부산대학교 도서관

The article focuses on what Scott Peterson can expect on San Quentin's death row. In the San Mateo County jail, where Scott Peterson has spent the last 14 months, the easy charm that served him so well before things went bad has come in handy. "Scott's a model prisoner," says San Francisco Bay Area criminal defense attorney Paula Canny, who gets updates about him from her clients in San Mateo. After a March 16 hearing at which a superior court judge is expected to uphold his conviction for killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn son Conner in 2002, Peterson, 32, will move into his new home--death row at San Quentin. The 617 prisoners on San Quentin's death row "face a living hell," says Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking and a prisoners' rights advocate who has counseled death row inmates there. Peterson will join a gallery of notorious killers facing execution, including Richard Ramirez (the Night Stalker) and the Yosemite slayer Cary Stayner. If history is a guide, his tenancy will be a long one: The average time spent on death row between an inmate's appeal and his release or execution is "20 years, give or take 2, at least here in California," says James Anderson, a former Alameda County prosecutor who sent 10 convicts to death row. He predicts Peterson will have a hard time of it. INSET: ON DEATH ROW.