Scott Peterson gets death sentence for murdering his pregnant wife

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A jury decided Monday that Scott Peterson should be executed for murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, whose Christmas Eve disappearance two years ago was the opening act in a legal drama that captivated the nation.

Cheers went up outside the courtroom as the jury announced its decision after 11 1/2 hours of deliberations over three days. The jury had two options in deciding the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman's fate: life in prison without parole or death by injection.

Peterson clenched his jaw when the verdict was read but showed no other emotion.

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi will formally sentence Peterson on Feb. 25. The judge will have the option of reducing the sentence to life, but such a move is highly unlikely.

If the judge upholds the sentence, Peterson will be sent to death row at San Quentin State Prison outside San Francisco, the infamous lockup where prisoners gaze out small cell windows overlooking the same bay where Laci Peterson's body was discarded.

But Peterson still might not be executed for decades, if ever. That is because California's death row has grown to house about 650 condemned men and women since the state brought back capital punishment in 1978. Since then, only 10 executions have been carried out — the last one in 2002. It can take years for even the first phase of the appeals process to begin.

The jury's decision followed seven days of tearful testimony in the penalty phase of the trial. Shortly before reaching its decision, the jury had asked the judge to see 13 pieces of evidence, including autopsy photos and aerial pictures of San Francisco Bay.

In arguing for death last week, prosecutors called Peterson "the worst kind of monster" and said he was undeserving of sympathy. Defense attorney Mark Geragos begged of jurors: "Just don't kill him. That's all I am asking of you. End this cycle."

The death sentence came almost two years to the date after the disappearance of Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old substitute teacher who married her college sweetheart and was soon to be the proud mother of a baby boy named Conner. The story set off a tabloid frenzy as suspicion began to swirl around Scott Peterson, who claimed to have been fishing by himself on Christmas Eve and was carrying on an affair with a massage therapist at the time.