Argosy University
Criminal Law CJA215-AUO
Professor: Robert Dougherty
By: Misty Brown
March 13, 2014

The trial of Scott Peterson, too many, have be one that hits close to home. Scott has been charged with murdering his wife and unborn child. A little background for this couple, in 1995 Scott caught Laci’s eye at a local restaurant, where Scott worked as a waiter. Few conversations passed between the young couple and Laci got up the courage to give her number to a friend to pass to Scott. After a few years, they married and opened a restaurant and shortly after that they sold the restaurant to move and start their family. Laci’s mother, Sharon Rocha, knew from the moment her daughter met Scott that she was in love. In 2002, Laci went missing. Scott had an alibi, being he had gone fishing when Laci went missing. Scott also refused to take a lie detector test and was being told by Jackie Peterson, his mother, to deny everything. Sharon had stated, "Soon after Laci went missing, I made a promise to her that if she's been harmed, we will seek justice for her and Conner and make sure that that person responsible for their deaths will be punished." Scott jumped in on the searching and playing it off as the worried distraught husband, pleading for any information as to the whereabouts of his wife and unborn child. Something that Scott forgot to mention that he was having an affair with Amber Frey. Amber was the one who came forward about their ongoing affair in January 2003 and stated the affair had been going on since November 2002, after Scott had told her he was a single man. Scott would also write letters to Amber while he was in prison, telling her he, “would follow in the footstep of the Lord” and they would be a happy couple. On April 14, 2003, the body of Laci Peterson and the unborn child were found on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The authorities arrested Scott on that same day. Scott was being held with capital murder/double homicide without bail. On April 21, 2003, Scott pleads not guilty to two felony counts of murder. On December 3, 2003 Scott pleads not guilty again at his formal trial. June 1, 2004, Scott’s trial starts with a jury of six men and six women. On November 12, 2004, the jury finds Scott, guilty of first degree murder for Laci’s death and second degree murder for their unborn child, Conner’s death (CNN Library, 2013). On December 13, 2004, the jury recommends, that Scott should receive the death penalty, to which Judge Alfred Delucchi agrees with the recommendation. On July 5, 2012, Scott’s automatic appeal is filed in California Supreme Court. In this trial, the evidence that was presented was stated as circumstantial evidence. There was a hair that was presented, belonging to Laci Peterson, which was found on Scott’s boat. There was also evidence that Scott had made five homemade anchors, which were made from a water pitcher, and four of the five anchors were missing. These anchors were stated to be what held Laci’s body underwater. The prosecution also had a dark hair that was found on a pair of pliers in Scott’s boat. The defense on the hair that was found on the pair of pliers was that, Laci’s hair could have been transferred from her head, to her husband’s jacket onto the pliers in the boat without her even being present. A scientist specializing in tides studied the location of the remains and concluded they separated just off Brooks Island, the same area of the bay where Peterson said he fished. In the month after his wife vanished but long before her remains washed ashore, Peterson repeatedly visited a bay overlook with a vantage point of Brooks Island. A phone tap captured Peterson giving a "low whistle" of apparent relief when he learned through a voice mail that an object detected by sonar on the bay floor was an anchor and not his wife's body. (Deputy District Attorney Rick Distaso). A tarp Peterson apparently used during his fishing trip was found drenched in