Introduction to Administration of Justice

Midterm Study Guide Question

(Scott Peterson)

Review the following links:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Peterson https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_California

Although most of you were probably too young to remember much about Scott Peterson murdering his wife and unborn son and being sentenced to California's death row in a 2004 trial.

Well, he's back in the news today, with his attorneys trying to find ways to either obtain a new trial or, at the least, a new sentencing trial.

On August 24, 2020, in a 7 - 0 decision, theSupreme Court of Californiaupheld Peterson's conviction, but overturned his death sentence because Peterson's trial judge, Alfred Delucchi, who had died on February 26, 2008, had dismissed jurors who opposed capital punishment without asking them whether they could put their views aside. Justice Leondra Kruger explained that per Supreme Court rulings since 1968, "Jurors may not be excused merely for opposition to the death penalty, but only for views rendering them unable to fairly consider imposing that penalty in accordance with their oath. This is the meaning of the guarantee of an impartial jury.

What is your position on the process of jury selection. Have we gone to far in trying to obtain "impartial" jurors to the point that it affecting the trial process? Is this what is meant by beating the system with a technicality?