San Quentin doors clang shut behind Peterson

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - Less than a day after being sentenced to execution, Scott Peterson was taken before dawn Thursday to San Quentin State Prison — located overlooking San Francisco Bay, where the corpses of his wife Laci and unborn son were found.

Peterson becomes the 644th prisoner awaiting death in the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison.

Peterson, who was sentenced to death Wednesday, left the San Mateo County jail to San Quentin at 3:10 a.m. Thursday. Secured with leg irons and shackles around his wrists and waist and wearing a V-neck orange shirt and pants and wearing toeless sandals, Peterson was led away in a white, unmarked van for drive from Redwood City, south of San Francisco, to the prison, about 20 miles north of the city.

The 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman entered San Quentin, shortly after 4 a.m.

Wearing a bulletproof vest
Prison officials had Peterson remove his clothing and a bulletproof vest supplied by the sheriff for his safety, San Quentin spokesman Lt. Vernell Crittendon said on NBC’s “Today” show. A body search, medical exam and DNA test were conducted, and a photo was taken for identification.

“During the process, there were moments where he would give that nervous smile,” Crittendon said, adding that Peterson was. “extremely polite.”

He told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that a staffer suggested to Peterson that he would take a nap and Peterson replied, “No, I’m just too jazzed.”

Peterson was to get a shower, a haircut and state-issued clothing and will be assigned an identification number. Then, a counselor will classify him according to his criminal, educational, medical and psychological histories — a process that could take several weeks.

“Grade B” prisoners, deemed a threat to themselves or others, get limited privileges — just 10 hours a week of outdoor exercise, alone in a small cage.

“From what I hear, he hasn’t given the staff (at the jail in Redwood City) any problems,” Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said, so this classification may be unlikely for Peterson.

Likely to be a ‘Grade A’ prisoner
“Grade A” inmates are allowed to spend five hours a day outside in a common yard, where they can exercise and play chess. They can have showers three times a week, attend religious services and receive mail, phone calls and visitors. The prisoners also may keep a television — which they pay for themselves — in their cells.

Modesto Police Department via AP file Laci and Scott Peterson are seen in a photo before she disappeared. Scott Peterson says he was fishing the day she vanished.

Most of the state’s condemned prisoners are housed at San Quentin. San Quentin also houses 5,300 other prisoners, but they don’t interact with the condemned inmates. Fifteen condemned women are at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, but they would be brought to San Quentin to be executed.

Death row, built in 1934 and designed to handle 68 inmates, is actually three buildings. In the original death row, now reserved for the most senior and well-behaved men, inmates walk around a small common area secured by bars and doors. Amenities include a tiled shower room.

In one of the makeshift death rows — a building known as East Block, where Peterson will most likely live — inmates stay locked in their 5-by-9-foot cells, except when they are outside. There are no common areas; the cells are stacked in tiers fronted by narrow walkways.

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