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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
'Man or monster' convict appeals
Scott Peterson (CP)
SAN FRANCISCO -- Eight years after he was sentenced to death for the murders of his wife and unborn son, Scott Peterson has filed an automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court.
Death penalty lawyer Cliff Gardner filed the 423-page document Thursday.
A San Mateo County jury found the former fertilizer salesman guilty of suffocating Laci and dumping her in the San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002.
Peterson has always maintained his innocence. Gardner claims the overwhelming publicity Peterson's trial received, incorrect evidentiary rulings and other mistakes deprived him of a fair trial. Peterson was convicted in 2004 after a trial his attorney argues surpassed the O.J. Simpson murder trial in publicity.
Peterson claims Laci was killed sometime after he left their Modesto home the morning of Dec. 24, 2002 to go fishing in the San Francisco Bay. Gardner notes Peterson was convicted and sentenced to death even though investigators never directly proved "how, where or when" the murder occurred.
Gardner argues the intense publicity the case generated almost from the moment Laci disappeared deprived Peterson of a fair trial.
"Before hearing even a single witness, nearly half of all prospective jurors admitted they had already decided Mr. Peterson was guilty of capital murder,' Gardner argues. And in what may have been a first for the American system of justice, outside the courthouse in which the parties would try to select a fair jury, a radio station posted a large billboard that had a telephone number for people to call in and vote" whether Peterson was a "man or monster."
The appeal is expected to take months, if not years, to be resolved.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 7, 2012 A27
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