Celebrity trials and the people who love them

From the MSNBC website:

On an overcast Friday morning last November, a few dozen people gathered, as they had for the past several months, outside the San Mateo courthouse in Redwood City, California.

There was a core group of 40 to 50 court watchers who showed up every day," said San Mateo County Sheriff Capt. Mark Hanlon. "After a while, they were on a first-name basis with each other."

The loyal crowd had followed every twist and turn in the Scott Peterson double murder trial. Within a couple of hours, they were joined by more than a thousand others, as word got out that a verdict was about to be read. Hanlon, head of courthouse security, was prepared. "We had implemented the security plan usually reserved for disasters."