I'm usually right on the "those darned liberals" boat with you Michael, but not on this item. For this particular case, I don't believe there was the weight of evidence necesary to support the death penalty: We have multiple offense thugs in California prisons who were caught on tape killing multiple victims, caught with the gun that did the crime, confessed to the crime, and showed no remorse for their deeds. For them, I think we are wasting resources better spent by removing them from the gene pool. One can, in my eyes, refute their right to inhale based on their actions.
Remember Lawrence Singleton? Raped and cut the hands off of a 14 year old girl, then left her for dead in a field. She crawled (on stumps, mind you) through fields and sewers to get herself some help (had those mechanical claws for a while...may have different prosthetics now). He did some time, got out with much public ado, and went right back to a life of crime, committing heinous acts against young victims. Granted, nobody actually died in the famous case that sent him to prison (though apparently some did later). Rather, she (the young woman he tortured and maimed) went through all of the trials and trauma of one being murdered, but had the undesirable distinction of living though it to try and piece together some semblance of normalcy afterwards.
I would have stood in line to pull the switch on Singleton if he had been given the death penalty, but we stopped penalizing rape with execution when it was rightly shown that people of color from lower SES's were being convicted and executed disproportionately more than whites. Until that issue is resolved and/or controlled for (which may be an impossibility), I do believe the state has an obligation to double and triple check it's use of the death penalty. That having been said, Singleton was white, and should have died for his crimes (strong trail of substantial evidence). Peterson is white, and should spend his days rotting in a cell, having nightmares about dropping the soap in the shower, and wondering when his next severe beating will come about for being the convicted killer of an unborn baby (weak trail of not-very-substantial evidence).
This judgement is made having not been on the jury, and not having been privvy to all of the details they had exposure to. If I was on the jury, I might be ready to stand in line to pull the switch on him, as well.
Dave