The national fascination with Scott Peterson's trial and the local passions surrounding it didn't ebb last Friday, when a jury in San Mateo, Calif., found him guilty of killing his wife and her fetus. Still to come: whether he should die for his crimes.
Considering the highly charged atmosphere enveloping the jurors, the chances that Peterson will get a fair, dispassionate hearing on that life-and-death question are slim.
The potential for emotions to decide Peterson's fate highlights how capriciously capital punishment is applied. That possibility was heightened when San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi sent jurors home for nine days, where they'll likely discover that the Petersons' hometown of Modesto is still seething with anger over the double slayings.
Those passions were palpable outside the courthouse when the verdicts came in. Pandemonium broke loose, people cheered and horns honked. Even Scott Peterson's mother was jeered as she left the courthouse.
Amid this tumult, jurors are supposed to decide Peterson's punishment judiciously?
Other jurisdictions have found ways to avoid a delay between verdict and sentencing. Even in the highest-profile cases, the sentencing hearing often begins within two days of the verdict.
That was true in the case of Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. He was sentenced to death. True, too, for Lee Malvo, a 19-year-old found guilty last year of being one of the Washington-area snipers who terrorized the region. A Virginia jury spared his life. Keeping the Peterson jury sequestered and moving speedily to the penalty phase make more sense. But that's just a detail.
A better solution is to abolish capital punishment. Even if jurors vote for death, Peterson might not be executed for years, if ever. Since 1978, when California voters reinstated the death penalty, more than 630 people have been condemned to death. Yet only 10 have been executed.
A sentence of life in prison without any chance of parole can be carried out sooner and at less cost. It poses no risk of executing a person who is later found to be innocent.
And it certainly prevents jurors from sending a person to his death because they got caught up in the emotions of the moment.
(source: Editorial, USA TODAY) 
To see video of the crowds outside the courthouse cheering after the Peterson verdict, please click this link and go to 4:23 into the video.(embedding was disabled)http://youtu.be/fx5jTeWkdGw
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