wish I had that relationship." I know Scott said that they complete each other. And I think they did. It appeared that way.

As it happened, Anne found a great relationship herself. She met a man named Tim Bird. They married in 1998.

Lauer: Laci and Scott came to your wedding.

Bird: Yes.

Lauer: And obviously a very happy day for the whole family.

Bird: Yeah.

The next few years went by in a blur. Anne had a baby, then got pregnant with another. Laci had trouble getting pregnant, but was thrilled when she finally did.

Lauer: She talked to you a lot about being pregnant, didn't she? This was a subject for connection between the two of you.

Bird: Right.

Anne had her second child in august of 2002. In November of that year Anne and Tim Bird planned a trip to Disneyland. They invited the Peterson family, including Scott and Laci, who was now seven months along. Just before the trip Anne got a call from her biological mom hinting, for the first time, of trouble.

Lauer: Let me read you from the book, OK? Here you're talking about this trip to Disneyland. And Jackie says to you, "I'm going to come, but I'm not sure Scott and Laci are going to come." Here's a quote. "They're having problems again." "Again, I asked? What kind of problems?" "I don't know," Jackie said, sighing. "Just you know, men."

Bird: Yeah. That's right.

Lauer: So what did you think Jackie was telling you?

Bird: You know, I wasn't sure. And when I tried to dig a little bit into it, she pulled back and said, "Oh, it's nothing."

At the time, Anne wasn't sure if the problem was between Scott and Laci or between Laci and Jackie.

Bird: I think she, you know, was definitely the mother-in-law figure in Laci's life. And at times it came across as a little bit strained.

Anne says Jackie chafed at Laci's attention to every little detail and resented the fact that Laci and Scott lived in Modesto, closer to Laci's parents, but farther from Jackie.

Lauer: The impression I get in the book is that A, Jackie felt Laci was a bit too much of a perfectionist. And B, that Laci wasn't good enough for Scott.

Bird: I--

Lauer: Would that be accurate?

Bird: Yes, I would say that's very accurate.

But Jackie, Laci, and Scott all did end up going on that trip to Disneyland. And if there were problems, Anne says that Laci -- quite pregnant now -- didn't seem bothered.

Bird: Laci was just bubbling over about the baby and couldn't wait. And she just was adorable. She to this day, she's the happiest pregnant person I've ever seen.

Scott, on the other hand, seemed strangely subdued, nothing like the charismatic charmer Anne remembered.

Lauer: In fact, I believe in the book you describe him as being somewhat distant.

Bird: Yes.

Lauer: On that trip, he spent a lot of time on the phone?

Bird: Yes. A lot of time on his cell phone up in the room.

Lauer: And not a lot of time paying attention to Laci or the rest of the family.

Bird: Right.

Anne remembers that at one point, the whole family was gathered in her fourth-floor hotel room. when her son Ryan -- just three at the time -- wandered away, disappeared.

Bird: And I just was completely panicked. I didn't see where he went. All the doors were open. We're in a hotel, we're up high. And everyone was running around trying to find him.

Lauer: Screaming for Ryan.

Bird: Screaming. And my husband found him. And he was standing out on the balcony, which wasn't safe. And then I noticed that Scott was still sitting there on the cell phone, with all this chaos and panic going on. He didn't ever get off the phone. He never even looked up.

Who was Scott talking to so intently? Anne Bird doesn't know for sure. But she later learned, along with the rest of the world, that late November 2002 -- the time of the Disneyland trip -- was the same time that Scott Peterson began a torrid love affair with a young woman named Amber Frey.

Lauer: Did you have any suspicions at that time that Scott might be having an affair? Might be on the phone with another woman?

Bird: No idea.

Lauer: You just thought something was wrong.

Bird: Yes.

Anne thought that Scott seemed way too quiet again a few weeks later at Laci's baby shower on December 10, 2002.

Lauer: Here's Laci's big day. All her friends have gathered around to celebrate the impending birth of her baby. And Scott is there, and he's not quite himself again.

Bird: Right. Right. I kept asking, aren't you excited? Isn't this exciting? And he just didn't say much.

Why was Scott so subdued? Anne had no way to know it, but just one day before, Scott had been forced to confess to his new girlfriend, Amber, that he'd been married but, as Amber later testified, he said he had "lost his wife."

Lauer: Shortly before the holidays, you placed a call to Scott.

Bird: Yes.

Lauer: How would you describe his demeanor and his mood here a week before Christmas, with a baby on the way.

Bird: You know, once again, he didn't say a whole lot. You know, he just kind of said, "Happy holidays."

Lauer: And it's important to remember here, though, this is not the guy you'd known for the past couple of years. I mean, every time you were with Scott or talked to Scott in the time previous, he was this kind of life of the party — the golden child.

Bird: The golden child. Yeah.

Lauer: And here, there is this personality change.

Bird: Right.

Lauer: In him all of a sudden.

Bird: Yeah.

Lauer: Were red flags popping up in your head, or was this just a sister saying, "You know what? We all go through times like this."

Bird: You know, that's what I was thinking. That we all go through times like this. He is a new father. I don't know how he was absorbing everything. Maybe he was overwhelmed. You know? So, I just dismissed it.

Laci wasn't home that night. Anne didn't talk to her. Anne never got to talk to Laci again.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7047103/page/2/

Jolie Rouge

03-07-2005, 08:53 PM

Anne Bird is already noticing that something doesn't quite add up in the life of her brother Scott Peterson. He's married to Laci — a funny, beautiful young woman whom Anne adores. And now Laci is pregnant. Fortune is smiling on Scott Peterson, so why isn't he smiling?

Anne Bird: The phone call I got was from my husband saying that Laci had been abducted. And I jokingly said, "Abducted by who, aliens?" You know, I just didn't quite grasp what was happening.

Just a few years before in 1997, Anne Bird, adopted at birth, had been reunited with her brother, Scott Peterson and met his lovely bride, Laci. They had bonded immediately, celebrated together, traded pregnancy tips and maternity clothes. Now, at Christmas, 2002, Laci was missing. Anne called her biological mom, Scott's mom, Jackie Peterson.

Bird: And she said that it was horrific. That there were police looking everywhere for her. That somebody took her. And I asked how Scott was doing and she said he's hanging in there.

Matt Lauer: Did you, Anne, ever think at that moment, "Did my brother, Scott, have anything to do with this?"

Bird: It never entered my mind.

In fact, Anne soon had a chance to help defend her brother. Police seemed to doubt Scott's story that he'd gone fishing on Christmas Eve, the day Laci disappeared. He said he'd launched his boat from the Berkeley Marina. It was 85 miles from his home, but just a couple of miles from Anne's home where he'd visited before. Jackie called Anne and asked her to help verify Scott's story.

Bird: She wanted to establish his alibi. And she wanted me to go--

Lauer: So, this is--

Bird: --there.

Lauer: --a couple of days after Laci is missing. And she's now concentrating on Scott's alibi?

Bird: Yes.

Anne immediately drove to the marina and quickly found four people who remembered Scott launching his boat on Christmas Eve.

Bird: The entire time I'm thinking about Laci. And I was worried sick about her. So I thought anything, if anything could come together on this.

She soon talked to Scott to report her findings and offer any other help she could.

Lauer: Emotionally how was he doing? How did he sound to you?

Bird: You know, he sounded vacant, disconnected, you know? Completely unemotional.

Lauer: You had to be thinking maybe he's just in shock?

Bird: Right, I did. I thought he was in shock or completely traumatized.

Police and the media were already calling Scott a "person of interest" in the case.

Lauer: How did Jackie respond to hearing that Scott, the golden child, might be a person of interest?

Bird: She was really upset. She criticized the Modesto Police Department over and over again. She called the town Mayberry. She said Barney Fife was in charge.

Over the next few days and weeks, the story of Laci Peterson became a national obsession -- a lovely young woman, eight months pregnant, disappearing on Christmas Eve. There were massive searches, candlelight vigils, and a husband who seemed emotionally detached. Anne was glued to every detail of the case and kept in close touch with Scott and Jackie Peterson.

Lauer: Let me fast forward a couple of weeks, OK? It’s January 12, it's the day of the christening of your younger son, Tommy. You invited Scott to come to that christening?

Bird: Right.

Lauer: What do you remember about that day?

Bird: We all went into the church. And Scott sat sideways in the pew and looked towards the back of the church almost the entire service. And there was definitely a man behind me that I think was possibly an undercover policeman. He was staring at Scott.

Anne trusted Scott completely. She even asked him to hold her baby during the service. Afterward Anne felt the family, in crisis, needed help. She arranged for a private meeting with the rector of the church. But something about that meeting bothered Anne.

Bird: I looked over at Scott. And Scott was crying. And I — he may have glanced up once, maybe twice at the most. But he was holding Tommy. And he just kept staring down. And I don't know why. But that locked in my mind as something that was not quite right.

Scott had seemed so emotionally detached before, so were the tears for the rector's benefit?

Lauer: When you saw Scott crying, holding Tommy, did you think those tears were sincere?

Bird: You know, I'm not sure what I thought at that time. I just kind of logged, you know, what was going on in my mind. In hindsight, I think they were crocodile tears.

In hindsight, we know much more than that.

Lauer: We now know that on that very same day, Scott Peterson called Amber Frey. And we know something else. On that very same day Scott Peterson called his local cable company and requested two porn channels to be added to his home service.

Bird: Right. It was amazing.

Lauer: It's bizarre.

Bird: It's very bizarre. It especially to think that we were in a church, you know, at a christening. You know, we had this special prayer. And then for him to go home and upgrade his porno channels is just--

Lauer: And call his girlfriend.

Bird: -- and call his girlfriend is just beyond description.

But of course, Anne Bird knew none of this at the time. She was still loyal to her brother, who needed her help.

Bird: Jackie said that he had been basically driven out of Modesto. He was living out of his car. They had impounded his computers. He wasn't able to work. And I felt badly. I thought, "Well, we have a loft in the upstairs." And so I offered.

And so Anne's brother, Scott Peterson, "person of interest" in one of the biggest cases in the country, came to live with her, staying in a small loft bedroom that overlooked the San Francisco Bay -- the same bay where, three months later, the bodies of Laci, and her baby, would wash ashore.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7047103/page/3/

Jolie Rouge

03-07-2005, 08:57 PM

Matt Lauer: The first day Scott gets there you all have dinner together, the three of you, Tim, your husband, you and Scott. What do you remember about that dinner?

advertisement

Anne Bird: You know, we had a lot of wine. And...

Lauer: Two bottles between the three of you, I think.

Bird: Two bottles of wine, yes.

The truth is, they were all a little stressed out. Scott Peterson, under suspicion in the disappearance of his wife, Laci, tried to escape the spotlight by staying 85 miles from Modesto at the home of his sister, Anne Bird.

Lauer: And what was Scott's demeanor at that dinner.

Bird: You know, he didn't bring up Laci's name. He stayed away from the entire topic.

Lauer: She's been missing for three weeks. There are vigils all over the place. And he never brings up her name at dinner?

Bird: No.

Lauer: What did you think about that?

Bird: I thought that maybe this is a man who was so traumatized that, you know, maybe he can't show emotion in front of us.

Lauer: As the wine continued to flow did he open up at all? Did he seem more emotional?

Bird: No, no, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

In her book, "blood Brother," Anne recounts how that dinner set a tone in her household. Even as the evidence mounted, Anne continued to believe in her brother, Scott. But almost immediately, her husband, Tim, had doubts.

Lauer: Here's how you put it in the book:

“'I don't know,' Tim said. 'I sort of expected him to be more screwed up over this. He seemed fine at dinner.'

'He was making an effort to be sociable,' I said. 'It didn't look like it took too much effort.'

'It was the wine then,' I snapped unable to keep the anger from my voice. And so it began, the big sister making excuses for her little.

Bird: You know, it was too hard for me to comprehend that someone who is as courteous, as kind as he is, would kill his wife and unborn child. It is just something that is so incomprehensible.

But Anne was seeing Scott up close at a time when he was avoiding the news media and the police. She was getting insights no one else had. She says that while police and volunteers searched for Laci, Scott just sat in her living room and watched TV.

Lauer: Did you ever, you know, on a quiet evening or in a morning, pull up a chair next to him and say, "Scott, what do you think happened to Laci?"

Bird: Well, I asked often. And, you know, I asked, "What leads do the police have?" And he was almost dismissive, you know, that that, you know, was not of interest to him.

Scott may have seemed indifferent to the search for Laci, but Anne says he seemed anything but indifferent to her babysitter, an attractive young woman whom she calls by a pseudonym, Lorraine.

Bird: It was a little bit awkward. He was acting like a bachelor, you know, very interested in her.

Lauer: So, his wife's missing. And now he's — would it be a stretch to say he's flirting with the baby sitter?

Bird: Not at all, I would say he was definitely flirting with our babysitter.

Anne didn't know it at the time, but Scott was also flirting by phone with his girlfriend in Fresno, Amber Frey. And some of those calls originated from Anne's house.

Bird: When I first saw Fresno on our phone bill, I asked my husband, "Who are you calling in Fresno?" And he said, "Well, I, you know, probably have some business contact down there, or something like this." So, we just ignored it.

But they couldn't ignore the news that broke on January 24, a month after Laci disappeared, when Amber Frey went public about her relationship with Scott.

Bird: He was in our living room. And I said, "You know, what happened? And did you have an affair? And why?" And he said he did. And I said, "Did Laci know?" And he said, "Yes." And he said, "She was fine with it." And then I --

Lauer: Let me stop you. You're a sister. And you're a woman. Didn't that sound strange to you?

Bird: Yes.

Lauer: That his pregnant wife knew about it and was fine with it?

Bird: Yes. I said, "Really?" And he said, "Well, she was upset for a day. And then she got over it." Which I have always known to this day that that was a lie.

Amber Frey's appearance was a turning point in the case and a flashpoint in Anne Bird's own marriage.

Lauer: What did Tim, your husband, think when he heard about Amber Frey?

Bird: Well, he was livid. And he said that Scott can no longer stay in our house. That he's no longer welcome. And he was really upset that he did this to Laci. And he was upset with me for not being more upset about it.

You see, against all odds, Anne still believed Scott was not involved in Laci's disappearance. Her belief was based in part on the rock-solid faith of their mother, Jackie.

Bird: She said that all Amber Frey proved was that Scott had an affair. He didn't kill his wife. And so I, you know, got that affirmation again not to doubt Scott.

Lauer: So, no matter what Jackie was the great defending mom?

Bird: Yes.

Anne's loyalties were torn -- her brother and mother, or her husband? Anne tried to split the difference, giving Scott the key to a mountain cabin her adoptive parents owned, hoping to give Scott a safe haven, but not under the same roof as her husband. After that, Scott visited less often, but when he did, he still made disturbing statements, which Anne is only revealing now.

Lauer: At one point, you're in your house and he turns his attention to the TV and starts to shake his head, and he says this, "They're looking in the wrong places," he said.

Bird: Right.

Lauer: And you said, "Who?" He said, "The police, everyone." Now, you write in the book, a normal response would've been to ask him where they should be looking.

Bird: Right.

Lauer: But you didn't ask him that.

Bird: I didn't ask him that. I just didn't want to cast the judgment on him.

On March 5, ten weeks after Laci's disappearance, police changed the status of the case from missing person to homicide. That same month, Scott changed his appearance, bleaching his hair and his new goatee.

Bird: He said that he was in Mammoth skiing, I believe with some family members. And he said that he swam in the pool and that the pool chlorinated his hair and his facial hair.

Lauer: I don't know if this is your natural hair color. But I mean, did that seem a bit far-fetched to you?

Bird: I would be swimming in that pool. You know, I knew immediately that that was a lie.

And Scott continued his infatuation with Lorraine the babysitter, something Anne has never talked about before. In late March, Scott came to Anne's house and mixed Lorraine a cocktail he called a "flirtini."

Bird: It was such an odd situation, you know. Here he is, you know, kind of a person on television every single night who has a missing wife. And he's walking around our living room handing out flirtinis.

Lauer: And hitting on the babysitter.

Bird: And hitting on our babysitter.

Lauer: As if he's single.

Bird: As if he's single. Yeah.

It would have been comical if it weren't so deadly serious. On April 13, the body of a full-term baby washed ashore in San Francisco Bay. A day later, the badly decomposed body of a woman was found nearby. It was Laci Peterson and the little boy she had planned to name Conner.

Lauer: They were found about two miles from your home. Correct?

Bird: Yeah.

Lauer: Two miles from that room where he would sleep when he was your houseguest, overlooking the bay.

Bird: I know. In the same bay that he was saying, "You're wasting your time," in looking there.

Lauer: Did you think he was guilty then?

Bird: You know, a part of me, I think, did. A part of me was kind of getting it. But I still, you know, tried to keep a wall up.

But four days later, Scott was under arrest and soon Anne would face the facts -- not only that he could have done it, but that she might know how and why.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7047103/page/4/

Jolie Rouge

03-07-2005, 08:58 PM

Matt Lauer: When you saw him on TV under arrest in that jail jumpsuit, in his handcuffs, how did that hit you?

Anne Bird: It was hard to see.

Anne Bird had been given up for adoption as a baby. She'd only been reunited with her brother, Scott Peterson, in 1997. For four months after Laci Peterson disappeared, Anne was a staunch defender of Scott. But now he was under arrest, charged with Laci's murder.

Lauer: You've had a chance to connect with this long-lost brother.

Bird: Right.

Lauer: And all of a sudden, here he is behind bars.

Bird: Right. I had to go see him, you know, behind a window while he was chained up.

She visited Scott several times in jail -- visits she has never before spoken about publicly. She says they talked awkwardly about their family, her kids, the weather, everything but the obvious subject.

Lauer: Did you ever say to him, "Scott, did you kill your wife? Did you kill Laci?"

Bird: You know, I never asked him. But there was one incident. I think it was my third visit there. And they flicker the lights right before your time is up. And the lights flickered. And he looked at me. And he said, "You know I didn't kill my wife." And he looked at me again to see -- it was like, if I bought it.

Anne had come to think of Scott the same way their mother Jackie did -- as the "golden child" of the Peterson clan. Anne had strained her marriage by stubbornly sticking up for Scott, even putting him up in her home. But now she sat down and started making a list.

Bird: I wrote down everything that didn't make any sense to me. And my list became longer and longer and longer.

She ticked them off one after another, all the things she noted while hanging out with, even living with, her little brother.

-- His insistence that police were "looking in the wrong place" for Laci.

-- His unseemly flirtations with Anne's babysitter, Lorraine.

-- His repeated lies and his inability, even now in jail to summon any emotion about the murder of his wife, Laci, and his unborn son, Conner.

Bird: He simply referred to them as his family. He doesn't even call them by name. And that really shocked me.

She flashed back to their trip to Disneyland, a month before the murder. That's when Anne first noticed Scott had turned dark and distant. And it's when she had a conversation with Laci that would come to haunt her -- one of the many times they compared notes on their pregnancies.

Bird: She said that her stomach was, you know, getting big, and it was getting kind of heavy. And that she would get into the swimming pool, and that kind of the anti-gravity just felt great on her lower back. And --

Lauer: She just loved to float in the pool.

Bird: Yes. Yeah.

Lauer: In hindsight, you have a bad feeling about what she was telling you that day, don't you?

Bird: I do. Yeah.

Anne Bird came to a terrible conclusion that the long-lost brother she had only found a few years before, that she had loved deeply and defended tirelessly, really was capable of murdering his pregnant wife. And Anne thought she knew how he might have done it.

Bird: I think he drowned her. It's a silent death. Nobody would hear anything. And it's hard for me to think that, because I picture Laci and that's hard. But--

Lauer: That pool she told you that she loved to float in to ease the--

Bird: Yeah.

Lauer: --stress on her body from pregnancy?

Bird: Yeah.

Lauer: What was it like for you, when you finally came to the point where you could admit to yourself I've been defending the indefensible, he did this, how hard was that emotionally for you?

Bird: It's still hard. You know, every time I look at the list, it's not hard. You know? I know he did those things. I know he did them in my presence.

We contacted Scott Peterson's attorney with a list of questions for Scott. He did not respond. We also spoke with Jackie Peterson, who declined to comment on what Anne Bird told us.

Bird: I just know that he did this. It's very hard to comprehend. And it hurts.

Scott's trial loomed. Anne thought she might be called to testify. She consulted attorney Gloria Allred.

Gloria Allred: she really had a moral dilemma because if she spoke to police and the prosecutor, it could mean that she would lose her biological family and her relationship with them she had just established in the last few years. And if she did not go to police and the prosecutor, then of course her conscience would haunt her because she loved Laci.

Prosecutors interviewed Anne bird extensively, but decided not to ask her to testify against her brother.

Bird: I was thrilled. I did not know how I could've been able to stand there and, you know, say all of these hideous things that he did.

But as Anne followed the trial, she heard so many more hideous things she'd never known about -- how Scott researched the tides in San Francisco Bay, how he'd seduced amber Frey, how he'd told Amber on the phone that he was in Paris the same night he attended a vigil for his missing wife, Laci.

Anne wondered how her biological mom, Jackie, could still defend Scott.

Lauer: You think to the very last moment she was still trying to protect the golden child?

Bird: Yes.

Lauer: Do you blame her?

Bird: I think that there were a few times that came up where she could have talked to him and had him 'fess up, that this charade had gone on long enough. And she chose not to.

On November 12, 2004, the jury found Scott Peterson guilty of murdering his wife, Laci, and his unborn son, Conner.

Bird: I was a little bit relieved, because I always thought how would I ever have my children around him? Already, you know, we've kind of stopped talking about Uncle Scott in our house. You know, my son still asks what happened to Aunt Laci. And that's been hard.

During the penalty phase of Scott's trial, Anne was asked to testify, but not by the prosecution.

Lauer: Jackie very much wanted you to testify on Scott's behalf during the penalty phase?

Bird: Yes. She said that they had a whole string of people that were going to come in: his old coach and a lady whose tire he changed, and things like that, to come in and speak for Scott's defense. And couldn't I just come in there and say what a great person he was? And I just couldn't.

Lauer: Was she angry?

Bird: You know, she was. She was very hurt and very upset that I didn't do this. And she said everyone's very disappointed in me, and especially Scott.

The jury recommended the death penalty. The judge is expected to approve that decision on march 16. Which will leave just one big question: why did Scott do it?

Lauer: Do you think he killed Laci to be with Amber?

Bird: No. I think she was a part of it.

Lauer: How much do you think Laci's pregnancy had to do with it?

Bird: Probably a lot.

Lauer: You think that the baby represented being trapped to him?

Bird: Yeah.

Anne thinks Scott felt trapped in his marriage. And unable to face the shame of a messy divorce, felt it was better for him if Laci and the baby just disappeared.

Bird: I think it had a lot to do with this golden boy image that he had. So if he screwed up, he would have to kind of push it under the carpet.

She'd grown up without her biological brother and mother. She met them, got to know them, grew to love them. Then came the wrenching realization that her long-lost brother was a murderer. But Scott Peterson still says he is innocent. Jackie Peterson still believes her son. And Anne Bird knows that by judging Scott guilty, she may be cutting herself off from her new family forever.

Lauer: To the people what say, you know, there were no winners in any of this, and now here comes Anne and she's writing a book, sounds a little opportunistic to me. How would you respond?

Bird: I certainly don't feel like a winner in any of this.

Lauer: Is this about money?

Bird: No. This is about my piece of the puzzle that I'm able to put in.

Lauer: So you don't feel in any way, Anne, that you're betraying Scott and betraying your family?

Bird: Well, I do feel that I'm betraying them on some level. I feel sad and, you know, I don't intend for this to be hurtful in any way.

I think at the very least, Laci and Connor deserved the truth.

Lauer: And is there just even a little bit of a message to Jackie, "I'm the one you gave away, look what happened with the one you kept?"

Bird: No. You know, my life has been blessed. And I'm never going to shut doors to the Peterson family. But I am going to tell the truth.

The case continues to put a strain on Anne's own family. She says she and her husband are still struggling with the problems they ran into as a result of her loyalty to Scott Peterson. But, she says. they're getting through it. And through it all, Anne has had the love and support of her adoptive parents. She says she also remains in close contact with her other long-lost biological brother, Don.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7047103/page/5/