The*Empress
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Do you agree or disagree with Scott PEterson's sentencing???
I am curious.
Do you think he should get death penalty or life?
Judge Sentences Peterson to Death
Family Members' Emotions Boil Over in Courtroom
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, AP
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi denied a defense request for a new trial before upholding the jury's recommendation.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (March 16) - A judge formally sentenced Scott Peterson to death Wednesday after calling the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, ''cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous.''
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi allowed family members to speak, prompting a shouting match that led to Peterson's father storming out of the courtroom.
Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie, interrupted, although her voice was inaudible.
''What a liar!'' Scott Peterson's father, Lee, yelled from the audience before the judge admonished him. Lee Peterson then left the courtroom.
Delucchi denied a defense request for a new trial before saying he agreed with the jury that ''death is warranted.''
''The court is satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, is guilty of first-degree murder'' and second degree, Delucchi said.
Peterson, shackled at the waist and wearing a dark suit, was escorted into court under heavy security.
Peterson, 32, was convicted Nov. 12 of two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife and her fetus. The jury recommended the death penalty a month later.
Hours before the hearing began, Peterson's former mistress, star witness Amber Frey, said she stood by her decision to turn to police. Peterson's lawyer is challenging the use of telephone conversations she recorded for the trial.
''As far as having not come forward there may not - and certainly in the jurors' eyes - there would not have been justice, so I stand by my choices and my decisions that I made,'' Frey told NBC's ''Today'' show Wednesday.
In asking for a new trial, defense lawyer Mark Geragos said Peterson's telephone calls to Frey should not have been admitted. He said Peterson never implicated himself in the crime during the calls and that authorities should not have tapped his phone.
Geragos also said prosecutors withheld evidence that a state prison inmate claimed he heard that Laci Peterson had interrupted a burglary at a neighbor's home in Modesto on Dec. 24, 2002, the day she was reported missing.
Scott Peterson claims he went fishing that day, and Geragos says the tip ''points to the conclusion that Laci was alive after Scott left for the day.''
''If the evidence were presented at a retrial, it is highly probable a different result would have occurred,'' Geragos wrote.
But prosecutor David Harris said the burglary happened two days after Laci Peterson's disappearance. He said the evidence was handed over a year before the trial started and would not have changed the verdict.
''His claim is reminiscent of the 'boy who cried wolf,''' Harris said.
The motion for a new trial, filed Feb. 25 in Redwood City, also claimed the judge erroneously dismissed two jurors, and erred in denying Geragos' motion for a second change of venue.
I am curious.
Do you think he should get death penalty or life?
Judge Sentences Peterson to Death
Family Members' Emotions Boil Over in Courtroom
By BRIAN SKOLOFF, AP
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi denied a defense request for a new trial before upholding the jury's recommendation.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (March 16) - A judge formally sentenced Scott Peterson to death Wednesday after calling the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, ''cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous.''
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi allowed family members to speak, prompting a shouting match that led to Peterson's father storming out of the courtroom.
Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie, interrupted, although her voice was inaudible.
''What a liar!'' Scott Peterson's father, Lee, yelled from the audience before the judge admonished him. Lee Peterson then left the courtroom.
Delucchi denied a defense request for a new trial before saying he agreed with the jury that ''death is warranted.''
''The court is satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, is guilty of first-degree murder'' and second degree, Delucchi said.
Peterson, shackled at the waist and wearing a dark suit, was escorted into court under heavy security.
Peterson, 32, was convicted Nov. 12 of two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife and her fetus. The jury recommended the death penalty a month later.
Hours before the hearing began, Peterson's former mistress, star witness Amber Frey, said she stood by her decision to turn to police. Peterson's lawyer is challenging the use of telephone conversations she recorded for the trial.
''As far as having not come forward there may not - and certainly in the jurors' eyes - there would not have been justice, so I stand by my choices and my decisions that I made,'' Frey told NBC's ''Today'' show Wednesday.
In asking for a new trial, defense lawyer Mark Geragos said Peterson's telephone calls to Frey should not have been admitted. He said Peterson never implicated himself in the crime during the calls and that authorities should not have tapped his phone.
Geragos also said prosecutors withheld evidence that a state prison inmate claimed he heard that Laci Peterson had interrupted a burglary at a neighbor's home in Modesto on Dec. 24, 2002, the day she was reported missing.
Scott Peterson claims he went fishing that day, and Geragos says the tip ''points to the conclusion that Laci was alive after Scott left for the day.''
''If the evidence were presented at a retrial, it is highly probable a different result would have occurred,'' Geragos wrote.
But prosecutor David Harris said the burglary happened two days after Laci Peterson's disappearance. He said the evidence was handed over a year before the trial started and would not have changed the verdict.
''His claim is reminiscent of the 'boy who cried wolf,''' Harris said.
The motion for a new trial, filed Feb. 25 in Redwood City, also claimed the judge erroneously dismissed two jurors, and erred in denying Geragos' motion for a second change of venue.
