Scott Peterson · Emmett Till · BTK
Plus: More Cuomo cruddiness
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Broadcast journalist Alyssa Goard is livetweeting Scott Peterson’s resentencing. Peterson was, as you likely know, convicted in the slaying of his wife, Laci, back in 2005, and was sentenced to death. California’s Supreme Court overturned the sentence last year, after Peterson’s defense team argued that opponents of the death penalty were improperly bounced from the jury that decided his fate. Yeah, he’s the guy so chillingly portrayed by Dean Cain, long before the actor’s days as a far-right Sasquatch hunter.
As I type this, Peterson is in a packed Bay Area courtroom, where attorneys on both sides will argue, then members of Laci’s family will give victims’ statements. Goard has an incredibly detailed play by play of the scene in the courtroom, but it’s worth nothing that (though likely cathartic for some) most of this is just an exercise. At the end of testimony, Judge Anne-Christine Massullo sentenced Peterson to life in prison without parole, as she’d promised for months. Though some thought he might take the stand to again claim innocence, Peterson did not speak during the hearing.
That might change in 2022, though. That’s when Peterson will attend another hearing, this time so the prosecution and defense can argue over alleged juror misconduct claims in his first trial. A date for that hearing has not been set. — EB
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Chris Cuomo’s book has been spiked. As Sarah previously reported, the former CNN star was fired over the weekend, after the network said his attempts to assist his brother, New York’s disgraced former governor.
CNN didn’t cite newly-revealed claims of sexual harassment against the TV Cuomo, allegations shared by workplace attorney Debra Katz on Sunday. But it seems like those claims, as well as other rumored allegations, had a hand in his departure — at an employee town hall on Tuesday, CNN head Jeff Zucker said that “Cuomo would not be getting any severance pay after the network came to the conclusion that its star anchor lied to them,” the Associated Press reports. From their piece:
When New York’s attorney general released new details last week, it became clear to CNN that Chris Cuomo had lied to them about how actively he participated in his brother’s defense, offering to track down a lead about one of Andrew’s accusers and sounding out other journalists on what they knew about the case.
Zucker told the CNN employees that the network couldn’t stand for that. CNN was headed toward that decision even before being contacted by the lawyer for a woman who accused Chris Cuomo of sexual harassment prior to his working at CNN, a charge Cuomo has denied.
CNN isn’t the only organization seeking to distance themselves from Cuomo following the dual scandals. According to the Hollywood Reporter, publisher HarperCollins has spiked plans to publish a book by Cuomo in the fall of 2022.
The book, which (no, not making this up) was called Deep Denial, was billed as “a provocative analysis of the harsh truths that the pandemic and Trump years have exposed about America — about our strength and our character — and a roadmap of the work needed to make our ideals match reality.” You can see why it might have stretched credibility to keep that book on deck, yeah?
This isn’t the only hit a publisher has taken due to the Cuomo brothers’ foibles. Also from the AP:
HarperCollins published Andrew Cuomo's 2014 memoir "All Things Possible," which sold so poorly that it never received a paperback release. The former governor's COVID-19 memoir, "American Crisis," was released in the fall of 2020. Crown, which paid more than $5 million for the book, was forced to cease marketing it in early 2021 as multiple scandals circled around the author — including the sexual misconduct allegations that brought about his resignation in August just weeks after the release of the attorney general's report.
Shortly after an adaptation of the Emmett Till case moved forward, the Department of Justice closed an investigation into his slaying. Till was 14 when he was killed by a group of white supremacists in 1955, a crime that was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement.
Keith Beauchamp's 2005 documentary, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, is a well-done retelling of the iconic case. It’s not available to stream from what I can find, but perhaps recent news will change that — Deadline reported last month that Whoopi Goldberg will star in Till, a dramatic adaptation of how Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler) fought for justice for her son.
It’s justice that might not ever come, however. Per CNN, a renewed investigation into the case — launched after researchers said they had found new evidence — has been closed. In a memo sent Monday, its Civil Rights Division moved to again close Till’s file without issuing new federal charges in his death. From the partially redacted memo:
For the reasons set forth below, the Department has concluded, after an exhaustive, multi-year review, that it cannot prosecute XXXXX or any other subjects[2] for any federal offense. First, the Department has not uncovered any new evidence that would change its conclusion from its 2004 investigation that it was not able to bring federal charges against XXXXX in connection with Till’s abduction and murder. Moreover, and as explained more fully below, the statute of limitations, which is essentially a deadline for charging someone with a crime, has run on all potential federal crimes that could apply to Till’s abduction and murder, and there is no other potential basis for federal jurisdiction.
Additionally, the Department cannot prosecute XXXXX either for perjury (i.e., lying while under oath in relation to the 1955 state trial) or for previously making false statements to federal investigators. The statute of limitations has run for any charges (state or federal) for lying under oath, and for any charges that could be based on false statements XXXXX made to federal investigators during the 2004 investigation.
Till is currently in production in Atlanta, Deadline reports. A release date for the film has yet to be set. — EB
A&E has released an advance look at BTK: Confession of a Serial Killer. I must first admit that I’m fundamentally annoyed that it’s “confession,” singular, even though the show is based on multiple discussions. Here’s the logline:
A&E delves into the psyche of Dennis Rader in new two-night event featuring never-before-heard conversations with Rader from inside a Kansas maximum security prison. Dr. Katherine Ramsland, whose correspondence with Rader has spanned a decade and is still on-going, shares the intimate details of Rader’s past and his gruesome murders while providing insight to arm criminologists and law enforcement on how to better identify and potentially deter extreme violent offenders in the future.
Based on the sneak, Ramsland’s interactions with Rader weren’t always straightforward (brace for encoded recipes!), which certainly makes for a more visually interesting telling than just a voiceover reading some letters. The two-episode show will run on A&E (and its associated streaming platform) on January 8 and 9 at 9 p.m. — EB
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