A California judge Wednesday sentenced a young salesman to death for murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn child, following one of the most publicized trials in US history.
Judge Alfred Delucchi described the double murder as "cruel, uncaring, heartless and callous" as he upheld the death sentence handed down against 32-year-old Scott Peterson by a trial jury in December.
Sitting in Redwood City, near San Francisco, the judge also denied a defense request for a fresh trial.
Under California law, Delucchi had to consider whether to hand down a lesser sentence of life in prison, but chose to uphold the jury's wish and send Peterson to death row.
The decision to put Peterson to death came despite the fact that no direct proof of his involvement in the murders was presented at his five-month trial, which became a televised soap opera that gripped America.
In November, the jury found the former fertilizer salesman guilty of the first degree murder of his wife Laci and their unborn son Connor just over two years ago.
Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old teacher who was eight months pregnant with the couple's first child, disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002, sparking a major search that was initially presided over by her husband.
Suspicion eventually fell on Scott Peterson, and four months after his wife's mysterious disappearance, her decomposing body and that of her unborn son were fished out of San Francisco Bay.
Peterson was arrested in April 2003 after dying his dark hair blond and driving hundreds of miles south toward Mexico, carrying 15,000 dollars in cash.
Prosecutors alleged that he killed Laci to escape the shackles of marriage and reclaim the life of a bachelor, and then tossed her body off his recently-purchased fishing boat.
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