There are probably only a handful of adults in North America who are unfamiliar with the brutal 2002 murders of Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner. In For Laci: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Justice, Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, paints a brutally honest, unforgettable portrait of the loss of her beloved daughter. There is clearly a hole in her heart that will never be healed.

Deprived of the companionship and joy and exuberance of her 27-year-old daughter itself would have been an unfathomable loss for Rocha. That Laci and Conner died at the hands of Scott Peterson, Laci's husband, makes the losses almost unbearable.

As I sit at my computer, typing out this review, it is March 28. For Laci was published in December 2005, going on three years since the bodies of Laci and Conner were found separately in San Francisco Bay.

Securing a spot on the New York Times bestseller list not only carries its own cachet, to a certain audience it signals which books are worth reading. A mention there boosts sales big time.
If you read the January 15 Sunday Times' rankings, the book was listed at #11. For Laci then leaped to #1 and held that coveted spot for two weeks.

It was #8 as of February 19. And on March 26, For Laci still held down the #21 position. In a book universe that publishes a couple of gazillion titles each year, this is a tremendous accomplishment.

But, for all that, as of yesterday, not one publication has bothered to review For Laci. What a travesty.

This edition of National Right to Life News features three book reviews. One of the others is written by NRLC Director of Media Relations Megan Dillon. She offers a deservedly sympathetic look at A Life That Matters: The Legacy of Terri Schiavo--A Lesson for Us All, written by Terri Schindler Schiavo's family. The book tells the story of Terri's unjust and wholly unnecessary starvation death following nearly two weeks without food and fluids. The courts were unable--actually unwilling--to save a severely brain-damaged woman from a grotesque death.

And although Scott Peterson hired one of the best criminal defense lawyers (at least by reputation), a jury found him guilty on March 17, 2005, after deliberating for seven days. He was sentenced to death and resides in San Quentin State Prison which overlooks the bay where Laci and Conner's bodies were found.

Making it through all 352 pages of For Laci presented a formidable challenge. Pro-lifers are human beings, just like everyone else. In addition, I am the father of four, including three daughters. Like you, I already knew that Laci and Conner had been murdered the day before Christmas Eve. The story was a daily staple of cable television news.

That advance knowledge, however, did not provide much protection. I had to steel myself, forcing myself to read a book that begins with such optimism and love only to sink into a pit of sheer terror and desperation followed by the soul-searing realization that Rocha's son-in-law had murdered her daughter and grandson.

But just as the book may be a catharsis of sorts for Sharon Rocha, it may help you, as it did me, to come to grips with unresolved feelings about a pair of deaths which have haunted me since Laci and Conner were discovered by divers in April 2003 and Scott Peterson was convicted on one count of murder and a second count of second-degree murder.

[Peterson was charged and convicted of Conner's death under California Penal Code Section 187, which states, "Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought."

The California Supreme Court has interpreted the term "fetus" in a highly technical manner, to apply only after seven or eight weeks of development.]

As pro-lifers, we know Sharon Rocha best as one of the driving forces behind the passage of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, aptly dubbed "Laci and Conner's Law" by proponents. When President Bush signed the bill into law April 6, 2004, t was the culmination of a five-year campaign by National Right to Life to win enactment of the legislation, which recognizes unborn children as victims when they are injured or killed during the commission of federal or military crimes of violence.

What we probably all have forgotten is that the measure was almost derailed in the Senate. Just one week before, the bill survived a showdown by a single vote! The then-anticipated Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), interrupted his campaigning to make a rare visit to the Senate to vote against the bill.

I was unable to attend the signing ceremony. We ran a wonderful picture on the front cover of NRL News. It was a joyous occasion not only for Rocha but many other parents whose children and grandchildren had been murdered.

Yet, to be honest, I always wondered how Sharon Rocha could be smiling so broadly. After all, she had to be thinking of Laci and Conner and I had heard she was ill. After all this time, I should have known the answer.

She writes that President Bush came into the White House Green Room and introduced himself to the families of the victims. Rocha remembers him saying simply, "I'm George Dubya."

They exchanged pleasantries and then she told him a little about Laci and Conner.

"Don't make me cry," he said genuinely. She replied, "Don't make me cry." The President then shared a story with her that ended with, "And I just started bawling like a baby."
Following the signing, Mr. Bush spoke to a few elected officials who had played pivotal roles in the passage of Laci and Conner's law.

"After a minute or two," Rocha writes, "the President looked up at us and said, 'Are you ready to go? I'm the quickest way out of here if you're ready.'

"Then he offered me his arm and I looped mine through his, and we walked out."