Our own "Scott Peterson"

Forgive me for this 1:30 am ramble.

Remember the whole Scott Peterson thing?

Ah yes, well documented ultra reality tv as I like to call it.

Im just wondering if anyone in the states has seen this on their news coverage.

The husband of a pregnant woman missing for the last week was charged with second-degree murder Monday, just one day after a search party he organized found a body.

Police department spokeswoman Lisa Lammi said Michael White also faces an additional charge of offering an indignity to a dead body. The charges followed the discovery Sunday night of a body on the city's outskirts, news that city residents both dreaded and expected ever since Liana White vanished early last Tuesday. Police said the body would not be positively identified until after an autopsy Tuesday morning.

White's Ford Explorer was abandoned just blocks from her home, with her purse, shoes and cellphone scattered nearby. Nothing appeared to have been taken, said police, nor were there any signs of a struggle.

Michael White, a 28-year-old heavy-duty mechanic, has been barred from the family home since Saturday while police combed it for clues. On Sunday he issued a heartfelt denial of any involvement in his wife's disappearance.

Canadian media was eating this up like thanksgiving dinner. I did not notice it on any american channels though, although I didnt view much today.

The fact that Liana White is four months pregnant has prompted chilling comparisons to Scott Peterson, a California man convicted of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn child. But White told the Sun that unlike Peterson, he was thrilled to discover Liana was pregnant again and both were looking forward to having a sibling for their two-year-old daughter.

news.yahoo.com...

Just a quick look on google news did not turn up many american sources for the story.

So really, why did the american media go nuts with the scott peterson thing, when really, in reality it only effects a small number of people (the family) its not national news?

Same situation here, no coverage.

I guess we need or own "scott petersons"

I doubt a crime that took place in Canada and doesn't involve Americans would get too much press in our media.

But who knows, I don't think anyone has figured out exactly why some of these stories get blown all out of proportion while other similar cases get little or no coverage.

I haven't seen a bit of coverage on this. I'm in the Western US

I'll have to agree, it's like a made for TV movie, reality style.
Of course the "boy next door" can't be from antoher country.
Like you said, we need our own Peterson.

But, unless viewers turn to another channel, it's a money maker.
So it's media saturation.

The whole thing was on the news everyday for like 2-3months.I live in california and the whole thing was in magazines,tv news,radio,news And they even made a movie based on the whole thing.poor thing that happened to the victem then they go and make a movie about it.i guess the news stations got so much ratings from it they had to make a movie.

If it doesn't involve Americans it is extrememly unlikely that there will be any US coverage. That's just the way the American news works.

What I find interesting is the difference between the two cases. If I remember correctly, Peterson was charged for the murder of the unborn child. This hasn't happened to White. Just murder and 'committing an indignity to a dead body'. I wonder if they will try to take a page from the US lawbooks and try to charge him for the fetus?

[edit on 19-7-2005 by Duzey]

I live in Edmonton, which is where the White case took place, so I have seen tons of coverage on it. Liana's van was found abandoned, doors open, at something like 5am or 5:30am. Her husband Michael stated to police that the last time he had seen his wife was at 6:15am when she left for work; obviously, the two statements do not agree. Also, Michael decided to form his own search team, comprised of family and friends, to look for his wife. His team was the one who found her body, and there was a map in the local newspaper; it is nowhere near the White home, Liana's place of work, or place of disappearance. It's very suspicious to me.

I'm not surprised this hasn't made news in the US. I can't see it being that big a story; I wouldn't have heard of it either, except that it is a local story, and White's place of work happens to be where I worked the last two summers, so it stuck out in my mind.

Originally posted by Duzey
If it doesn't involve Americans it is extrememly unlikely that there will be any US coverage. That's just the way the American news works.

Its not just that.

How many women came up missing in America during the Peterson hoopla that were not reported on the national news?

How many missing children during the Shasta thing?

We had a mother and father kill and dismember a child just north of us and not ONE WORD on CNN.

They pick and choose there stories for ratings reasons

Why didn't they charge him with premeditated (first degree) murder? It certainly sounds like it is one since he covered it up.

Originally posted by Amuk
Its not just that.

No, it's not, they do pick and choose the stories. If it bleeds, it leads. But the fact that it happened in Canada and has nothing to do with anyone American, pretty well ensures it won't be covered in the US media. If it were an American story, it would have a better shot at coverage. This is based on my own opinion based on 30+ years of watching US and Canadian news channels.

It's big news up here, just because we don't do the 'volume' you have in the US for news stories.

dj,

My guess on why he wasn't charged with first-degree is that it is much easier to gain a conviction on second-degree. Less to prove because you don't have to worry about the premeditation part. We don't have the death penalty anyways, so they're not losing that much by charging him with a slightly lesser offence.

Maybe the standard is higher in Canada, but here you just pretty much have to show intent to kill in the split second before the fatal attack, not a long planned plot to kill...I don't think getting 1st degree here is much harder. Anyway it's usually left up to the jury to lower it to 2nd degree if they can't agree on the premeditation part.

I think people here are rarely charged with 2nd degree, either they plead down to it or the jury gives it as a lesser conviction.

I think our laws are worded slightly different than yours. First-degree is usually reserved for killings that are pre-meditated/planned in advance, happened during a crime, murder for hire, and when a police officer or prison official is killed. It's quite a long section in the criminal code, but I'll try to pick out the relevant parts for you.

Classification of murder
231. (1) Murder is first degree murder or second degree murder.

Planned and deliberate murder
(2) Murder is first degree murder when it is planned and deliberate.

Contracted murder
(3) Without limiting the generality of subsection (2), murder is planned and deliberate when it is committed pursuant to an arrangement under which money or anything of value passes or is intended to pass from one person to another, or is promised by one person to another, as consideration for that other's causing or assisting in causing the death of anyone or counselling another person to do any act causing or assisting in causing that death.

Murder of peace officer, etc.
(4) Irrespective of whether a murder is planned and deliberate on the part of any person, murder is first degree murder when the victim is

(a) a police officer, police constable, constable, sheriff, deputy sheriff, sheriff's officer or other person employed for the preservation and maintenance of the public peace, acting in the course of his duties;

(b) a warden, deputy warden, instructor, keeper, jailer, guard or other officer or a permanent employee of a prison, acting in the course of his duties; or

(c) a person working in a prison with the permission of the prison authorities and acting in the course of his work therein.

.......snips part about death that occurs during the commission of a crime is first-degree..........

......snips terrorists are first-degree murders.....

Using explosives in association with criminal organization
(6.1) Irrespective of whether a murder is planned and deliberate on the part of a person, murder is first degree murder when the death is caused while committing or attempting to commit an offence under section 81 for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a criminal organization.

Intimidation
(6.2) Irrespective of whether a murder is planned and deliberate on the part of a person, murder is first degree murder when the death is caused while committing or attempting to commit an offence under section 423.1.

Second degree murder
(7) All murder that is not first degree murder is second degree murder.

laws.justice.gc.ca...

The sentencing is very similar between first- and second-degree. First gets you mandatory 'life' with no parole for 25 years (except for the faint hope clause which is very rarely used) and second gets you the same except that parole can be sought after 10 - 25 years, as decided by the judge when sentence is passed. Not too much of a difference between them.

And I found in the same section the answer to my pondering about the unborn child:

When child becomes human being
223. (1) A child becomes a human being within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother, whether or not

(a) it has breathed;

(b) it has an independent circulation; or

(c) the navel string is severed.

Killing child
(2) A person commits homicide when he causes injury to a child before or during its birth as a result of which the child dies after becoming a human being.

I learned something new today.....