Metropolis Reality Forums - Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict

Sponsored by: The Fans!

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
Nov 25^th, 2024, 7:30pm

Upcoming Premiere Dates:
Survivor 23, Season premiere
Thursday, September 14 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS

Metropolis Reality Forums Ť Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict ť

   Metropolis Reality Forums
   Off-Topic Forums
   In the News (Moderators: lakelady, yesteach, MediaScribe, Bumper, Isle_be_back)
   Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict

Previous topic | New Topic | Next topic »

Pages: all 1 2

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic

Author

Topic: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict (Read 614 times)

AoM
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 2277

Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 3:52pm »

Quote

Modify

they gave him the death penalty...

IP Logged

Rachel
ForumsNet Member

"Be that which you expect others to be."

Gender:

Posts: 2154

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #1 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 4:05pm »

Quote

Modify

A little surprising to me. I thought it was going to end up like OJ.

IP Logged

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrafice the gift." -Steve Prefontaine

lakelady
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #2 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 4:09pm »

Quote

Modify

I swear I heard yesterday he got life without parole. I'm confused. Huh

IP Logged

lakelady
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #3 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 4:11pm »

Quote

Modify

I swear I heard yesterday he got life without parole. I'm confused. Huh

IP Logged

luci
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 12045

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #4 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 4:16pm »

Quote

Modify

The judge has the option to change the verdict to life.

Had the jury given him life, the judge cannot change it to death.

This was what Dan Abrams told this morning on TV, he is the legal consultant for the network.
This verdict is justice Cool

IP Logged

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and
can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

luci
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 12045

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #5 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 4:31pm »

Quote

Modify

REDWOOD CITY, California -- A jury recommended Monday that Scott Peterson, the former fertilizer salesman whose case grabbed national headlines, be sentenced to death for killing his pregnant wife.

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.

Peterson clenched his jaw when the verdict was read but showed no other emotion, The Associated Press reported.

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

If Delucchi upholds the sentence, Peterson will 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.

"I want to thank you very much for serving as trial jurors in this case. I know what a difficult job this has been," Delucchi said to the jurors before dismissing them. "I just can't believe how well you performed."

Peterson still might not be executed for decades, if ever. That is because California's death row has grown to house about 650 condemned men and women since the state brought back capital punishment in 1978, according to the AP.

Since then, only 10 executions have been carried out -- the last one in 2002. It can take years for even the first phase of the appeals process to begin.

The announcement of a jury decision came on the third day of jury deliberations over the sentence.

Earlier Monday, jurors asked to see autopsy photographs of Peterson's 27-year-old wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner.

The jury of six men and six women also asked Judge Delucchi if they could see photographs of the shore of San Francisco Bay where the bodies were found separately in April 2003.

The jury requested the last known photograph of Laci Peterson, taken about a week before was reported missing on Christmas Eve 2002, and for Laci's original medical file. She was eight months pregnant at the time. (Timeline)

The same jury that decided Peterson's sentence convicted him of first-degree murder November 12 in her death and of second-degree murder in the death of Conner. (Full story)

During the guilt or innocence phase of the trial, jurors agreed with prosecutors' contention that Peterson strangled or smothered Laci and dumped her body into San Francisco Bay.

Jurors, who were sequestered during deliberations, had to unanimously agree on a death sentence.

At formal sentencing, set for February 25, Delucchi may override a recommendation of death and sentence Peterson to life in prison without parole, but he cannot override a decision of life in prison without parole.

The panel received the case last Thursday after instructions from Delucchi and closing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Calling Peterson "the worst kind of monster," prosecutor David Harris urged jurors Thursday to recommend that Peterson die for killing his wife.

Peterson's attorneys begged jurors to spare his life.

"Nobody feels ... that if Scott Peterson was a good golfer, that if Scott Peterson was a Cub Scout, that eases the murder of Laci and Conner," defense attorney Mark Geragos said.

"As I indicated to you, I'm not second-guessing any of your decisions. What we're saying is, that this is a life that has value."

Defense attorney Pat Harris told the jury Peterson "has a lot of good in him" and would be a good candidate to help others in prison.

"There's an opportunity to make something out of a life that has essentially gone wrong, a chance to see that others benefit from the positive part of Scott Peterson, some chance for him to do some good for the rest of his life," Harris said.

A crowd outside the courthouse in Redwood City, California, awaiting the jury recommendation.
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 took 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."

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."

IP Logged

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and
can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

Rupey
ForumsNet Member

Can't top Pearl Islands!

Posts: 2147

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #6 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 4:40pm »

Quote

Modify

I, too, this his sentence is justifiable.

Some commentators on Court TV last week were saying that if he ended up on death row, he'd still end up spending years in jail. If he ended up with a life sentence, they'd likely remove him from the general population anyway because his life would be in danger.

I think his life will be in danger anyway. In prison, inmates can always find a way...

The important thing is that Scott still has a very long time to sit and think about what he did--and may it mess with him on the deepest level.

IP Logged

"Lord, please make me the person my dog thinks I am."

Rupey
ForumsNet Member

Can't top Pearl Islands!

Posts: 2147

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #7 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 4:46pm »

Quote

Modify

Brian Skoloff, of the Associated Press, wrote moments ago:

"If the judge upholds the sentence, Peterson will 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."

IP Logged

"Lord, please make me the person my dog thinks I am."

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #8 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 4:47pm »

Quote

Modify

How fitting...

IP Logged

Rupey
ForumsNet Member

Can't top Pearl Islands!

Posts: 2147

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #9 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 4:50pm »

Quote

Modify

Exactly.

IP Logged

"Lord, please make me the person my dog thinks I am."

luci
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 12045

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #10 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 5:30pm »

Quote

Modify

ditto

IP Logged

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and
can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

lakelady
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 11251

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #11 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 5:37pm »

Quote

Modify

Quote:

Peterson still might not be executed for decades, if ever. That is because California's death row has grown to house about 650 condemned men and women since the state brought back capital punishment in 1978, according to the AP.

Since then, only 10 executions have been carried out -- the last one in 2002. It can take years for even the first phase of the appeals process to begin.

I really disagree with the appeals process. Those men are taking up space and money. In my opinion they should be executed ASAP after the sentencing. Undecided

IP Logged

luci
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 12045

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #12 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 6:38pm »

Quote

Modify

Naw, I want him to suffer and suffer he will if he isn't in a confined space alone.
Other inmates do not like inmates who kill women and children.
Throw him in with all of the prisoners, then let's see how much he sneers.

« Last Edit: Dec 13^th, 2004, 6:38pm by luci »

IP Logged

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and
can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

Bumper
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

A Virginia Member of the RED SOX Nation

Gender:

Posts: 2946

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #13 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 6:45pm »

Quote

Modify

Well I for one am glad that FINALLY the Tent Camp of journalists, TV camera technicians and other sensational crime news jackals can pack up all their shit and at least have a few days off for the holiday season before heading out to promote their next shocking news story to fill up the idle minutes of "Entertainment Tonight" and the blank pages of the National Enquirer.

hmmmmm, since they're still in California where "reporting from" during the winter weather is much more appealing than say somewhere in the snow belt, . . . .

. . . . . I think Michael Jackson better brace himself. Wink

IP Logged

If U R reading these old posts, know that we were once a great, active cyber-community, but as in all things..Time moves on. This is now a Ghost Town.

Rupey
ForumsNet Member

Can't top Pearl Islands!

Posts: 2147

Re: Peterson Jury reaches a sentencing verdict
« Reply #14 on: Dec 13^th, 2004, 7:02pm »

Quote

Modify

Oh, I'm sure we ain't seen nuthin' yet. Court TV is going to have even more of a field day with Jacko.

IP Logged

"Lord, please make me the person my dog thinks I am."

Pages: all 1 2

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic


Previous topic \| New Topic \| Next topic »