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If the facts about
Scott Peterson are true, will the death
penalty be the final resolution?  Will
Larry Flint, the King of Hustler, get the pictures of Amber
Frey?
The case against Scott Peterson could take some interesting
turns at
court hearings today, as a number of motions will be heard:
Last week,
information was leaked to the media that tape was found around the
neck of Laci Peterson's baby Conner, as well as around Laci's
torso.
NBC News reported that this was plastic tape, wrapped 1 1/2 times around
Conner's neck like a noose, and that a section of his chest was cut
out. This seems to support the prosecution claim that the crime
was actually
a double murder, but it also supports the defense claim that Scott
Peterson was not involved and this could have been the work
of a satanic cult.
The Stanislaus County District Attorney's office is implying that this
information is either incorrect or misleading, and has reversed its
position about unsealing the autopsy reports: They now want
them made public.
(Update: The autopsy results will remain
sealed)
The media has been asking for this all along, of course,
and also wants the search warrants and arrest warrant unsealed.
Both the prosecution
and the defense want the search and arrest warrants to remain sealed:
The prosecution argues that making them public will impede their
remaining investigation, and the defense claims it would
make it more difficult
for them to uncover the "true" killers (see below). The
judge is expected to rule on these issues today.
The defense is asking
that the defense wiretap of Scott's phone --
which included calls to his attorneys, though investigators insist
they didn't
listen in on those once they'd identified them as such -- carry
consequences: They'd like the prosecutors sanctioned or removed
from the case,
or (might as well take a shot at it) they'd like all charges dropped.
Of course this might prove a moot point, since the defense
has
announced plans to give the judge -- behind closed doors
-- evidence
that will
prove Scott's innocence.And what might this evidence be? Presumably
it involves the brown van, in which a local woman claims she
was sexually attacked
shortly after
Laci's disappearance. Though the police have cleared the van's
owners of any involvement in Laci's disappearance and death,
the defense
claims that their investigators have found inside the van tape,
possible blood
stains, and a satanic symbol.
Reporters have asked for logs of
wiretapped phone calls between themselves and Scott Peterson.(Update:
This request has been turned down) And finally,
there's Amber Frey's motion -- filed Wednesday -- to be free
of the gag order that keeps her from responding
to
rumors and
innuendoes against her.(Update: The decision about
the gag orders on Frey, the lawyers, and other principals has
been delayed)
Some other updates since the May
29 recap: Laci's family and friends entered the Peterson
home without permission and removed what was described as "3
truckloads" of
items; and according to Laci's sister, Laci and Scott told
her on December 23
that Scott was planning to play golf the next day -- not
go on a fishing trip. And just this morning, local television
station KTVU reported -- based on information from both prosecution
and defense
sources -- that police
believe Scott drugged Laci in their home with GHB (the "date
rape" drug)
and then strangled her there.
This page will be updated after the hearings.
On the evening
of December 24, 2002, Scott Peterson told Modesto, California
police that his 27-year-old wife -- eight
months
pregnant -- was missing.
He'd left her around 9:30 that morning to go on a fishing
trip to Berkeley Marina (part of San Francisco Bay), 85 miles
away.
She was
about to
walk to a nearby park to walk their dog. He tried phoning
Laci when he finished,
but got no answer. When he got home, Laci was gone, and the
dog was in their backyard, its leash still attached.
At first,
all police investigation of Scott's story was for the purpose
of "eliminating him as a suspect".
By mid-January, partly because police learned of Scott's
extramarital affair,
he became a suspect in
Laci's disappearance.
We analyzed the evidence for and
against Scott's guilt in a January 18, 2003 editorial, here.
The first week in March, the Modesto PD announced that they
were
no longer investigating Laci's disappearance
as a missing-persons
case,
but rather
as a murder. Since then, there's been strong speculation
that whoever stands trial for Laci's murder will be charged
with
the
murder
of Conner -- the Petersons' unborn child -- as well. The
significance here is
that "multiple
murder" is one of the special circumstances under
California law that allows prosecutors to seek the death
penalty.
(The key defense issue in the penalty phase of David Westerfield's
trial for the murder of Danielle
van Dam was whether he'd actually kidnapped
her before killing her: If he'd killed her in her room,
then the "kidnapping" special
circumstance would not have applied and Westerfield wouldn't
have been sentenced to death).
On April 13, the body of
a full-term male fetus -- with its umbilical cord still
attached --was found along the
shoreline
Point Isabel
Regional Park, in Richmond, California: about 80 miles
from the Petersons' Modesto
home, but only a few miles from where Scott claimed to
have been fishing on December 24. During an April 18 press
conference,
California Attorney
General Bill Lockyear announced that the bodies were indeed
those
of Laci and Conner: Laci was identified by comparing bone
samples with
DNA samples drawn from her family, while Conner was identified
by comparing his DNA to Scott's.
This also, of course, silences speculation that Conner
might not have been Scott's baby (which was suggested by
some as
a possible
motive
for
her murder.
Earlier on April 18, Scott was arrested in San Diego, where
he's been spending much of his time over the past few weeks.
At the
time of the
arrest, he had $10,000 in cash and his brother's identification
in his possession, and his arrest was hastened by the fear
that he might
have
been planning to flee to Mexico. Mexico will not extradite
a suspect who faces the death penalty in the United States.
The
Stanislaus
County District Attorney announced tonight that Scott will
be charged with
capital murder of both Laci and Conner, making him eligible
for the death penalty.
[Modesto
PD booking report with mug shot] Scott pleaded not guilty
on April 21, to counts of capital murder. The prosecutor
listed the Peterson home as the
scene of Laci's
murder, and
added that "during the commission of the murder
of Laci Denise Peterson, the defendant with knowledge
that [she] was pregnant did inflict injury
on [her] resulting in the termination of her pregnancy." He
could face the death penalty if convicted.
The cause of death remains unknown. Regarding the fact
that Laci and Conner were found separately, though she
was only in her eighth month of pregnancy
(not "eight months
pregnant" as generally reported) when she disappeared:
Doctors describe a phenomenon known as "Coffin
Birth", by which a fetus can
be expelled from a woman's body after death.
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