Hans Reiser Guilty of First Degree Murder (Wired)

Exactly. `Peers' in this context does not mean `people with the same job' 
or even `people who think the same way as him', or all corporate fraud 
would be tried by CEOs, and everyone would get off scot-free. It means 
`people in the same society', i.e. the people the defendant has to share 
the world with.