It is possible that there will never be a final chapter to the saga of Peg Cuttino and Junior Pierce.
Even now, more than 30 years after the slow witted serial confessor was first convicted of Cuttino's rape and murder, the controversy surrounding the state's case against him continues, not only to divide the community in Sumter, but also to sap the resources of the state's court system.
In fact, the latest round in the protracted legal battle is now playing out in Judge Thomas W. Cooper's court. A ruling in that case, is expected by the end of the summer, Cooper told the Crime Library in an interview last week. But even that ruling when it comes — it will be the seventh in a series of petitions for post conviction relief dating back to the Carter Administration — may not be the end of it, Cooper concedes.
As Cooper and others see it, regardless of what happens in court this summer, there will still be those who fervently believe that the right man was charged and convicted for Cuttino's death and that justice has been done, even if some of the rules of evidence were bent to do it. And there will be others, many perhaps, who feel just as strongly that the state railroaded a convenient suspect, and that the real killer has for more than three decades now, laughed at the authorities and their feeble attempts to bring closure to an emotionally and even politically charged case.
In fact, Cooper told the Crime Library, that even this latest round of court proceedings has raised at least as many questions as it has answered.
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