By Troy Brownfield

Troy Sticks His Neck Out...

It's time to ask the musical question: "Is Scott Peterson getting hosed?"

Now, before you drown me in a cacophony of emails, let me remind you of a couple of things. "Innocent Until Proven Guilty." "Burden of Proof." "Reasonable Doubt." "Due Process." These are the core ideals of our justice system; they are not just books by Scott Turow.

I'm not going to try to exonerate Scott Peterson, nor am I going to try to convict him. Nor, though my inner sense of irony wants me to, will I point out that Gary Condit is from Modesto. (Although if the theories about Chandra Levy being pregnant were true, and were coupled with the other missing or dead pregnant women in Modesto, it might raise a few eyebrows; as it is, I will not cast aspersions on the character of the ex-Congressman when all we can really do is say that he's a scumbag for lying to a dead girl's parents. Anyway...)

If you watch CNN, you'll notice that a HUGE amount of time funnels toward this case. Instead of the news asking, "What did the war actually do?" or "Why is the economy still sucking?" or "Why don't they ever point out that Sammy broke TWO bats on that at-bat and the first one wasn't corked?", they would rather try Scott Peterson. Considering that there's an actual trial going on, it seems kind of funny, doesn't it?

Here's the one quantifiable truth as we know it: Peterson is an asshole for cheating on his wife. However, that does not make him a killer. No one is saying Bill Clinton is a killer, and Lord knows Little Bill has toured more than Phish. Yes, Peterson is an asshole; cheaters are assholes. That's true. But does being a cheater make you a killer? Not directly. Could it feed it? Sure. Is it proven? Again, no.

Frankly, here's the things that bug me about this case:

1) Celebrity Lawyers: This case went from serious to circus the minute that TV lawyers got invovled. Gloria Allred representing the mistress is particularly annoying. She's the woman that once said men are instantly corrupted when they hear... wait for it... Andrew "Dice" Clay jokes. Ridiculous. I've listened to Clay, and I respect my wife; Allred should go back to the kitchen where she belongs (ba-dump-bump).

2) Evidence: At least with OJ, you knew what the evidence was. They had footprints, hair, blood, a knife, a shoe and gloves and STILL couldn't convict. With Peterson, they have, well, they have...uh... he went fishing. Unless they come up with something huge, like a confession, a murder weapon, or more, reasonable doubt still exists. Unless of course, the jury is tainted by months of previous news coverage. Hmmmmm.....what did I say about hosing?

3) The Body: If Peterson killed her, he's the dumbest fucking criminal on Earth for dumping the body where his alibi is. In fact, that makes it LESS likely that he killed her, because any intelligent criminal would immediately dump the body where the husband's alibi was.

4) Motive: Where is it? With OJ, the proffered motive was jealous rage built on an abusive history. What is it here? That he cheated? That doesn't hold water, especially when you hear reports that he may have cheated with other women. In fact again, the more cheating, the less likely he killed his wife to be with a mistress. So was the motive rage? Over what? If they're making a case in the press, they're doing a piss-poor job of explaining why. I've seen "Murder She Wrote" episodes where Tom Bosley was more on the ball than this. Still, they're ahead of the Colorado police who a) could have stopped Columbine and b) never figured out the Ramsey case.

5) The Defense: I give anybody who invokes Satanic Cults a point for originality. It would almost be funny if it weren't for other dead pregnant women in the area. Somehow, that misses the national news coverage.

6) That I Even Know So Much About It: The news stations are so hot to get on any story anymore that they'll throw up any kind of scrap or conjecture in an effort to "get the get". They don't care what's right anymore. I refer you to the New York Times. Anyway, any high profile case in the U.S. in now tainted. Impartiality is gone. How can you expect a fair trial? Look at Martha Stewart; all the hub-bub, and over what? She only protected...get this... $45,000. They're on a big-ass witch-hunt for 45K with her, when people are still sitting on ice and pillows over Enron and other cases like it. Maybe it's because the president and his family didn't invest heavily in Martha.

7) Women Are Deified, Men Are Shit: That's what the media tells us now. In an effort to be more PC or more equitable coming out of the '80s, the compass has swung the other way. When a man is killed by his wife, it's a joke. Remember the guy whose wife ran him over (and over and over)? The media made that out to be a humor story. What about Lorena Bobbit? If a man butchered his wife's genitals, people would be SHRIEKING for his blood. A woman does it to a man, and it's a punchline.

I'm not justifying violence against women; far from it. ALL violence is bad. A woman killing her husband is just as much of a scumbag fucking murderer as a man who beats his wife to death. The media should acknowledge that. And yet, they don't.

I'm not pretending to know what happened. If I did, I'd open a shop with a crystal ball and take soccer moms for $50 a pop while telling them that their kids will grow up to be doctors. All I'm saying is that our culture has encoded a short-attention span and rushes to summary judgment. Remember Oklahoma City? The dust hadn't settled when people were calling for war on the Middle East; oops, he was a white American.

It is incumbent upon us as citizens to examine all sides of an issue and to actually learn the facts as they present themselves. It's a tragedy that Laci Peterson was murdered. It's a tragedy that she was almost due to give birth. Would it not be an equal tragedy to deprive her husband of freedom if he actually didn't commit the crime? I'm not defending him; I'm defending our system. If we just grab whoever we think is guilty and pillory them, how is that different from Salem? How is that different from our enemies at large in the world?

Let the prosecution present. That's why they're there. Let the defense present. Let the jury decide. And as for us, we don't matter unless we're empaneled. There's the court of public opinion, and there's the court of law. Even if Scott Peterson is acquitted, his public life is over. The Justice System has yet to render a verdict, but guilty or not, the media has already spoken.

Troy Brownfield is the Editor-in-Chief of Shotgun Reviews. Email Troy at psikotyk@aol.com

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