Being famous and in prison is not a good combination. Being infamous and widely despised and in prison is usually worse.
Scott Peterson is about as infamous and widely despised as it gets, and his fellow inmates at San Quentin prison know that.
A new report alleges Peterson is so desperate to avoid the wrath of other prisoners that he is trading sexual favors for protection.
Raynard Cummings is a convicted cop killer and an armed robber.
He has been in prison since 1983 for the shooting of LAPD Officer Paul Verna.
In a lengthy letter published by RadarOnline, Cummings reveals that Scott Peterson is trading sexual favors for protection from a group of strong, burly inmates — including Cummings.
RadarOnline shares that Cummings is 61 years old, 6-foot-6, and 250 pounds.
It sounds like Cummings able to offer a great deal of protection from the regular beatings that Peterson would otherwise experience in general population.
Cummings has a nickname for Peterson — his “snowbunny.” Outside of prison, that nickname has some very different meanings. Behind bars, well …
Cummings and his group within San Quentin are apparently known as the Tribe.
In addition to sexual favors, Peterson apparently performs unenviable chores — like washing the Tribe’s underwear — and also gives them backrubs with massage oil int he showers.
Though Cummings cannot imagine why Peterson actually requested to be moved out of protective custody and placed in the general population, he writes that he enjoys reaping the benefits.
“Taking SP [Scott Peterson] in was and is one of the sweetest move[s] I’ve ever made in 37 years of death row imprisonment,” Cummings writes.
“For whatever reasons,” Cummings writes. “SP wanted to hang out with the baddest of the blackness…This is the circle in which SP chose to walk into in the middle — and then to stay in the middle of — learning the program.”
“I call him my Death Row sissy,” Cummings explains. “Because he’ll do just about anything to save his worthless neck.”
Wow.
Cummings elaborates, saying: “He knows he’s one of the most hated men in here and could be killed at any moment.”
Cummings even included some more salacious details about his interactions with Peterson in the showers, writing: “The shower felt silky-smooth and SP to me is one handsome white boy.”
The world knows the grisly details of Laci Peterson’s murder. So many people wasted countless hours searching for Laci when, the court concluded, her husband knew the whole time where she was — because he had been the one to murder her.
Scott Peterson has been on death row for many years, now.
He has made numerous attempts to appeal his conviction, but to no avail.
It is difficult to imagine why someone like Peterson would want to enter the general population — unless, of course, he simply had a death wish, and changed his mind afterwards.
What Cummings describes should probably not be confused with prison rape, another serious issue. This sounds like Peterson has effectively hired these men to protect him from other men.
But it’s still not a good situation.
Some might view Cummings’ letter as some form of justice.
Others believe that every day on which Peterson draws breath is an injustice, and that we — all of us who are good people — will live in a better world the day that he finally dies.
Whether or not you believe the word of a death row inmate who was convicted of murdering a police officer during a routine traffic stop, the letter is an indictment of the prison system.
Even if you believe that Peterson deserves his current fate as described by Cummings, we all know that there are innocent people behind bars who become victims of violence.
We should have prisons designed in such a way that inmates, guilty or innocent, are not at the mercy of strong, vicious criminals who have nothing to lose.
That said … it is difficult if not impossible to feel sorry for Scott Peterson.
