Peterson, Scott - Life on Death Row
INSIDE STORY: Scott Peterson's Life on Death Row
BY VICKIE BANE
Saturday April 11, 2009
Sitting in a 4-by-9-foot cell on San Quentin's Death Row,
Scott Peterson doesn't have a lot of choices in life, but he can decide how to
decorate his wall.
While many cons plaster their cells with
pictorial collages, Peterson has only one photo hanging across from his bunk: a
smiling shot of him and his wife, Laci.
It's a much different pose from his most recent
mug shot – taken in June of 2007 – where his dark hair was clipped short by
fellow cons in the exercise yard. Under his half-smiling face is a placard with
his inmate number and the word: "Condemned."
Peterson, 36, was sentenced to death by lethal
injection in March of 2005 after being convicted of murdering Laci and their
unborn son, Conner, and tossing them in the San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve
day of 2002. His case is on appeal, which
means he isn't likely to face execution for two decades.
In the four years he has called San Quentin
home, not much has changed except the view: eight months ago Peterson moved
from a fifth tier cell on East Block with a slivered view of the bay to being
"on the yard side," says Samuel Robinson, a lieutenant with the
California Department of Corrections who has been at San Quentin since before
Peterson arrived.
Plays Cards, Basketball
It's the same yard where Peterson now spends five hours a day
shooting hoops, doing pull-ups and playing cards with other inmates like
William Noguera, a prison artist who was convicted of murder for financial gain
in 1983. "There are a group of guys that he hangs with," Robinson
tells PEOPLE, "but it's not anyone of any (criminal) notoriety."
Predictions that Peterson might be ostracized –
or worse – because of Conner's death have proven not to be true. "In
Scott's case," says Robinson, "the perception [among the inmates] is
that he killed his wife, and yeah she was pregnant, but he killed his wife. He
hasn't encountered the challenges others face who have killed kids
individually."
Robinson says Peterson still gets regular visits
– several each month – from family and friends. He also receives numerous
letters from female admirers who send him checks for his commissary account.
"He has a significant amount of money in his account from people all over
the world," says Robinson. Peterson can spend $180 a month on items such
as soda, candy, cookies, toothpaste and deodorant.
Blogging from Prison
Peterson's only communication with the outside world is the
blogging he has done on a Web site set up by his family, where he comments on
his case and news events. (The site, scottpetersonappeal.org, is currently not
in operation.) Since Robinson says inmates are not allowed to have computers or
access the Internet, his blogs are composed on a typewriter and mailed to his
family to post. His most recent post, headlined "Media spotlight wrong
again," concerned the arrest of a man in the Chandra Levy murder.
Despite being locked in a cell for 19 hours a
day, Robinson believes Peterson has adjusted well to his confinement.
"You're still able to forge relationships with people who live around you
and you try to make the most of your condition," says Robinson. "I
think that's what Scotty is doing."