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11-20-2004, 10:47 PM
http://fox40.trb.com/news/ktxl-111904prison,0,5104500.story?coll=ktxl-news-3
Peterson Trial: Prison
The Associated Press
November 19, 2004
REDWOOD CITY -- Scott Peterson could spend his remaining years catching glimpses of the bay where he launched his boat on Christmas Eve 2002, not far from where the bodies of his pregnant wife and unborn child eventually floated to shore.
Now convicted of their murders, Peterson will be transported to San Quentin State Prison overlooking San Francisco Bay if the jury recommends a death sentence following a hearing that begins Monday.
Cell doors on two of the three units at San Quentin look past walkways patrolled by rifle-toting guards, out at the same water that doomed Peterson when jurors didn't buy his alibi, that he just happened to be fishing when his wife, Laci Peterson, disappeared. The rooftop exercise yard on the original 1934 death row building, which now houses 68 of the best behaved condemned inmates, also overlooks the bay.
Should Peterson, 32, be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, he would almost certainly be sent to one of the state's eight maximum security prisons.
There, protecting him from the rough justice of his fellow inmates would be paramount.
"Scott Peterson won't be the first celebrity prisoner we have in California, and he won't be the last. We have a lot of experience in dealing with celebrities," said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Corrections. "We do have the capacity to protect someone with Scott Peterson's notoriety."
Peterson would be a likely target, both because his case became a worldwide obsession and because he stands convicted of the grisly murders of a woman and child.
Most likely, Peterson would go to the protective housing unit at California State Prison in Corcoran.
That's the prison home of cult leader Charles Manson, and Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Mass murderer Juan Corona lives there, as does Mikhail Markhasev, who killed the son of entertainer Bill Cosby.
Alternatively, he could be sent to a "sensitive needs yard" at one of several prisons. Those are reserved for child molesters, former police officers, repentant gang members or others who would likely be endangered were they allowed into the general prison population.
Erik and Lyle Menendez, the brothers convicted of murdering their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, spend their days in such units - Eric at California State Prison, Sacramento, known as "New Folsom," Lyle at Mule Creek State Prison near Ione. There, inmates can participate in schooling, jobs and other programming that earn them early release credits if they are eligible for parole.
Parole is not an alternative for Peterson, who faces either a lethal injection or life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, with the special circumstance of killing the fetus she was carrying. Scott faces an additional 15-year term for second-degree murder in that death.
Even the relative segregation of death row didn't stop an assault on condemned inmate Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993.
To this day, Davis avoids communal exercise yards, where he is a target because his crimes sparked California's three-strikes law for repeat offenders. Another inmate still managed to punch him, causing him to hit his head on a locker, as he was being escorted through the general San Quentin prison population to a medical appointment in August 2003. Davis wasn't seriously injured, Thornton said, though he was treated.
Should Peterson be sentenced to die, he would join a rogue's gallery that includes serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker for his 14 Los Angeles murders in the 1980s, and Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who co-founded the Crips street gang more than 30 years ago in Los Angeles and has written a series of children's books from Death Row.
Peterson Trial: Prison
The Associated Press
November 19, 2004
REDWOOD CITY -- Scott Peterson could spend his remaining years catching glimpses of the bay where he launched his boat on Christmas Eve 2002, not far from where the bodies of his pregnant wife and unborn child eventually floated to shore.
Now convicted of their murders, Peterson will be transported to San Quentin State Prison overlooking San Francisco Bay if the jury recommends a death sentence following a hearing that begins Monday.
Cell doors on two of the three units at San Quentin look past walkways patrolled by rifle-toting guards, out at the same water that doomed Peterson when jurors didn't buy his alibi, that he just happened to be fishing when his wife, Laci Peterson, disappeared. The rooftop exercise yard on the original 1934 death row building, which now houses 68 of the best behaved condemned inmates, also overlooks the bay.
Should Peterson, 32, be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, he would almost certainly be sent to one of the state's eight maximum security prisons.
There, protecting him from the rough justice of his fellow inmates would be paramount.
"Scott Peterson won't be the first celebrity prisoner we have in California, and he won't be the last. We have a lot of experience in dealing with celebrities," said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Corrections. "We do have the capacity to protect someone with Scott Peterson's notoriety."
Peterson would be a likely target, both because his case became a worldwide obsession and because he stands convicted of the grisly murders of a woman and child.
Most likely, Peterson would go to the protective housing unit at California State Prison in Corcoran.
That's the prison home of cult leader Charles Manson, and Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. Mass murderer Juan Corona lives there, as does Mikhail Markhasev, who killed the son of entertainer Bill Cosby.
Alternatively, he could be sent to a "sensitive needs yard" at one of several prisons. Those are reserved for child molesters, former police officers, repentant gang members or others who would likely be endangered were they allowed into the general prison population.
Erik and Lyle Menendez, the brothers convicted of murdering their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion in 1989, spend their days in such units - Eric at California State Prison, Sacramento, known as "New Folsom," Lyle at Mule Creek State Prison near Ione. There, inmates can participate in schooling, jobs and other programming that earn them early release credits if they are eligible for parole.
Parole is not an alternative for Peterson, who faces either a lethal injection or life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, with the special circumstance of killing the fetus she was carrying. Scott faces an additional 15-year term for second-degree murder in that death.
Even the relative segregation of death row didn't stop an assault on condemned inmate Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and killed 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993.
To this day, Davis avoids communal exercise yards, where he is a target because his crimes sparked California's three-strikes law for repeat offenders. Another inmate still managed to punch him, causing him to hit his head on a locker, as he was being escorted through the general San Quentin prison population to a medical appointment in August 2003. Davis wasn't seriously injured, Thornton said, though he was treated.
Should Peterson be sentenced to die, he would join a rogue's gallery that includes serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker for his 14 Los Angeles murders in the 1980s, and Stanley "Tookie" Williams, who co-founded the Crips street gang more than 30 years ago in Los Angeles and has written a series of children's books from Death Row.