Talk:Murder of Laci Peterson

Multiple-issues tag

User:ClueBot III/DoNotArchiveUntil Just wanted to explain the tags within the multiple-issues template. For now, I figure a single example will do, but I'm happy to elaborate:

• As to the WP:NPOV tag:
  • I'm concerned with how the article treats Scott Peterson's statements relative to others. To take just one example: After Scott was arrested on a golf course, the article says, "He claimed to be meeting his father and brother for a game of golf." Why is "claimed" used there? Is it even disputed? It'd be one thing if every quotation was given similar treatment, but it's not. For example, "Sharon Rocha went to the park to search for her daughter."—that sentence is supported by Rocha's testimony during the trial, yet we don't say "Sharon Rocha claimed she went to the park to search for her daughter."
  • The article occasionally takes testimony from the trial and treats it as fact in the pre-trial sections. That's not always a problem, but sometimes it is. For example, we mention the testimony of a prosecution witness, Robert O'Neill, as to the concrete in the driveway, but we don't mention the conflicting view of Steven Gabler, the defense's witness. That's a pretty clear NPOV issue. (In that case, I'd say we should move O'Neill's testimony to the "Trial/Evidence" section and then add Gabler's.) (Update: I fixed this issue, but there are still concerns)
• There seems to be well-covered info missing from the Evidence section.
• There are a few overly detailed issues I noticed. Take a look at the "Laci's disappearance" section: Does it matter that Laci drove a "1996 Land Rover Discovery SE"? Or that Scott ate, specifically, "pizza and milk"? If so, why?

Separately, I'm concerned the article is missing some notable information, but we can address that later. Still actively working on this article, but I just figured those things should be flagged in the interim.--Jerome Frank Disciple (talk) 18:42, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

I usually remove words like "claim" per WP:CLAIM, but it's possible that I missed that one.

I guess the car can simply be changed to "car", and the food to "food", since the detail doesn't really figure into any particular point of contention raised in the case (unlike the Martha Stewart mergenuge dish), and isn't required for a reader's understanding of it.

Thanks for all your (legit) edits. :-) Nightscream (talk) 20:30, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

Yeah of course! By the way—I figure this is worth flagging. I just massively rearranged the appeal section. I'll be honest, I'm somewhat familiar with how habeas relief works at the federal level, but I do not understand California's system ... where you can apparently file a habeas petition at the same time that you can have a direct appeal going?? I'm sure it makes sense, but wow does it make following the filings hard.

Given the difficulty I was having in keeping everything straight—and, while certainly not on par with someone who followed this case closely or a criminal lawyer, I'd like to think I'd do better than average at keeping up—I thought it would be best to split up the direct appeal and the habeas petition into different sections. There's, of course, a downside: it means that the sections aren't consecutive. And I'm happy to reconsider if you think that's too unpalatable, but I think splitting them up makes things much, much, much easier to follow. --Jerome Frank Disciple (talk) 00:42, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Is every citation for each portion of it placed at the end of those passages? Nightscream (talk) 00:52, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Great question! I didn't actually mess with the citations too much—I added a few to support some new information in the habeas section, but I didn't check the existing cites. I can do that!--Jerome Frank Disciple (talk) 12:02, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

Sudden appearance of a sister

In her background the article states that Laci was the younger of two children, with an older brother, then when describing the events prior to her disappearance there is a sudden reference to Laci's younger sister cutting Scott's hair; where did this sister come from? Why is there no reference to her previously (indeed, her existence would appear to be denied by the first point i raise)? This makes reading the article jarring, and should be resolved to give our readers fuller information and not cause questions such as mine ~ Lindsay^Hello 08:48, 15 June 2025 (UTC)

Infobox caption

Hi @McRandy1958, sorry for sloppily Template:Trim&oldid=Template:Trim labelling your edit "disruptive". I'm opening a discussion here to avoid edit warring. MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE states, "Template:Tq", and IMO, the month when infobox's photo was taken is not a key fact. Thedarkknightli (talk) 15:16, 15 June 2025 (UTC)

I think it is a key fact because she died in December 2002 so it informs readers that the image was taken shortly before her death rather than, say, January 2002 which is almost a year before her death.McRandy1958 (talk) 00:04, 16 June 2025 (UTC)