November 12, 2004, Scott Won't Go Scot Free
Scott Peterson was found guilty of first degree murder in the case of his late wife Laci and of second degree murder in the case of their unborn son Connor (Laci was eight months pregnant), according to a California jury. Peterson, who has used what I'll call a "chutzpah defense" strategy, was, as you will recall, found shortly after the death of his wife having $15,000 in cash and having dyed his hair, and reputed to be headed for Mexico (rule one: when fleeing the country after committing a heinous crime, flee). Peterson had also (coincidentally) bought a boat shortly before Laci's death and (even more coincidentally) was "out fishing" around the time of the mureder and (you just won't BELIEVE this coincidence-- but it's just a coincidence-- or a frame) Laci's body washed up right around the marina where Scott kept his boat.
Among the theories (besides "no one actually SAW him kill Laci" and "Scott watched CSI enough times to know not to leave physical evidence, so he must be not guilty") offered by defense lawyer to the star scumbags Mark Geragos concerned the motive: why would Scott want to leave his life for this particular bimbo when he had at least two other affairs? (chutzpah defense).
Well, the judge having duly tossed off the troublemaker jurors likely to acquit, Peterson has been duly convicted, and faces either the more humane lethal injection, or life without parole in California's gang-rape happy prison system (at least the former California attorney general was big on telling us it was gang-rape happy).
To be honest with you, if someone like Peterson were actually executed (not merely sentenced to death, but actually executed), it would go a long way at least in my own mind of dispelling the notion that Americans cannot-- as in we're incapable of it-- administer the death penalty fairly, because we would never (as in NEVER) administer it to a good looking middle class White man.
Not to worry. We won't in this case, either. Even if Peterson seems as deserving a case as any we've seen in some time.
Comments
You make just about the only compelling case I can think of for executing anyone not guilty of Rape, Treason, Genocide or Slavery...
Posted by Andrew Cory at November 12, 2004 10:23 PM
Though but an amateur at law (computer tech at a law firm), I'm not sure "the judge having duly tossed off the troublemaker jurors likely to acquit" (chutzpah) will pass muster at appeal.
While throughout the trail I have found things far more important to pay attention to - ahhh... computers, the war (Vietnam Vet), worst. president. ever. - my limited exposure has (had?) led me to feel that the state had pretty much bungled its prosecution.
Posted by Thomas Ware at November 12, 2004 10:51 PM
"we would never (as in NEVER) administer it to a good looking middle class White man."
Of course we wouldn't. He could be our son or our brother, which apparently trumps the fact that "Laci" could be our daugther or our sister. Apparently we're more easily convinced that the killer could be one of our kin than the victim could be. To kill a good-looking middle-class white man he'd have to be a serial killer, somebody like Ted Bundy.
Posted by Miss Authoritiva at November 12, 2004 10:59 PM
I bet we could if the victim were an even better looking, wealthier and blonder man.
Posted by Michael Farris at November 13, 2004 4:13 AM
We don't have this problem in Korea. Oow, my stomach hurts. Inspire poetry:
I like Great Dane
But digestion a pain.
Ha Ha Ha!!
Posted by kim jong-illin at November 13, 2004 11:54 AM
kim, that shit stopped being funny a long time ago, please be somewhere else.
Posted by Michael Farris at November 14, 2004 4:23 PM
Wow, kim jong-illin.
It sounds like you have just been served.
Posted by They Call Me Mr. Crabcake at November 15, 2004 11:36 AM
Michael Farris, you funny. You so funny, you can decide what is funny on someone else's site. You must be liberal, liberals do this stuff all the time.
You know, you say this in Korea, I hang your innards all along the DMZ, sort of like what happened to Spartacus. Now, I call you Farricus. Ha Ha Ha!!
Posted by kim jong-illin at November 15, 2004 3:09 PM