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Thread: Scott Lee Peterson - California

  1. #21
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Turkish media all in on anti-Americanism, says killer Scott Peterson involved in coup

    As Turkey presses the Obama administration to hand over a Pennsylvania-based cleric, claiming he spearheaded last month’s coup attempt, the Muslim nation's media is pointing an accusatory finger at a respected American academic -- and in a bizarre twist, an infamous San Quentin death-row inmate convicted of killing his wife.

    Once a key ally of the U.S., Turkey has become a hotbed of anti-American rhetoric, with government-controlled media openly accusing the CIA and other Americans of taking part in a plan to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The accusations have dominated headlines in newspapers in the wake of the plot, and have included such improbable claims as the involvement of California death row prisoner Scott Peterson.

    “I am stating this very clearly: The United States of America planned to directly murder Turkey’s president and implemented this plan,” said Ibrahim Karagul, editor-in-chief of a largely circulated pro-Erdogan newspaper, Yeni Safak.

    Turkey accuses Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers within Turkey’s government and military of fomenting the coup. Gulen and Erdogan, once friends and political allies, became sworn enemies after a 2013 corruption probe targeting Erdogan. Gulen, who operates a profitable chain of private schools in the U.S., vehemently denies involvement in the coup.

    While Turkey presses on for the extradition of Gulen, U.S. officials say Ankara has offered neither evidence nor a formal extradition request.

    The claim that Peterson, who is on death row in San Quentin State Prison in California for the 2001 murder of his wife, was at the island gathering and has been assigned by the CIA to carry out assassinations in Turkey, underscores the bizarre nature of the media accusations.

    Mensur Akgun, director of Global Political Trends Center in Turkey, who is believed to have attended the meeting, attempted to correct Aksam by announcing on Twitter that the Scott Peterson that was at the meeting was a journalist working for The Christian Science Monitor.

    “Your claims are lies from beginning to the end,” he tweeted. “Why is your correspondent not getting in touch with me?”

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/08...iled-coup.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #22
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Scott Peterson deserves death for '02 double murder, mother-in-law says

    By Garth Stapley
    The Modesto Bee

    With misty eyes and firm resolve, Laci Peterson's mother stood before news cameras in Modesto once again to remind people what it means to lose loved ones at the hands of a killer.

    "I support the death penalty because some crimes just warrant the death penalty," Sharon Rocha said Thursday, less than 2 weeks before a statewide election that could decide whether capital punishment is abolished or expedited in California. She and a roomful of authorities hope voters reject Proposition 62 and embrace Proposition 66.

    "Scott Peterson murdered my daughter and his unborn child," Rocha, 64, said of her son-in-law, who's on death row. "He is there for a reason."

    3 days before Thursday's press conference, Scott Peterson turned 44. He arrived at San Quentin 11 years ago, after a blockbuster trial that convinced jurors he killed his pregnant wife just before Christmas 2002 and dumped her in San Francisco Bay, where the bodies of mother and fetus washed up 4 months later.

    As with all of California's 749 death row inmates, Peterson has appealed and awaits his turn before the state Supreme Court. But challenges of lethal-injection protocol have stalled executions in this state, where no inmate has been put to death since 2006.

    The ineffectiveness has polarized opinions and prompted the rival initiatives. Proposition 62 supporters say commuting death sentences to life in prison is more humane, less costly and eliminates the risk of executing innocent people accused in error, while Proposition 66 advocates say the death penalty is a deterrent and faster executions would save taxpayer money.

    If both pass, the one with more votes will prevail.

    The latest Field Poll suggests both are struggling to capture majority support among likely voters. With only days left to sway large numbers of undecideds, both sides are pouring big money into ad campaigns.

    Proposition 66 supporters on Thursday brought out Rocha as well as Laci Peterson's close friend, Stacey Boyers, flanked by sheriffs and district attorneys from 4 counties - Stanislaus, Merced, San Joaquin and Tuolumne.

    "We will always stand with victims of crime," Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said. "It's time to stand up for justice."

    Birgit Fladager led the team that prosecuted Scott Peterson before being elected Stanislaus County's district attorney in 2006. Since then, her office three times has secured life-sentence pleas, without going through costly trials: Columbus Allen Jr. II, who murdered California Highway Patrol Officer Earl Scott in 2006; Jesse Frost, who knifed to death his mother, sister and brother-in-law in Riverbank in 2009; and Cameron Terhune, who shot his parents in Del Rio in 2010. None would have bargained, Fladager said, without the threat of a possible death penalty hanging over their heads.

    In 1999, Jim Mele - now Tuolumne County sheriff - helped investigate the slayings of 3 Yosemite sightseers in another crime that captured headlines across the United States and beyond, ending with a death sentence for Cary Stayner.

    "We're talking about a man who is evil, who needs to be put to death," Mele said.

    Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke urged voters to "have faith that what we're talking about is the right thing to do."

    Of anywhere in California, support for Proposition 66 is strongest in the conservative-leaning Central Valley, said the mid-September Field Poll conducted by Field Research Corp. and the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. And nowhere was there less support for Proposition 62 than here, the poll found.

    But the reverse was true for voters throughout all of California, where the poll found only 35 % inclined to vote for Proposition 66 compared to 48 % who liked Proposition 62.

    Latest disclosures show $5 million raised in support of Proposition 66, and $7.3 million for Proposition 62, according to The Sacramento Bee. Opponents of the measures had collected $1.5 million to fight Proposition 66, and $13.7 million to oppose Proposition 62.

    4 years ago, California voters narrowly rejected a similar drive to abolish the death penalty, but polls suggest support has eroded in recent years.

    "It's about justice, a local jury saying, 'This is appropriate for this person,'" said Mike Harden, former police chief in Modesto and Oakdale.

    In the first few years after her daughter's murder, Rocha advocated for victims' rights and stiff penalties for killers, and was an invited guest when President George W. Bush signed related legislation in 2004. With the passage of time, she's still willing to make appearances for the right cause, but it can be difficult, she said after cameras were turned off Thursday.

    "Going back to 2002, to bring it all up again, is not an easy thing to do," Rocha said.

    "Before all of this, I never spoke in public," she continued. "Laci probably would be saying, 'My mother is doing what?' It makes a difference when you have a purpose."

    http://www.modbee.com/news/politics-...110942232.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #23
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Scott Peterson speaks from death row on Laci Peterson murder

    A new A&E series takes a fresh look at the Laci Peterson murder, which gripped the nation 15 years ago. Scott Peterson was convicted of killing his pregnant wife in 2002.

    In never-before-heard phone calls from death row, Peterson speaks about her murder and that of their unborn child.

    "I was staggered by it. I had no idea it was coming," Peterson said from inside California's San Quentin State Prison, talking about the moment he was found guilty.

    Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002. She was eight months pregnant at the time. Scott Peterson told police he had been fishing that day.

    "She will be giving birth real soon. We need to bring them home and I think that's the best way we can do it all," Peterson said at the time.

    Peterson hasn't spoken publicly since his conviction in 2004. John Marks, producer of A&E's new series, "The Murder of Laci Peterson", said Peterson's case is under appeal.

    "It felt like a moment, I think, for him, and for his lawyer, to step up and say something about the case," Marks said.

    "Oh, it was crazy there," Peterson said in the new interview, describing his response to hearing the verdict. "Just like this amazing, horrible physical reaction I had. I couldn't feel my feet on the floor. I couldn't feel the chair I was sitting in, my vision was even a little blurry."

    The series revisits most of the key players in the case, including Amber Frey, Scott Peterson's mistress, whose bombshell admission changed everything.

    "Scott told me he was not married. We did have a romantic relationship," Frey said in January 2003.

    Peterson discussed the revelation on a 2004 audio tape that had never been released, until now.

    "The overriding reason throughout it all was, she starts giving media interviews, there is no more search for Laci and Conner. I'd seen what had happened to the search for Chandra Levy with Gary Condit as soon as it was revealed that he had sex with her, there was no more search for her. Every hour I could buy to keep the search going, is all solved if I bring Laci and Conner home," Peterson said, when asked about why he talked to Frey after his wife went missing. "

    The series also examines the effect the media had on the case and evidence potentially over looked, like witnesses who claim to have seen Laci Peterson after she went missing.

    "I think when you listen to the witnesses who say they saw Laci in the park, that will be a kind of surprise," Marks said, when asked about moments in the series that may shock them.

    "I wasn't the last one to see Laci that day. There are so many witnesses who saw her walking in the neighborhood after I left," Peterson said in the new phone interview.

    Marks said the series is not an exoneration piece - it looks at all sides of the case.

    "I just want people to say, 'What actually happened here?'" Marks said.

    Marks said Laci Peterson's family declined to talk about the murder conviction, but he did everything he could to prevent the story from being one-sided.

    The series premieres Tuesday night on A&E.

    http://abc7chicago.com/scott-peterso...urder/2307073/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  4. #24
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Scott Peterson in death-row phone call: 'I wasn't the last one to see Laci alive'

    Scott Peterson claimed in a newly released phone call from prison that multiple people saw his wife Laci after she vanished, as he again denied he was the killer.

    Peterson is currently sitting on death row in San Quentin State Prison. The phone call, for a new A&E docuseries, marks the first time he's been heard publicly about the case in 13 years. He was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Laci and second-degree murder for the death of Conner Peterson, his unborn son.

    "I wasn't the last one to see Laci that day. There were so many witnesses that saw her walking in the neighborhood after I left," Scott said in the call, which was conducted in June with his sister-in-law Janey.

    Several witnesses said they spotted Laci out walking her dog after the mother-to-be, 27, supposedly vanished on Christmas Eve back in 2002.

    Peterson's trial began in the summer of 2004. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection in March of the following year. An appeal was filed by his legal counsel and is still pending.

    This phone call, never-before-heard eyewitness testimony and new bombshell claims about the relationship between Scott and his mistress Amber Frey will be featured in the new A&E docuseries "The Murder of Laci Peterson," premiering Tuesday night.

    In the phone call, Scott Peterson said: "Every hour I could buy to keep the search going is all solved if I bring Laci and Conner home."

    Frey eventually proved to be a crucial witness in the case, providing prosecutors with a motive when she announced that Peterson had never told her he was married while they were having an affair.

    In the docuseries, Scott also recalled the moment he heard the verdict being read, saying: "It was just like this amazing, horrible, physical reaction that I had. I couldn’t feel my feet on the floor. I couldn’t feel the chair I was sitting in. My vision was even a little blurry."

    He went on to tell the interviewer: ''And I just had this weird sensation that I was falling forward — and forward and down and there was going to be no end to this falling forward and down, like there was no floor to land on.

    "I, I was staggered by it," he said. "I had no idea it was coming."

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/14...aci-alive.html

  5. #25
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Scott Peterson: 15 years later, a look back at a case that gripped a nation

    By Laura Ingle
    Fox News

    Fifteen years ago this Christmas Eve, the nation turned its eyes and attention to Modesto, Calif., where 27-year old Laci Peterson, 8 months pregnant and ready to welcome her unborn son she had named Conner, had seemingly vanished.

    It was 2002, and while many people were going about their plans for the holiday, family members and friends of Laci Peterson began a frantic search to find her, after her husband, Scott, said she was "missing".

    He called Laci's mother Sharon Rocha in the early evening to ask if she was at their home, saying when he got home from a day of fishing Laci's car was in the driveway and their dog was in the backyard with his leash on, and that Laci wasn’t home.

    The word "missing" immediately struck a chord with Laci's mom, who said it was a strange choice because Laci wasn't the type to go missing.

    That call at about 5:15 p.m. would set off a chain of events that would move an entire community, which jumped into action to try to find her while the rest of the nation watched with anticipation, hoping for an outcome that would bring her home safely.

    As the days and weeks went on, the search became more desperate, as there were no signs of Laci Peterson anywhere.

    Her husband claimed she was at home in the morning when he left that Christmas Eve to go fishing in the San Francisco Bay and that was the last time he saw her. Her family members went on TV to ask for her safe return and for any information to help find her.

    Rocha asked the public in one news conference: "We've been through so much these last days, that I'd like to make a plea to the person or persons who have my daughter. Please bring my daughter home."

    Attention quickly turned to Scott Peterson, who told family members and investigators he had nothing to do with her disappearance, though many started to question his alibi that he had left for a fishing trip after 9 a.m. on Christmas Eve.

    Peterson repeatedly said that it wasn't uncommon for them to do things on their own.

    In a January 2003 interview, Peterson gave to Gloria Gomez, a reporter at the time for KOVR-TV in Sacramento, he said: "You know, being 7 1/2 months pregnant she's not going to want to go out in a boat, but it's simply a leisure activity to pursue that day, and you know it was what our plans were."

    Prosecutors would later contend she did go out on a boat that day after Peterson had killed her and took her body out to the San Francisco Bay to dispose of her and their unborn child.

    One month after Peterson’s disappearance, police revealed her husband was living a double life, having an affair with a massage therapist who was living in Fresno by the name of Amber Frey.

    The single mother went to police once she became aware that the man she thought was her boyfriend was quickly becoming a prime suspect in a nationally televised case.

    Frey went on to wear a wire and helped police record her conversations with Peterson, which would play a key role in the trial.

    Suspicion continued to mount against the man some once stood behind, but on April 13 2003, the body of a baby boy in south Richmond was discovered along the shore of San Francisco Bay.

    The next day, the body of an adult female wearing maternity clothes was found nearby.

    Months of searching and hoping came to a crashing end when the bodies were positively identified as those of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner, confirming her family's worst fears.

    Her mother spoke out in a tearful news conference soon after, promising justice for her daughter and unborn grandchild.

    "Laci and Conner left us on Christmas Eve, I know that God has been watching over them, he sent them back to us on Good Friday. Now we can bring them home where they belong,” she said. “Laci and her unborn child did not deserve to die this way, and they certainly didn't deserve to die and dumped in the bay and sent to a watery grave as though their lives were meaningless. We will seek justice for her and Conner and make sure that that person responsible for their deaths will be punished."

    Scott Peterson was arrested in San Diego just days after the bodies were discovered.

    He had dyed his hair blonde, grown a goatee, and had many items in his car which led investigators to believe he may have been ready to run.

    A partial list of items includes camping gear,12 tablets of Viagra, four cell phones, double-edged dagger with a T-handle, a backpack, water purifier, climbing rope, filet knife, duct tape and over $10,000 in cash.

    The double murder trial would take over a year to begin, but at the end of 2004 Scott Peterson was found guilty of first-degree murder for killing his wife, and second-degree murder for killing their unborn son. In 2005, he received the death penalty.

    He is challenging his death sentence and requesting a new trial. There are currently over 700 inmates on Death Row at California's San Quentin State Prison. No prisoner has been executed in California since January 2006.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/12/16...ed-nation.html

  6. #26
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Convicted killer Scott Peterson's new mugshot released by San Quentin

    By Kate G. Eby
    KGO-TV

    SAN QUENTIN, Calif. -- An updated photograph of convicted killer Scott Peterson has been released by San Quentin State Prison. It's standard for the California Department of Corrections to re-photograph inmates every few years. This picture is dated May 11, 2018.

    Scott Peterson remains on Death Row for killing his wife Laci Peterson, and their unborn child, Connor.

    Laci disappeared from their Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002 while 8 months pregnant.

    Her remains washed ashore near Berkeley in April of 2003.

    Scott Peterson was convicted by a Redwood City jury in 2004 and in 2005 was sentenced to death.

    http://abc7news.com/scott-petersons-...entin/3536043/
    Last edited by Moh; 05-30-2018 at 05:42 AM. Reason: Included the photo that was the whole reason for the article having been posted in the first place.
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
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  7. #27
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    “Death Row sissy”: Radar publishes homophobic drivel about Scott Peterson’s gay sex romps in prison

    By Graham Gremore
    QUEETY

    Radar Online is back at it again, publishing more outrageously homophobic and salacious “reports” about celebrities and other public figures. This time it’s concerning convicted killer Scott Peterson.

    “Caged killer Scott Peterson has morphed into the prison ‘Snowbunny’ behind bars,” the article begins, “exchanging sexual favors with a group of burly inmates for protection.”

    Peterson is currently on death row in San Quentin State Prison in California after being convicted in 2004 of killing his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn child.

    Radar claims to have gotten the information from another death row inmate, Raynard Cummings, who says the 45-year-old murderer regularly performs sex acts on him and others in the shower and exercise yard in exchange for protection since being removed from protective custody.

    In an 18-page letter, 61-year-old Cummings alleges Peterson also hand washes his underpants and gives him “oily back rubs.”

    “Taking SP [Scott Peterson] in was and is one of the sweetest move[s] I’ve ever made in 37 years of death row imprisonment,” the letter reads.

    It continues: “For whatever reasons, SP wanted to hang out with the badest [sic] of the blackness… I call him my Death Row sissy because he’ll do just about anything to save his worthless neck. He knows he’s one of the most hated men in here.”

    But this is hardly the first time Radar has ventured into homophobic territory with it’s “reporting.”

    In April, it published a bogus article about John Travolta’s “notorious gay orgy jet”, claiming he used the jet to “feed his bottomless lust for gay sex” by flying “nearly a dozen male lovers on a transglobal orgy.”

    Last year, it published a truly tasteless article slut-shaming George Michael’s boyfriend, Fadi Fawaz, for his “secret gay porn past” just weeks after the singer’s untimely death.

    And in 2016, it ran a fictitious homophobic story “outing” Will Smith for paying hush money to cover up a gay affair he had with his longtime friend Duane Martin.

    https://www.queerty.com/death-row-si...rison-20180726
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
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  8. #28
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    I almost posted the article from Radar yesterday

    In an 18-page letter, 61-year-old Cummings alleges Peterson also hand washes his underpants and gives him “oily back rubs.”
    The Letter
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  9. #29
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    ::SIGH::

    Scott Peterson's sister-in-law, Janey: 'We don't have justice yet; we're not there.'


    Scott Peterson is guilty of adultery but not murder, his sister-in-law said in the family's 1st comprehensive video interview with The Modesto Bee since his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, went missing nearly 16 years ago.

    "We don't have justice yet; we're not there," Janey Peterson said. "We can't be content thinking we know what happened to Laci and Conner; we don't."

    This week, Scott Peterson's lawyers are filing a final court document aimed at reversing the death-penalty verdict their client received in December 2004.

    It's the last in a standard series of 6 written pleadings before the California Supreme Court hears oral arguments and decides whether the 1-time Modesto man will be executed for murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son at Christmastime 2002.

    The Supreme Court has overturned 10 % of the nearly 200 capital punishment verdicts it has reviewed since 2009. So far this year, the court has reversed 1 of 16 death-penalty decisions.

    Janey Peterson sat down with The Bee for a lengthy conversation 2 weeks ago, with his appeals milestone fast approaching.

    Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, has accommodated similar sit-down requests with The Bee, notably in January 2006 and in December 2007. She and others of Laci's loved ones over the years steadfastly have maintained their belief that justice was served at Scott Peterson�s trial. In April 2016, for example, Rocha summed up her thoughts: "Scott Peterson is guilty."

    Scott, now 45, always has said he's innocent, and his family believes him. Janey Peterson's main message reflects the objective of 957 pages in his appeal documents, saying he is owed a new trial.

    What about the 12 jurors who absorbed 6 months of trial and testimony from 184 witnesses, and determined that he's guilty? Could all 12 jurors be wrong?

    "I think the verdict they made," she said, "was an emotional verdict based on adultery evidence. The pile of evidence that showed Scott was an adulterer was used to convict him of murder."

    Agreed-upon interview topics included major points raised in the appeals, most having to do with the 2004 trial itself - whether the judge, jurors and attorneys went astray enough to require a do-over. Some interview subjects were off limits, like Laci's family, and Amber Frey, Scott's lover when Laci went missing.

    Janey Peterson talked a bit about her family, and also about her brother-in-law, providing a peek at his life in San Quentin State Prison.

    The television in Scott Peterson's cell, for example, gets only major network channels and public TV, so he's missed most of the cable news shows about his case - 8 in 2017 alone - that have popped up in the past couple of years while the culmination of his appeals draws near.

    2 1/2-hour "contact visits," in a cell with him, can be paid on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; they can stretch it to 5 hours because most family members live in the San Diego area and must travel more than 250 miles. He gets such visits about every other week. Because he was convicted of murdering a minor - Conner, who Laci was carrying in pregnancy - Scott's nieces and nephews must be at least 18 to visit.

    Near the end of the blockbuster 2004 trial, defense attorney Mark Geragos glumly shared with jurors a vision of a prison guard someday knocking on Peterson's cell to say his mother had died, followed later by more knocking and news that his father had died. Jackie Peterson, Scott's frail mother who used an oxygen tank in the courtroom audience, indeed died in 2013, but notifying Scott didn't happen that way; Janey was scheduled to pay him a visit that day, and broke the news in person.

    "It was a hard day," Janey said. "Visiting in the cell, with people around you 360 (degrees), it was not a private place at all. I didn't let myself get emotional on the way up. When I told him, the next couple of hours we really restrained ourselves. For him, it was something we didn't want to deal with in a public way. That was very hard to do."

    Asked how his father, Lee Peterson, is holding up, Janey paused 35 seconds, gathering herself before answering. On the witness stand, Lee had described Scott as his best friend.

    "I don't know if you can understand how Lee is holding up unless you understand the (gravity) of this injustice. As much as us kids feel it, I don't know if I can put myself in Lee's shoes as a parent, or in Jackie's shoes. Or in Sharon's shoes," she said. "I just can't even comprehend it."

    Janey spoke to The Bee in a reception area of the crate-building shop Lee established in 1975 when Scott was 3, in Poway, near San Diego. It's a family business, employing several kin including Janey and her husband, Joe, Scott's brother. Scott spent untold hours here as a youth and young man, working in the manufacturing area, moving among offices and delivering custom-built wood crates to clients needing protection for airplane parts, machinery and the like.

    A small office lacking air conditioning serves as a legal strategy room, containing reams of information on the case. Some walls are covered with FBI-type timelines pinpointing Scott's known actions on the day Laci went missing, juxtaposed with what the family believes Laci, 27, was doing, with a neighborhood map reflecting reported sightings of Laci walking the couple's dog. Boxes of notes line the walls. In a finished wooden cupboard - handcrafted long ago by a young Scott Peterson - are binders filled with 45,000 pages of evidence, plus others with transcripts of the 6-month trial.

    "Over the years, everything we've learned either further exonerates Scott or takes us one step closer to finding out what happened to Laci and Conner," Janey said.

    Like Laci, Janey is a Peterson by marriage. She spoke briefly of her sister-in-law.

    "We watched (Scott and Laci) grow up when they were first dating, and watched that progression of life, them starting to plan a family - that's why they moved to Modesto (Laci's hometown), to start a family. To see them own a home, the love they put into ... that home, and preparing for Conner. You could see who she was in all those things."

    On Christmas Eve 2002, Scott left home to fish in San Francisco Bay, hauling a recently purchased 14-foot aluminum boat. Authorities believe he also hauled Laci's body, weighted with homemade concrete anchors, dumping her in the water near where the remains of mother and son washed up nearly 4 months later.

    His family believes, and Geragos argued to jurors, that unknown abductors put Laci's body exactly where the whole world knew Scott had been fishing.

    Jurors didn't buy it. Whether the Supreme Court does isn't really the question; it's whether Supreme Court justices find that enough went wrong in the trial to warrant a new one.

    The original trial judge, Al Delucchi - who died of cancer in 2008 - once mused that both sides would have much to argue over in the appeals process. "With all the issues that have been raised," Delucchi said in October 2004, "if there is a conviction in this case, it will be an appellate lawyer's petri dish."

    Now that the appeals are here, what's growing in that petri dish? Janey Peterson addressed a few points she hopes will resonate with the Supreme Court.

    Neighborhood sightings

    Several people reported seeing a pregnant woman walking a dog in the couple's neighborhood or nearby East La Loma Park that morning. If true, Scott must be innocent, his camp says, because it all happened after he left the home on Covena Avenue about 10 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2002.

    Geragos did not call those people to the witness stand, presumably because none fit in a timeline established when neighbor Karen Servas found the Petersons' golden retriever, McKenzie, in the street with a walking leash attached to its collar, and put the dog inside the Petersons' gate at 10:18 a.m. Scott later told police he found the dog in the yard, leash still attached, when he returned from fishing.

    Was it a mistake not to explore these witnesses' testimony at trial?

    "You've got to say 'yes' to that; look where we're at," with Scott on death row, Janey said. "The jurors need to hear from those witnesses. And the jurors need to decide the credibility of the sum total of all witnesses in the case."

    Burglary

    A home directly across the street was burglarized, also after Scott left. Prosecutors said the crime was unrelated to Laci's disappearance, but Scott's attorneys realized too late that they should have done more verifying.

    One of the burglars, imprisoned for that crime, later told people that he verbally threatened Laci Peterson when she confronted him that morning.

    And a mailman told police that the Petersons' dog did not bark and that the gate was open when he delivered mail after Servas encountered the dog, suggesting Laci and McKenzie had gone on a walk after all.

    "The one scenario that all these eyewitnesses fit is the 'Scott is innocent' scenario. That's the only answer," Janey said. "They all have to be wrong: the mailman has to be wrong, the (burglar confrontation) tip has to be wrong, the inmates on the phone have to be wrong, all the people who say they saw Laci walking her dog have to be wrong" for prosecutors to be right, she said.

    Dogs

    Attorneys on both sides had lengthy arguments over whether scent-dog tracking evidence should be admitted at trial. Delucchi disallowed almost all at the Peterson home and at Scott's warehouse in west Modesto, where he had hitched up the boat trailer. But the judge decided to allow testimony that a dog indicated, 4 days after Laci vanished, detecting her scent at the Berkeley Marina, where Scott had launched the boat.

    Geragos must have been proud at having persuaded the judge to exclude most of the dog-tracking evidence. But jurors latched onto the marina alert, some later saying it was critical to the guilty verdict. Scott's appellate attorneys now argue that the marina alert also should have been tossed, because scent tracking is an imperfect science and dogs and handlers make mistakes.

    "It was prejudicial against Scott," Janey said. "At the time, it was not real common for dog handlers to testify as to what the dog was thinking or doing. The science behind dog handling doesn't meet the threshold (for) a jury in a courtroom."

    Boat

    Before trial, Scott's defense team videotaped a re-enactment showing a man Scott's size trying to shove a dummy about the size of Laci's body out of a floating boat similar to Scott's, swamping the boat. Geragos wanted to show the video to jurors, but Delucchi said "no," reasoning that the boat was not exactly the same and prosecutors weren't present at taping to verify conditions, essentially preventing them from cross-examining the video.

    But Delucchi let prosecutors re-enact a pregnant woman about Laci's size fitting in a large toolbox in the bed of Scott's pickup, which authorities think he might have used to transport the body, Janey noted. And the judge also allowed prosecution testimony about stability experiments on the same boat model performed in a freshwater swimming pool in Indiana 25 years before the trial.

    Why didn't Geragos accept Delucchi's offer to let the defense team redo another re-enactment with the actual boat, with authorities watching?

    "That would be a constitutional violation of Scott's rights," Janey said. "It's not a part of what a defense should have to do."

    Jury selection

    Choosing a jury before trial became a nearly 3-month ordeal. Both sides and Delucchi worked through nearly 1,000 questionnaires of prospective jurors, and questioned hundreds before agreeing on the final panel.

    Scott's appellate lawyers now contend Delucchi erred when he excused 30 prospective jurors based solely on their written answers, where they professed opposition to the death penalty. Each should have been orally questioned to see whether they might set aside personal opinions to apply the law in some circumstances, the appeal says.

    "That's an example of error," the kind that requires redoing the trial phase where jurors decided he should be executed, Janey said.

    Is it really a big deal?

    3 weeks ago, the California Supreme Court cited the same reason in reversing a death penalty verdict for Steve Woodruff, who killed a Riverside police detective in 2001. That judge had improperly excused one prospective juror, justices found.

    Would Scott's family be satisfied with a retrial of just the penalty phase?

    "No," Janey said. "Scott needs a new trial from the beginning. That's just 1 of the issues in appeal."

    Richelle Nice

    Another juror, Richelle Nice, did not reveal that her then-boyfriend's ex had threatened them when Nice had been pregnant, before the trial.

    "That woman spent time in prison, or jail. That would have been something the defense should have had a right to know, and excuse her as a juror," Janey said.

    In September, Nice told The Bee that the woman spent a week in jail for vandalizing the boyfriend's car and the door to their home, not for murdering two people. She didn't include the information on her pretrial questionnaire because it didn't seem remotely similar, Nice said.

    Appeals process

    Death row inmates pursue 2 appeals handled by 2 sets of attorneys.

    One questions fairness in the trial, including a judge's alleged missteps. The other, called a habeas corpus petition, typically attacks the performance of a defense attorney, in this case Geragos, and can focus on new evidence, such as the revelations about Nice's past.

    In both sets of appeals, the inmate begins by filing an opening brief. It's a misnomer; Peterson's 1st was 470 pages. The state attorney general's office responds with a written brief on behalf of prosecutors, followed by the inmate's final reply. That's 3 briefs for each appeal, or 6 in total.

    The only written step left in Peterson's case is this week's final reply on the habeas track. All then will wait for the Supreme Court to schedule oral arguments, which could take 3 or 4 years, followed by more years of appeals on other levels, if warranted.

    "The justice system doesn't always get it right," Janey said, referring to the initial trial, moved from Modesto to Redwood City because of prejudicial saturation here.

    "We're still in the appellate part of the justice system," she continued. "So we have to still have hope and faith in our justice system, that they'll get it right."

    (source: modbee.com)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #30
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    Laci Peterson’s father, Dennis Rocha, died Sunday at age 72

    ‘Now they will be together again.’

    People far and wide who were captivated by her murder remember Rocha in an emotional state when his 27-year-old pregnant daughter went missing at Christmastime 2002, weeping and pleading for her safe return. The remains of mother and child washed ashore in San Francisco Bay nearly four months later, and her husband, Scott Peterson, was convicted of double murder in 2004.

    “Laci loved her dad, and now they will be together again,” said her mother, Sharon Rocha, in an email Monday. She continues to go by that name even though they divorced four decades ago, when Laci was 2.

    Her “other” father, Ron Grantski — Sharon Rocha’s longtime companion, who helped raise Laci — also died this year at age 71. Dennis Rocha remained on good terms with them and privately praised Grantski at his graveside service in April.

    Dennis Robert Rocha had moved with his family when he was very young from Gilroy to Escalon, where he lived 70 years. He was a member of the US Marine Corps Reserves and operated a dairy for several decades before retiring, said his oldest child, Brent Rocha, in a telephone interview Monday. His father had a passion for team roping and calf roping and participated in annual Mule Days celebrations in Bishop back in the day, Brent said.

    “He was a good dad and a hard worker,” his daughter, Amy Woodard, — Laci’s half-sister — said Monday.

    Growing up, Brent and Laci lived with their mother and Grantski in Modesto and spent many weekends at their father’s ranch in Escalon.

    Hard-core observers of the Peterson case may recall that Laci’s family was appalled when Scott traded in her 1996 forest green Land Rover as part of a purchase of a used pickup 6 weeks after she disappeared. Dennis Rocha bought it from Roberts Auto Sales on Modesto’s McHenry Avenue for $1 only days later. “(Scott) would keep the car if he knew she was coming home,” Mr. Rocha told The Modesto Bee at the time.

    Mr. Rocha assumed a lower profile during Scott Peterson’s blockbuster trial, which was moved to Redwood City to escape pervasive publicity here. Always wearing cowboy boots, Mr. Rocha attended when he was able. He cried when graphic photos of his loved ones’ remains were displayed for jurors, and drew a warning from the judge when using salty language toward the defendant in the penalty phase, just before Scott Peterson received a death-penalty sentence.

    “He was a very kind a loving-type person,” Brent Rocha said of his father. “He was always very affectionate and loving toward us.”

    He is survived by his children, Brent and Amy, and six grandchildren between them, as well as a sister, Robin Rocha, and stepson Nathan Hazard.

    (source: Modesto Bee)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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