Scott Peterson Trial Articles

California Death Penalty Appellate Process

After a defendant is convicted of murder and sentenced to death, the appellate process begins. The death penalty conviction is appealed to both state and federal courts. If at any point the conviction or death sentence is reversed, the State may appeal that decision to a higher court. If the state is unsuccessful in their appeal, a retrial or re-sentencing will take place. Each death sentence case is different, and some may involve a longer appellate process than others. (Source)

For a general outline of the death sentence appellate process in the State of California, click here.

Personal Message from Scott Peterson

"Thank You
For me, the amount of support we have received is just incredible. Those who have decided to reach out to our family have made such a difference. The thoughtfulness and benevolence shown is a source of strength and spirit, an affirmation of considerate community. In every conversation among our family there is always the mention of your thoughts and letters. At mail call I am encouraged by, and enjoy hearing from people. I wish I could respond to express my gratitude, and continue to correspond. However, people having sold my notes, and sometimes fabricating content, preclude me from doing so. It is an irritating, unfortunate situation. I am tremendously appreciative of your kindness, it has such a wonderful positive effect upon our family."
- SCOTT PETERSON; July 21/05, San Quentin State Prison, California

(Scott Peterson Home Page)

A Scott Peterson Update

On March 16, 2005 Scott was moved to death row at San Quentin Prison. For the first thirty days he was on orientation status, which means he could not have visitors or make phone calls. That status was lifted on April 16, 2005 and he was able to visit with his parents for an hour. Scott is still not allowed to make phone calls but he is able to receive letters. Letters to him are usually delivered 2-3 weeks after being sent.

His address is:

Scott Peterson V72100
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin, California 94874, USA

On the legal front, the Peterson family and the Geragos law firm are interviewing appellate attorneys for the lengthy appeal process. A number of top flight attorneys have expressed an interest. The appeals process will begin this summer. (Source)

Peterson in Prison: How His Life Has Changed

It has been just over two months since convicted killer Scott Peterson was transferred to death row at San Quentin Prison.

In that time, he's undergone changes to his routine, his emotional state, and even his appearance.

The adjustment center on San Quentin's death row is where condemned killers get their first taste of prison life. But few are followed inside these walls with as much outside interest as Scott Peterson.

"He has received a great deal of mail, more than any other inmate," said Vernel Crittendon, the spokesperson for San Quentin.

Crittendon says a significant number of Peterson's 20-odd letters a day are from women. At least five have offered proposals of marriage. (Source)

Scott Peterson Prosecution Totals $4.13 Million

The prosecution of Scott Peterson for the deaths of his wife Laci and unborn son Conner cost Stanislaus County taxpayers $4.13 million, some of which they hope the state of California will pay.

The total costs included $1.55 million of the police investigation, $1.37 million for Stanislaus County prosecutors, $742,000 for court costs and $182,000 for San Mateo County where the trial was held.

Modesto Police have asked the state to pay $2.3 million of the total cost, as it has done in other high-profile cases in the past, but the state's budget crunch may prevent lawmakers from being able to reimburse the county. (Source)

'Demolition Man' / Scott Peterson Prophecy?

Apparently, in the Sylvester Stallone sci-fi thriller "Demolition Man," the name "Scott Peterson" turns up on a list of notorious 20th-century criminals scheduled for parole! "Demolition Man" was released in 1993, 10 years earlier than the (alleged) murder took place. (Read more)

Fearing a killer's profit, Laci Peterson's parents up suit to $25M

Source: CourtTv

Laci Peterson's parents upped the amount of their civil suit against her killer by $20 million because they fear he may use Hollywood contacts to get a lucrative movie deal or otherwise turn a large profit on his infamous crime, according to an attorney for the victim's mother.

"His lawyer is from L.A. He's close to people there. Crazier things have happened," lawyer Adam Stewart said, explaining why Sharon Rocha and her ex-husband, Dennis, increased the damages sought in the suit from $5 to $25 million this week.

With Scott Peterson formally sentenced to death for the murders of the mother-to-be and the fetus she was carrying last month, the Rochas' wrongful death suit is now moving forward in Modesto, the couple's hometown.

A scheduling conference is set for April 18.

Peterson's civil lawyer, Matt Geragos, brother of his criminal trial attorney, Mark Geragos, did not return calls seeking comment, and it was unclear whether Peterson, who maintains his innocence, had any plans to sell his story.

A spokesman at San Quentin State Prison, Lt. Vernell Crittendon, said that, since Peterson arrived on death row, he has received several solicitations to pen his story.

"I've seen [mail] from people who want to work with him on writing a book," he said.

Until 2002, California had a "Son of Sam" law that prevented convicts from profiting from their crimes, but the state's Supreme Court determined the law violated the First Amendment and wiped it from the books.

Stewart said a $25 million award not only would ensure that Peterson never made money off the murders, but is merited by the circumstances of the crime. Jurors determined that Peterson murdered the 27-year-old, who was nearly eight months pregnant with their first child, in their home a day or two before Christmas 2002.

"O.J. [Simpson] got $33 million. We think $25 million is appropriate here," Stewart said.

Unless he makes money on death row, however, any award would be largely symbolic. Peterson, who earned about $60,000 a year as a fertilizer salesman before the murders, was declared indigent during the course of his six-month trial and received public funds to pay for his defense.

According to Stewart, the 32-year-old has some assets, including his share of the $177,000 ranch home he shared with his wife, its furnishings and a vehicle. The home, half of which is the property of Laci Peterson's heirs, is heavily mortgaged, and Peterson also used it as collateral when he borrowed $100,000 from his parents.

"You might say, well, why waste your time, but he's a young guy and he has the potential to earn money," Stewart said.

Peterson's criminal conviction means a civil jury does not have to find him liable for the murders, as a jury did in the case of Simpson, who was acquitted by a criminal jury. The jurors' task would be to determine the amount the Rochas should receive for funeral expenses, the loss of their daughter's "comfort, support, protection, companionship, society, services and love" and punitive damages.

The evidence would consist largely of the testimony of the Rochas themselves. If Peterson does not mount a defense, a judge would determine the amount of the award.

It was unclear whether Peterson would be able to attend a civil trial.

Crittendon said the prison would comply with a court order to send Peterson to Modesto for the civil trial, but "I have not heard of that occurring in my 28 years here."

Inadequate Defense?

Given the intense scrutiny that Attorney Mark Geragos had to expect, it is mind-boggling that he told the media that he was going to prove Scott Peterson “stone-cold innocent” and that the defense team would attempt to find the real killer.

Before the jury, Geragos floated bogeymen: homeless men in ragged clothing and Satanic cults. He cited untrustworthy witnesses who maintained that they had seen Laci walking the dog after Peterson had already left for his fishing trip. Relying on the meritless musings of a pathetically unreliable forensic gynecologist, Geragos arrogantly proclaimed that Peterson's baby had died ten days later than Laci Peterson’s disappearance. In the end, Geragos forfeited all credibility before the jury. (Read more)

Scott Gets Death Penalty

San Mateo Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi noted that Peterson's unborn child never had a chance to draw a breath.

Delucchi made the remarks as he denied an automatic motion to mitigate Peterson's sentence. The judge also denied a motion filed by defense attorney Mark Geragos seeking a new trial for Peterson.

Wednesday's sentencing included dramatic moments from the slain woman's family, who vented their anger at Scott Peterson and his family.

"You're evil and still have the readiness to commit evil," Laci's brother, Brent Rocha, told Scott Peterson. "How does it feel to be a baby killer?"

Rocha said that every time he came to court, "I think that my sister's head is probably rolling around in the bottom of the bay."

He told Peterson he had bought a gun, but said he was glad he had not killed the defendant, saying now Peterson would have to wait for death. He called Peterson "arrogant" and said it was time for him to face reality for his actions.

Other family members, such as Laci's father and stepfather, used profanity in addressing Peterson, resulting in an admonishment from Delucchi.

After Peterson's father, Lee, jumped up and began yelling at Brent Rocha, calling him a liar, Delucchi threatened to have Lee Peterson removed from the courtroom. Lee Peterson walked out, followed shortly thereafter by Peterson's mother, Jackie.

"I never liked you," Dennis Rocha, Laci's father, told Peterson. "You're going to burn in hell."

Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, told Peterson he was "stupid, stupid to think you could get away with murder," and told him he had "no love, no feelings, no heart, no soul."

"You're selfish, heartless and self-centered," she said. "You're a coward and an evil murderer. ... We had to bury her without arms to hold Conner and (without) a head to look at him."

Wearing a suit, but handcuffed, with a sheriff's deputy hovering over him, Peterson shook his head during Brent Rocha's remarks, but stared straight ahead as other family members spoke. He did not speak on his own behalf before being sentenced.

Legal steps remain

Source: CNN

After Wednesday's sentencing, jurors in Peterson's trial expressed satisfaction with the judge's decision and called for closure.

"The judge went with our recommendation," added jury foreman Steve Cardosi, "so justice has been done." ( Reactions to Wednesday's sentencing )

Members of Laci's family, Modesto police and prosecutors have scheduled a news conference Thursday on the case, saying they decided to do so after being deluged with requests for interviews.

Peterson, 32, was convicted November 12 of killing his wife, Laci, who was eight months pregnant at the time, and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay. ( Peterson found guilty )

The same jury that convicted him recommended a month later that he receive the death penalty. ( Jury recommendation )

Laci Peterson was reported missing from the couple's Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002. Her torso and the fetus washed up on shore in April 2003.

Officials said Peterson would be transferred within 48 hours from the San Mateo County Jail in Redwood City to California's San Quentin State Prison, where he will become the 641st person on the state's death row.

But his execution is a number of legal steps -- and more than likely a number of years -- away, and he is actually more likely to die of natural causes than be executed.

His death sentence carries a mandatory appeal, and his attorneys may file additional appeals, meaning the case could drag on for years.

In addition, despite the large number of inmates on death row, California has executed only 12 people since its death penalty was reinstated in 1978. The most recent execution in California, that of Donald Beardslee, was carried out in January after the inmate spent more than 20 years in prison.

For security reasons, Peterson will receive a special escort to San Quentin, officials said.

Delucchi also ordered Peterson to pay $10,000 in restitution for Laci's funeral expenses.

Amber Frey Releases Book

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The much-hyped book penned by Scott Peterson's former mistress hit stores Tuesday, shedding little new light on the double-murder case.

In Witness For the Prosecution of Scott Peterson, Amber Frey spends much time outlining how she worked with police, trying to coax a confession from Peterson, and how she handled the media in the publicity frenzy that swirled around the nearly 17-month long investigation and six-month trial.

The 29-year-old Fresno massage therapist was a star witness during her six days of testimony. Peterson was convicted Nov. 12 on two counts of murder in the deaths of his pregnant wife, Laci, and her eight-month old fetus. The jury imposed the death penalty Dec. 13.

Frey tells the story of meeting Peterson: How her best friend set up the couple after meeting Peterson at a conference, how Peterson coaxed Frey to his hotel room moments after their first meeting to shower and change clothes, then pulled out a bottle of champagne and a box of strawberries from his brown duffel bag.

Later, after dinner, they got drunk and sang Islands in the Stream at a karaoke lounge. Frey said she spent that night with Peterson.

The Associated Press received a copy of the book from the publisher, Regan Books, on Monday, a day before it went on sale.

"As the evening progressed, Scott said that he was looking forward to settling down, but that he hadn't yet found the right person," Frey wrote, according to a news release issued by the publisher. "The way he looked at me when he said that made me feel he might be wondering whether I was that person."

The $25.95 book features dozens of photographs of Frey, including a glamour shot taken when she was 18 and two dozen black-and-white frames from a modeling shoot in 2000 that show a short-haired Frey in a see-through negligee.

Frey also describes a nightmare she had about a month after meeting Peterson when she began to suspect he was lying to her. She said a man with brown hair tickled her daughter. As he got increasingly rough, she begged him to stop because he was suffocating her.

Frey then wrote she saw the face of an unknown woman with a bright smile and curly, brown hair who was laughing. Weeks later, Frey said, she realized the woman in her dream was Laci Peterson.

Frey spends much time outlining how she found a lawyer, how she worked with police and how she handled the media.

She also recounts meeting Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, who called Frey shortly after her initial news conference. She went to the family's home and met Laci's sister, aunt and stepfather.

"It took a huge weight off my shoulders, just knowing that they knew that I wasn't the enemy," she wrote.

Frey spends dozens of pages rehashing recorded phone calls between her and Peterson that were replayed during the trial.

Frey stops short of saying she believes Peterson is guilty. But when the verdicts came on Nov. 12, she said she felt relief and that justice was served.

Scott Peterson is Guilty

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- In a case that became a real-life soap opera for millions of Americans, Scott Peterson was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder with special circumstances in the death f his wife, Laci, who was eight months pregnant with their first child when she vanished on Christmas Eve 2002 from her home in Modesto.

Peterson was also found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his unborn son. The first-degree murder verdict makes him eligible to receive the death penalty, which will be determined in a separate phase of the trial.

After a week and a half of hostile deliberations that saw the judge dismiss two jurors on consecutive days, the six-woman, six-man jury walked into the courtroom in San Mateo County after lunch with impassive faces.

As the court clerk read the verdict, Peterson, 32, stared straight ahead while family and friends gasped and sobbed. He then looked at each of the jurors as they were polled to confirm their decision.

Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, cried as relatives huddled around her. Scott Peterson's mother, Jackie, sitting on the other side of the courtroom, stared at the floor in disbelief. As bailiffs led her down a staircase to the courthouse grounds, she could hear several hundred people outside erupt in cheers at news of the verdict.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors, as well as family members and friends, left without saying a word to the more than 100 television and newspaper journalists from around the world who had formed a gauntlet in the hallway.

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi had admonished attorneys and jurors that a gag order was still in effect in the 5 1/2-month trial, whose penalty phase is scheduled to begin Nov. 22.

"Because of this verdict, you will be subject of much scrutiny," he said, thanking the jury for its diligence. After a foreman had been excused Wednesday, the jury deliberated about eight hours before reaching its verdict. "You've been a very good jury."

The 2-year-old case, which became nightly fodder for nationwide cable TV talk shows, struck a particular chord with women, some of whom made special trips from the Midwest and East to visit Modesto and drive by the green house where Laci Peterson had decorated a nursery for a son the couple had planned to name Conner.

Women and men who followed every twist and turn explained the same fascination: She was pregnant and so pretty, and he went out and had an affair. Why didn't he just divorce her and pay child support?

Only a monster, one man said, could kill his wife and dump her body into San Francisco Bay on the eve of her giving birth to his son.

Laci Peterson had grown up on a dairy outside Modesto, where her father's family, the Rochas, had been milking cows for half a century. Modesto, which is 90 miles west of San Francisco, was a town caught between its farming past and suburban future.

Laci Peterson seemed at ease in both worlds. If drag-racing on the main street wasn't nearly the scene it had been when filmmaker George Lucas grew up there -- a hot-rod culture captured in his film "American Graffiti" -- Modesto still felt provincial.

Laci Peterson, a feisty child with flashing brown eyes and a perfect smile, became a high school cheerleader. When college beckoned, she did what many youths in the San Joaquin Valley do. She headed over the mountain to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, far enough away to feel liberated but not too far in case she got homesick. It was there, after receiving an award as the outstanding freshman in ornamental horticulture, that she met Scott Peterson.

He was the youngest of seven children, a jock, but not in the rugged sort of way. The son of a San Diego businessman who owned a crate and packing company, he grew up on the golf course. For a time, Scott Peterson entertained dreams of going pro like Phil Mickelson, his high-school teammate. But as his relationship with Laci Peterson grew more serious, he began to focus on a business path. After graduation, boosted by a loan from his father, he and Laci Peterson opened a sports bar, The Shack, in San Luis Obispo.

Their marriage appeared perfect to Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, who had gone through a messy divorce from her husband, Dennis Rocha. As Laci Peterson made plans for a family, she felt the pull of Modesto again. Scott Peterson left the bar business and agreed to the move. They bought a three-bedroom, two-bath house for $177,000 in an upscale neighborhood.

He took a job as a fertilizer salesman, and she worked as a substitute teacher. Family and friends said she poured most of her energies into being the perfect housewife. She loved to cook and entertain, and couldn't get enough of Martha Stewart. The only hint of suburban rebellion was the small sunflower tattooed on one ankle.

The news that Laci Peterson was pregnant seemed to make her glow, her mother and younger sister said. As Christmas 2002 approached, the invitations to the baby shower were already in the mail.

Most mornings, Laci Peterson took their golden retriever for a walk in the park. On this morning, Dec. 24, 2002, the dog was loose in the front yard with its collar and leash.

Laci Peterson, four weeks shy of giving birth, had disappeared.

By his own account, Scott Peterson had left the house at 9:30 a.m. that day and driven to a marina in Berkeley. He said he wanted to go fishing in his new 14-foot aluminum boat. He returned home late that afternoon and promptly called his mother-in-law, telling her that his wife was missing.

In the days that followed, Modesto rallied to find Laci Peterson. Just a year earlier, the town had been convulsed by the murder of Chandra Levy, the local girl who went to Washington, D.C., to be an intern and fell in love with local Rep. Gary Condit. Unlike Levy, who disappeared 3,000 miles away, the Peterson mystery was right there at home.

On foot and horseback, grim-faced dairymen, many sharing the Rochas' Portuguese heritage, combed the neighborhoods and farm fields. Family and friends set up a command center at a downtown hotel and passed out 25,000 fliers to scores of volunteers. Truckers sprinkled the fliers on their north and south routes. On shop windows and utility poles as far away as Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Mexico, there was Laci Peterson with her gleaming smile.

It didn't take long for the whispers to grow. Scott Peterson, while joining the search for his wife, was caught laughing and uttering sentiments that didn't seem to fit the portrait of a worried husband at wits' end.

Laci Peterson's mother stood by him, telling reporters that he loved his wife too much. But her father, a small, powerfully built man dressed in Wrangler jeans and roper boots, began to wonder. "I hope it's not him," Dennis Rocha said. "How can I explain that?"

The nation had become increasingly obsessed with a series of dramas and tragedies involving the famous and powerful. In the manner of "Nicole and O.J.," "Monica and Bill," "Chandra and Gary," the everyday Petersons, "Laci and Scott," became the tabloid media's new fixation.

Mark Geragos emerged as lead attorney for Scott Peterson, who, it turned out, had been hiding a lover just down Highway 99 in Fresno. Massage therapist Amber Frey hired attorney Gloria Allred during the proceedings.

Allred portrayed the 28-year-old Frey as a victim of Scott Peterson's double life. She was an evangelical Christian and hard-working single mother who had no idea that he was married. But as the media began digging into Frey's past, another picture emerged. Frey had had an earlier affair with a male stripper whose wife was seven months pregnant.

Modesto police wanted the public to know that they were tracking down 175 high-risk parolees and sex offenders who lived nearby. In truth, they were focusing almost exclusively on Scott Peterson, listening to his phone conversations with Frey, who was operating the tape machine, and piecing together a circumstantial case.

Then in the spring of 2003, nearly four months after her disappearance, the bodies of Laci Peterson and her son, his umbilical cord still attached, washed up on a rocky shore in San Francisco Bay. A woman walking her dog had found the remains a few miles from where Scott Peterson had told police he had been fishing.

By now, he had traded in his Land Rover for a truck and was spending more and more time in San Diego playing golf. What he didn't know was that detectives had hidden a radio transponder on the truck and were tracking his every move. As lab technicians made positive identifications of the leg bones and muscle tissue, the police hurried to arrest him.

Scott Peterson had the look of a man on the run, with bleached hair and a matching goatee. He was carrying $15,000 in cash and a load of camping gear.

As the trial moved from Modesto to Redwood City because of pre-trial publicity, the media hordes followed, creating a five-month spectacle in the heart of this otherwise mundane waterfront community of 80,000.

Inside the courtroom, Peterson's, father, Lee, and mother, Jackie, who breathed with the help of plastic tubes connected to a canister of oxygen, took the same seat a few feet behind their son, who dressed impeccably in tailored suits and bold ties but otherwise wore an indifferent face. On the opposite side, a few feet behind the prosecutors, sat Laci's mother and stepfather, Ron Grantski, and a handful of other relatives.

From summer to winter, more than 183 witnesses and 48,000 pages of investigative reports and other documents were trotted out before the jury. But it was Peterson's own recorded voice, in his conversations with Frey, that seemed to define the trial. In the days after Laci's disappearance, as he was still attempting to flatter and romance Frey, Peterson's approach was full of syrup. As Frey began to pepper him, at the cops' insistence, with more pointed questions about his double life, he began to sound defensive, needy and whiney.

The job of mopping up the mess that Scott Peterson had made of his life fell to Geragos. Tall, tan and beefy, he strode purposely into court each day exuding all the confidence and power of a popular television personality, then wrapped an arm around Scott Peterson's shoulder and set him at ease with humorous asides whispered into his ear.

A few feet away sat prosecutor Rick Distaso, an athletic former military lawyer from Modesto. He was a few inches shorter, with a studious expression and small-town manner that suggested an indifference to high-profile legal jousting. Indeed, throughout the five-month trial, Distaso quietly droned on and on, steadily building a case in an unemotional tone.

The fact that the bodies of Laci Peterson and her fetus had washed up in the precise area where Scott Peterson had gone fishing that day was alone enough to convict him, Distaso argued.

Geragos countered that Laci Peterson was most likely kidnapped by strangers -- perhaps members of a satanic cult or homeless people at the park. They threw her into the bay to frame his client, he said. Geragos' theory appeared to fall flat; he never brought to the stand a lineup of promised mystery witnesses who were going to buttress it.

Geragos' key witness, Dr. Charles March, proved less than compelling. March had been touted as a fertility expert who would show that Laci Peterson's son had died sometime after Dec. 24. Such evidence, Geragos said, would clear his client of wrongdoing because he had been under constant surveillance from that time on.

On the stand, however, March conceded that he may have been mistaken in saying Conner Peterson was born alive on or around Dec. 29. Geragos abruptly ended his six-day case after calling 14 witnesses.

Scott Peterson was never called to testify.

Times staff writer Lee Romney and correspondent Robert Hollis contributed to this report.

©2005 Peterson Trial