REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Nearly two years after Laci Peterson's disappearance mesmerized the nation, a jury decided Monday that her husband should be executed for the murders of the vivacious mother-to-be and the son she was carrying.

Scott Peterson, who was stonefaced when the same jury found him guilty Nov. 12, was similarly stoic as the sentencing verdict was announced to a packed courtroom just after 1:45 p.m.

"We the jury in the above-entitled cause fix the penalty at death," the court clerk said.

The jury rejected a sentence of life in prison without parole. Peterson will be formally sentenced by Judge Alfred Delucchi on Feb. 25. The veteran judge could theoretically reduce the death verdict to a life sentence, but such decisions are highly unusual.

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Peterson, 32, stared straight ahead from his seat at the defense table as each juror affirmed the verdict in a loud voice. Three minutes later, as Delucchi gave the panelists some final instructions, Peterson chatted with his lawyer and at one point broke into a broad smile.

His parents — who paid for high-profile defense attorney Mark Geragos, attended every day of his six-month trial and begged jurors to spare his life during the penalty phase — looked weary, but displayed no emotion as the verdict was delivered.

Geragos immediately said he would appeal the case.

As at Peterson's conviction, a large crowd gathered outside the San Mateo County courthouse to wait for the verdict. Those gathered cheered the death sentence, but without the raucous celebration that greeted the guilty finding.

The mood inside the courtroom was markedly different as well. During the Nov. 12 verdict, Laci Peterson's relatives and friends gasped in joy at the verdict and then broke into loud sobs.

Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, whose testimony was cited by jurors interviewed afterward as particularly influential, cried quietly in the front row of the courtroom after the verdict.

During a press conference, her partner, Ron Grantski, thanked prosecutors and investigators and said Rocha would not speak publicly until after the holidays.

"Justice was served," he said as Rocha and the victim's stepsister, Amy Rocha, sat nearby, wiping away tears. "He got what he deserved."

The unanimous verdict against the Modesto fertilizer salesman came after 11 hours of deliberations that jurors described as exceptionally painful and emotional. Three panelists interviewed after the verdict said the final portion of their deliberations was spent closely examining graphic photos of the remains of the expectant mother and the child the couple planned to name Conner.

The images show the 27-year-old's decomposed body as it washed onto the San Francisco Bay shore — headless, armless and devoid of every organ but her uterus. The boy's body was found nearby amid trash.

Jury foreman Steve Cardosi said that, while disturbing, the pictures made it clear to the panel "that that is a baby or was a baby. And that is a person lying there."

"There is an individual out there who made that outcome happen for two people. He caused it, and it's very important for me to see it," Cardosi said.

All 12 panelists and three alternates appeared briefly before reporters in what they described as a show of solidarity. Cardosi and two others remained behind to answer questions.

The three cited the victims' utter betrayal by Scott Peterson in their decision to give him the death penalty instead of a life sentence.

Juror Richelle Nice said she referred to the Petersons' unborn child as "Little Man."

Panelist Richelle Nice, whose pink hair color and flamboyant dress earned her the nickname "Strawberry Shortcake" from reporters covering the trial, said, "Scott Peterson was Laci's husband and Conner's daddy. The one person that should have protected them. And for him to have done that ..."

Nice, an unemployed mother of four boys, broke down several times as she referred to the unborn child.

"Little Man — that's what I call him," she said. "His daddy should have been the protector, and instead he took his life."

A Christmas Eve call

The jurors listened to 224 witnesses during the seven-month trial.

Peterson reported his wife of five years missing on Dec. 24, 2002. He told police she had disappeared while he was fishing in the bay. Thousands of people searched for the pregnant woman across northern California. Her remains washed ashore near those of her fetus four months later.

Prosecutors maintained Peterson murdered his wife because he was both besotted with his massage-therapist mistress, Amber Frey, and searching for the freedom to live a freewheeling bachelor lifestyle.

Peterson insisted on his innocence and said his wife likely was kidnapped by transients while walking their dog.

Authorities were never able to pinpoint when or how Peterson killed his wife, but said they believed he had strangled or smothered her in their home. The case prosecutors presented to jurors was entirely circumstantial and included hours of taped phone calls with his mistress, as well as television interviews in which he presented himself as a distraught husband.

During the penalty phase, the defense called 39 witnesses who vouched for Peterson's character. They noted that he had no criminal record and was regarded by friends and family as a generous, loving man. The prosecution called just four witnesses, all relatives of the victim, but their testimony, particularly Sharon Rocha's emotional turn on the stand, was persuasive, the jurors said.

Rocha screamed at Peterson during her testimony, asking him at one point while why he had killed her only daughter when he could have simply ended the marriage.

"The comment that she made — 'Divorce was an option' — struck me deeply," juror Greg Beratlis said.

The foreman, Cardosi, added, "I think she did exceptionally well. I can't say enough about her. She's incredibly strong."

Stanislaus County District Attorney James Brazelton thanked prosecutors Rick Distaso, Dave Harris and Birgit Fladager for their efforts. He also credited the Modesto police department for taking the case seriously when Grantski first phoned authorities Christmas Eve 2004.

"The Modesto Police Department — they didn't treat this on Christmas Eve as a missing person's call, an 'Oh, she'll be back, give us a call back if you haven't heard from her in four days' type thing that's so often done," Brazelton said. "They took it seriously from the first phone call."