A death row inmate at San Quentin State Prison reportedly wrote an 18-page letter in which he detailed how wife and child killer Scott Peterson allegedly performed sexual favors on him and washed inmates’ underwear in return for protection. Yet, a prison official confirmed that the pair are not in the same unit and have no access to each other.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) spokeswoman, Terry Thornton, told CrimeOnline that 61-year-old Raynard Cummings, who allegedly referred to Peterson as a “snow bunny” and a “death row sissy” who gave him oral sex in exchange for protection against other inmates, has no way of contacting Peterson and is not housed in the same area as the infamous murderer. Further, San Quentin prison officials did an internal investigation and found no evidence of the allegations that Cummings made.
Cummins is apparently housed in the East Block unit of San Quentin, one of the several units where death row inmates are housed. Unlike the North Block where Peterson lives, East Block inmates are confined to their cells for most of the day, aside from scheduled daily time in the recreation yard. The San Fransisco Chronicle once called East Block the “crumbling, leaky maze of a place built in 1927.”
The Adjustment Block, however, is considered the “worst of the worst’ at San Quentin, where death row inmates are held in their cells for 23 hours per day, aside from an hour of exercise each day in a 8-by-10-foot cages that are heavily guarded by armed guards.
Over in the North Block, where Peterson transferred to several years ago, inmates are provided the most freedom and better living conditions. It’s often referred to as the “penthouse of death row.”
“It’s the exclusive. It’s the best that you can ever hope to serve,” investigative journalist Nancy Mullane, who got an exclusive peek into the prison, said in 2015. “They have a basketball court, a half court. They have an outdoor shower. They have an outdoor toilet. They have tables….It’s actually quite nice.”
“There are men serving death row sentences in California. They live in their cells 23 to 24 hours a day without getting out, without seeing another person, without even seeing another inmate on death row. They are not having the life Scott Peterson is having.”
Thornton’s confirmations ultimately debunks Cummings’ claims that the “handsome white man” Peterson gave him oral sex and oil massages in the shower, as the inmate allegedly claimed. Prisoners in different blocks are not accessible to prisoners in the other blocks.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Lieutenant Sam Robinson, San Quentin’s Public Information Officer, told Mullane in 2012 that death row inmate are not necessarily confined to their cells without interaction with others. Prisoners on death row who are considered the “most compliant” are offered tier time, where they get to exercise in the yard, take showers, make wall phone calls, and mingle.
“These guys are the most compliant condemned inmates that we have here at this facility, so they get tier time.”
Apparently, Cummings in not considered one of the most compliant inmates.
RadarOnline posted a portion of Cummings’ alleged letter.
[Feature Photo: Scott Peterson/CDCR]