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Scott Lee Peterson (born October 24, 1972 in San Diego, California) is a former fertilizer salesman convicted in a high-profile California double murder case. In Europe, he is known as the "beach bodies killer".
Chronology
On December 23 or 24, 2002, Peterson is believed to have murdered his wife, Laci, while she was eight months pregnant with their unborn child, Connor. He initially reported her missing on Christmas Eve and the story quickly attracted nationwide media interest.
Scott held press conferences and had wide support from the Peterson family and his home community of Modesto, California. He claimed that he had been fishing at the Berkeley marina at the time of the disappearance.
Almost immediately on December 24th 2002, Peterson became the prime suspect. Later when it became known that he'd had numerous affairs, the latest with a massage therapist named Amber Frey, a woman he had slept with four times and lied to numerous times, emerged the media and law enforcement attention grew to a fevored pitch. Frey was a key witness in the case because she agreed to tape Peterson secretly in hopes of getting him to confess. This however, never happened and in numerous tapes Peterson not only claimed innocence, but questioned Frey about her possible involvement.
In April, Connor's body washed ashore at the San Francisco Bay, followed shortly thereafter by a partial female body later identified as Laci's. Autopsies were performed. The specific method of death was never determined, but prosecutors and media speculated that Laci may have been suffocated or strangled, however despite FBI and Modesto Police Department forensic searches of the couples home, his truck, the tool box in the back of his truck, his warehouse and his boat, no forensic evidence of any kind was ever discovered, of either a soft kill or of a violent homicide. Due to the lack of any forensic evidence and the absence of obvious signs of violence on the remains law enforcement had to find other ways to pin the murders on Peterson who was arrested in La Jolla, California in the parking lot of a golf course where he was to meet his father and brother for a game of golf on April 18, 2003. Earlier reports that Peterson was fleeing to Mexico were found to be erronious as were later dramtic reports that Peterson, who knew he was being followed by Police and had in fact confronted them earlier that day, was on his way to murder Amber Frey.
On January 20, 2004, due to intense media attention and increasing hostility to Peterson in the Modesto area, a judge moved Peterson's trial from Modesto to Redwood City, California.
The trial, The People of the State of California vs. Scott Peterson, was a media circus from the beginning, started in June 2004. The prosecutor was Rick Distaso and Peterson's defense attorney was Mark Geragos. Although she was merely a witness Amber Frey had engaged an attorney to represent her. Gloria Allred, who was not bound by the gag order imposed on everyone else involved in the trial, used her position to harangue the defense on the courthouse steps at every opportunity and it is speculated that she was key in keeping many facts about her client's past from the public eye. Amber Frey's father, Ron, also engaged a criminal defense attorney, however the reason for this is currently unknown. Peterson's defense was based around the lack of direct evidence, and defusing the circumstantial evidence.
Despite being presented with no evidence that Peterson had commited a crime the jury in the case, on November 12, convicted Peterson of first degree murder with special circumstances for killing Laci and second degree murder for killing his unborn son. The penalty phase of the trial began on November 30 and concluded December 13, when at 1:50 P.M. PST, the twelve-person jury recommended a death sentence for Peterson. In later press appearances, the jury stated that they found Peterson guilty because of his demeanor.
In January 2005, Frey released a book about her experiences with Scott Peterson launching widespread criticism that she was using her involvement in the case for her own personal gain and fueling speculation and Ms Frey was working on the book during the trial which would have in effect violated the gag order placed on all witnesses in this trial by the judge. Ms Frey was allegedly told by her publisher that a not guilty verdict would result in no book deal for herself.
Peterson's official sentencing will take place on February 25, 2005. It is possible that the judge will overturn the jury's recommendation and instead sentence him to life imprisonment. It is also possible that Peterson will be granted a new trial based on evidence of juror misconduct and media influence.
If given the death sentence, Peterson will be incarcerated in California's San Quentin prison in 2005. He will have several opportunities to appeal the verdict, and therefore may not be executed for many years, if ever. The method of execution will be lethal injection.
Like some other high-profile criminals judged physically attractive by society's standards, Peterson receives large amounts of fan mail in prison however by the same token he has also become the victim of public lynchings both in the media and outside the courtroom where five large women once appeared wearing t-shirts bearing Peterson's image with a hangman's noose around his neck.
Evidence
The evidence against Peterson was largely circumstantial. Hounded by the press Peterson changed his appearance and purchased a vehicle in his mother's name.
The affair with Amber Frey also provided much support for the case against Peterson. Allegedly, he had told Frey that he had lost his wife before the December 24 disappearance. In these tapes, he was shown to have lied to Frey about his location-- claiming, for example, to be in Paris when he was not, which in and of itself is not damming because many married men lie to women they are sleeping with.
More evidence supporting the case for Peterson's guilt was the testimony provided by Ralph Cheng, a hydrologist with the United States Geological Survey, and an expert witness on tides, particularly in the San Francisco Bay. However Cheng admitted, during his cross-examination, that his findings were "probable, not precise"— tidal systems are sufficiently chaotic that he was unable to develop an exact model of the bodies' disposal and travel.
Motive
Peterson's affair with Amber Frey was never proposed to the jury as a probable motive for the crime however they did present his affair as indicitive of bad character. Alternatively, some have claimed Peterson murdered Laci out of a desire to return to the "bachelor" lifestyle, where he would be free from the obligations of his impending family life however that was ruled out when it was pointed out that Amber Frey herself had a child. There was never any motive for the crime presented to the jury as such.
External links
- [1] (http://www.justice4scott.com)
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