After A Pregnant Pause, We Are Not Scott Free
By Bonnie Chernin Rogoff (11/13/04)
Whenever a human goes on trial for the murder of another human, public attention is diverted to the suspect’s face and conduct. Is there a tell-tale skipped heartbeat visible in the defendant’s expression? Signs of mourning? Anguish or grief? Hand-wringing or trembling?
There’d better be. If you’re a rich superstar athlete like O.J. Simpson, buckets of blood on your walls can’t convict you and you can walk away grinning from ear to ear. If you’re a beefy, smug-mugged ordinary chump like Scott Peterson, bad psychology can convict you. Sometimes Scott’s grin appeared like a mocking smirk. Mostly, he was inert. Neither Jekyll nor Hyde, Scott Peterson is a man seemingly without regrets or emotions.
This may surprise my pro-life compatriots, but I am not totally comfortable with this trial’s outcome. Scott Peterson had two giant pitfalls: his ego and his indifference. The evidence was circumstantial but compelling enough for the jury to convict and find Peterson guilty of double homicide. Had they returned a “not guilty” verdict it would have been understandable because there was some reasonable doubt as to his guilt. With O.J. there was no doubt and yet he was cleared of all charges. That provided the emotional backdrop that haunted Scott Peterson’s jury.
However, the jurors’ reasons for convicting are obvious; they were faced with several unpleasant dilemmas. They didn’t like the O.J. verdict and they don’t like Scott Peterson. If the jurors acquitted Peterson and the anchor used to weigh down Laci’s body were found later, they’d have to accept the fact that they released a guilty man. Balanced against that sobering thought, jurors were troubled by Peterson’s bizarre behavior from the beginning; his lack of anguish when Laci went missing and his affair with Amber Frey. Likely, Scott Peterson would have been cleared of all charges had he acted emotionally distraught over Laci’s disappearance.
That did not happen. Thus, the jurors are convinced they did the right thing, as was the woman in the back of the courtroom who, upon hearing the verdict announced, “Good. I’m glad.” Who can blame her? I share the emotion and desire to see justice served. I believe Peterson is guilty and won’t shed any tears when he’s put behind bars. With better counsel and a better attitude he could have saved his own hide.
There are important lessons that come out of this verdict. One is, pregnancy means something to most Americans and despite the garbage spewed by Planned Parenthood, unborn babies do count. Crimes against helpless women are horrible; even more so when the victim is carrying an unborn child. Too many times abusive men beat their pregnant women comatose hoping to induce an abortion. The pathetic pro-abortion forces banded together to try and stop the passage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Known as Laci and Connor’s Law, the bill was finally passed because Congress came to its collective senses. Pro-aborts ignore the rights of women who choose to have their babies.
Today, there are no whispers or complaints heard from the “pro-choice” groups. What can they say? The message to the abortion industry is that most of us don’t agree with them. If pro-aborts condemn the fetal homicide conviction, they reveal their extremism in that they won’t even make exceptions for wanted children. If they support the fetal homicide conviction it’s an admission of their own criminality, albeit their hideous murders occur in a different way and in a different place. Unlike the Peterson jury, pro-aborts are hopelessly deadlocked. Better to remain silent.
The message to abusive men is: don’t be too cocky. Don’t assume you’ll walk off scot-free if you abuse the helpless women in your lives, whether they are wives or lovers, pregnant or not. The message is that Laci and Connor have captured the hearts of America and the media. The message is that unborn children deserve protection, and men rotten enough to kill an unborn child will be held accountable by a jury and punished.
Hopefully, this verdict will give potential baby killers a long, pregnant pause.
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