Peterson verdict is big step in recognizing rights of unborn.(Insider Report)(Scott Peterson)

On November 12, a jury in Redwood City, California, convicted Scott Peterson of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, 23-year-old Laci, and second-degree murder in the death of his 8-month-old unborn son, whom the couple were planning to name Conner. Laci disappeared from the couple's home in Modesto, California, 23 months ago. The bodies of Laci and Conner later washed up in the San Francisco Bay, near where Scott told police he had gone fishing the day his wife disappeared.

Pro-family groups hailed the verdict as a significant and encouraging legal victory for the pro-life movement, upholding California's "fetal homicide" law and the recently passed federal "Unborn Victims of Violence Act."

"The murder conviction of Scott Peterson in the death of his wife and preborn son, Conner, is further evidence of the growing shift in U.S. law regarding protection for all human life, including young humans who still reside in their mother's wombs," said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at Focus on the Family, in a statement following the verdict. "During the course of the Peterson trial, hundreds of media reports ...