Scott Peterson Trial Research Paper

Who doesn't love a good murder trial that gives in-depth, behind-the-scenes coverage, inside looks in the courtroom, and up-to-date information about the murder? The real answer is no one. Media coverage makes the trials notorious. Without the media, no one would know anything. No one would see the crime scene photos, the courtroom verdicts, the defendants' defense. Media makes the trials notorious. We will explore the relationship between motive and viciousness, and how these factors lead to media coverage, making trials notorious. When a crime is committed, there is usually a motive behind that crime. The crime is vicious, the worst of the worst, the unimaginable. With motive and viciousness combined, it attracts the media, the public, and

The media and public were attracted to the Scott Peterson case, because of the motive behind the crime. And because of the viciousness that occurred to his wife and unborn son. Scott Peterson’s “motive for the murders was to escape married life and upcoming fatherhood,” according to CNN. (Scott Peterson: A Timeline of the Laci Peterson Murder Case, 2024). Peterson was hiding a secret girlfriend behind his wife's back, telling his new girlfriend that he was single. He didn't see any other way to leave his wife or tell her about the secret affair he was having. To him, his only option was to murder his wife and unborn son, to have the life he wanted. That was his motive for the attack. Because Peterson hid his affair from the police, media, detectives, etc, the media was even more shocked when that information came to the surface, causing the public to be shocked as well. Because of this shocking motive that was discovered, the media increased its coverage and became even more invested in the trial. The enormous amount of media coverage grew so much, that the judge ruled that news cameras weren't going to be allowed in the courtroom, which was

Invest in the trials, the motives, the viciousness. When watching the documentary “The Murder of Laci Peterson,” each episode gave in-depth information about the case details and how the judge/jury came to their conclusions. It also showed us how much media was involved in this case. We were able to use this documentary to see the motive behind Scott Peterson's murder. We were able to see how he viscously dumped his wife's body into a lake, how he drove her over an hour to throw her body into a lake where he was supposedly “fishing”. He committed a vicious act. He had a motive behind his actions. And the media covered the whole thing. Motive often has 3 key factors for murder, “love, money, power” or “love, money, pride.” (Bier, 2018). In the Scott Peterson case, his motive was love, power, and pride. He had a secret love, which wasn't his wife. He needed to have power in his relationship and needed to feel like he had the power to do what he wanted to do, and he had pride. He didn't want to feel ashamed for cheating on his wife and unborn son with a random woman. He wanted to keep his pride. All these things were his motive. His motive for killing his wife and son. By taking the Scott Peterson case and other research data and looking at what makes trials notorious, I believe Media Coverage makes trials notorious. The relationship between motive and viciousness makes for