High Court Won’t Slow Process for Peterson

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. —  The California Supreme Court on Monday declined to delay the penalty phase of the Scott Peterson trial, setting the stage for the same jury that convicted him of killing his pregnant wife and unborn son to now determine whether he should live or die.

Prosecutors are expected to launch the penalty phase today by presenting vivid testimony of how Laci Peterson’s slaying, on Christmas Eve of 2002, has devastated relatives, including her mother, Sharon Rocha, who once counted Scott Peterson as a trusted friend.

The court’s decision follows an appeal made by defense attorney Mark Geragos on Wednesday to impanel a new jury in another county, such as Los Angeles, to handle the penalty phase. Geragos argued that the current panel has been tainted by the intense publicity surrounding the case.

Of particular concern, Geragos has said, was the “lynch mob atmosphere” created by an estimated 1,000 people who gathered at the courthouse and cheered after the verdict was read.

But the high court refused to intervene at this point in the 5 1/2 -month trial.

Criminal trial analysts said that Peterson’s request for a delay may be part of a legal strategy designed to put some time between the guilty verdict and the penalty phase and, as one put it, “let jurors’ emotions cool off a little.”

“Obviously, the jury must have felt very antagonistically when they came back with that verdict,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School. “It can’t hurt. The further you go into the holiday period, the more forgiving jurors can be.”

On Nov. 12, the six-man, six-woman jury convicted the 32-year-old Modesto fertilizer salesman on one count of first-degree murder in the death of Laci Peterson and one count of second-degree murder for the killing of the couple’s unborn son, Conner.

Prosecutors are expected to paint Peterson as a liar, philanderer and heartless killer, presenting a video highlighting Laci Peterson’s life and retelling the facts of the case in detail.

Prosecutors argued that Peterson strangled or smothered his wife and dumped her body into San Francisco Bay, about a month after he began an affair with Fresno massage therapist Amber Frey.

About four months later, the bodies of Laci Peterson and her unborn son washed up on the shore, near where Peterson had told police he had been fishing on the day she was first reported missing.

The speculation is that Geragos will argue that his client’s life should be spared because there was too much lingering doubt in the largely circumstantial case to condemn Peterson to die.

Trial analysts do not expect Peterson to testify on his own behalf, given that hundreds of secretly tape-recorded conversations between Peterson and Frey showed him to be a chronic liar.

“I think it is highly unlikely that Peterson will take the stand,” Levenson said. “The tapes make him out to be such a liar that it is doubtful whether the jury would take seriously anything Scott Peterson says.

“Ultimately, however, Peterson will have to decide that for himself. It’s his call,” Levenson said. “This man’s life is on the line. He may decide he’s got nothing left to lose.”

The penalty phase is expected to last about four days before the jury resumes sequestered deliberations.