On Wednesday's edition of "The Abrams Report," San Quentin Prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon spoke with MSNBC's Dan Abrams about Scott Peterson's first month on death row, and how women have been proposing marriage to Peterson. Following are excerpts from the interview.
Dan Abrams, host, "The Abrams Report": So has Peterson been a good prisoner?
Vernell Crittendon, San Quentin prison spokesman: At this point he has cooperated with the process, and he seems to be assimilating into his new lifestyle on death row very well. It appears that in the next three weeks, we are going to be moving Scott Peterson out of the walk-alone yards which he just qualified for last Friday, and then we will start putting him into an integrated yard in the adjustment center.
Abrams: Give me a sense of a typical day in the life of Scott Peterson as a death row inmate.
Crittendon: Well today and as of March 16, he has been spending all of his time inside of his cell, as he was not approved for any recreation until the Friday that just passed. He has eaten all of his meals inside of his cell. Earlier I had shared that he had received about 25 letters a day, well I actually went over and counted them this afternoon. I stand corrected, there are approximately 85 letters he is receiving...
Abrams: He is receiving 85 letters a day and let's be clear, these are all or almost all from people he does not know.
Crittendon: A large percentage of them appear to be people that he does not know or knew Scott Peterson prior to this death sentence.
Abrams: Primarily women?
Crittendon: Almost the entire group appears to be from women.
Abrams: And what, they are saying "Ohhh Scott you are so cute," and "I would love to marry you?"
Crittendon: Well you know I think that some of them are looking at it, I believe they think he is innocent, there are some that are approaching him from the perspective of a spiritual awareness that they wish to bring to him, and some of them yes, they believe that he is very handsome, and they don't believe he did it. At least three that I am aware of have actually talked about marriage proposals to him. I find that most of those people are actually winding up being from mainstream America.They're executive assistants, stewardesses; one was a manager in a Safeway, so there‘s people that are from all walks of life.
Abrams: You‘ve never seen anything like this, have you?
Crittendon: Well, I have to say actually I have seen where there have been inmates that have received more. Charles Manson when he was at San Quentin received a larger amount of mail than this. And the “night stalker,” Richard Ramirez, and we processed him in, he also was receiving greater quantities of mail.
'The Abrams Report' is a program about justice. The show airs weeknights, 6 p.m. ET on MSNBC TV.