Cases Of The Century

Pop quiz, hotshot: Which of the two men above just got sentenced to death? The fella on the right actually appears more busted up to be going free than the Hell-bound man on the left. Some thoughts on yesterday's verdicts:

While I was at the bar yesterday, awaiting the start of the next NTN Trivia session, they announced that Scott Peterson had received a death sentence for the murder of his wife and fetus. What surprised me about this was not the fact he got Death, because I think that was a foregone conclusion, but the weird outpouring of emotion of people not even connected to the case. Whatever news channel I was watching was reporting from the courthouse, and the woman reporting on the proceedings was getting rather frothy at the mouth just talking about it. Others were reaching states of apoplexy. Settle down, people. Unless you're a member of Laci's family, there's really no need for you to be getting this upset. Sure, it's terrible what happened to Laci and Fetus, and Scott is a world-class prick, but he's getting what's coming to him, even if he was convicted on a case based solely on circumstantial evidence and that his actual death will be put off for years by the appellate process. The person I feel sorry for is Amber Frey, whose 15 minutes of fame, after a quick tour through the talk show circuit to discuss this verdict, will be up. Poor Amber; that's what she gets for dating a murderer.

And speaking of cases based on circumstantial evidence, the jury couldn't pin the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley-Blake on Baretta. Despite the fact that, other than the victim, he was the only person at the crime scene, the gun was right there, and he had more than enough motive to do the deed, the jury took a pass. This probably worked out for the best for all parties involved, however. If anything I've heard about Bonny is true, she probably got what was coming to her. To misquote Chris Rock for my own personal use: I don't condone what Robert Blake did, but I understand.