Posted on 01/19/2024 10:16:57 AM PST by MeganC
Twenty years after he was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, Scott Peterson has a new ally in his fight to prove he didn't commit the crime. The Los Angeles Innocence Project is now working with Peterson, according to news outlets in California.
It's an important shift in Peterson's case. Up to now, many of his attorneys' efforts have focused on overturning his death sentence — an effort that succeeded in 2020. Peterson, 51, is now seeking exoneration and to free himself from serving a life sentence.
The Los Angeles Innocence Project issued a widely cited statement Thursday saying it "represents Scott Peterson and is investigating his claim of actual innocence."
Laci Peterson and her unborn child, Connor, disappeared in December of 2002. Scott Peterson, who was found to be having an affair, was charged with murder in April of 2003, almost immediately after his wife's decomposed body was found along the shore of San Francisco Bay. He pleaded not guilty and has maintained his innocence in the years since.
At the end of a five-month trial, a jury convicted Peterson in November of 2004, after two jurors were dismissed from the panel during deliberations.
A jury approved the death penalty for Peterson, only to have that punishment rolled back by a finding that jurors hadn't been properly screened. In December of 2022, a court rejected Peterson's call for a new trial.
This week, Peterson's team filed a discovery motion, referring to evidence related to his case, according to records at the San Mateo Superior Court. His attorneys also filed a motion for DNA testing, as well as a motion to seal some court records. They're the first new court filings in his murder case in a year.
Comments from Peterson's current and former lawyers suggest the new effort may focus on a burglary near the family's home in Modesto, Calif., around the time Laci Peterson disappeared, according to ABC, which first reported the Los Angeles Innocence Project's involvement in his case.
In 2022, the Los Angeles Innocence Project used DNA evidence to overturn the wrongful murder conviction of Maurice Hastings, who spent more than 38 years in prison.
The organization says its mission is "to exonerate the wrongly convicted; free the wrongfully incarcerated; uncover and remedy past misuse of forensic and other scientific evidence in the courtroom," and push for improvements in the criminal legal system, including standards for using forensic evidence in the court.
LOL!
family selling home years later does not mean Scott didn’t look into selling as the poster wrote. two different things.
Agreed...but this time, if he's convicted, he should be executed within 24 hours of that conviction.
There is also a possibility she approached 2 men robbing a house across the street she didn't recognize while walking the dog.
Scott Peterson reminds my of that other famous family man, Joe Biden, who was so busy with his job (oops, I mean mistress) that he couldn’t find time to go pick out a Christmas tree with his wife and three kids a week before Christmas.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d had arguments once the wives discovered the improprieties of the two husbands.
Very sad that both women, and at least one of their children, were found dead.
And it is a well-known that burglars, after they kill you, will wrap you in hefty bags and duct tape, take you out on a boat and dump you in the bay....../s
Hard to believe it has been that long. I sure hope we find out the truth, one way or another. It’s hard to believe he did it, and just about as hard to think he did.
Possibly, but that would explain why there is no death timeline, why the dog was seen walking around with a leash by itself, and dumping a body out of a boat is a lot easier when someone else acts as a counter-balance as it's rolled out.
Everyone knows he did it.
The State never proved it.
On August 24, 2020, in a 7–0 decision, the Supreme Court of California upheld Scott’s conviction but overturned his death sentence; the court found that Scott’s trial judge[1] had improperly dismissed jurors who opposed capital punishment without asking them whether they could put their views aside. Justice Leondra Kruger explained that, per Supreme Court rulings since 1968, “Jurors may not be excused merely for opposition to the death penalty, but only for views rendering them unable to fairly consider imposing that penalty in accordance with their oath. This is the meaning of the guarantee of an impartial jury.”[1][142][143] Prosecutors initially stated that they would retry the penalty phase, but subsequently reversed that decision in June 2021.[144]
On September 22, 2021, California Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo ruled that Scott would be re-sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[145] The following month, Massullo scheduled a hearing on that matter for December 8.[146][147] On December 8, Massullo re-sentenced Scott to life in prison without the possibility of parole, for the first-degree murder of Laci, and a concurrent sentence of 15 years to life for the second-degree murder of Conner.[2][148]
In October 2022, Scott was moved off San Quentin’s death row, and transferred to Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California.[149]
When Scott Peterson
Reported his wife missing
He requested grief counsellors
That was the nail
In his coffin
Gog usa
Magog nato
Rev 13
I had always felt that Peterson is guilty. However, had I been on his jury I would have had to vote, “not guilty,” based upon the lack of hard evidence at trial. All of the evidence presented at trial was circumstantial and some of it presented by the prosecution was even suspiciously ‘plant’ evidence.
Out of an Aluminum boat you can see into from the ground even on a trailer. The lack of evidence that he did or could have dumped a body from the boat is pretty convincing. The cops released the fact where Scott went fishing, which gave time for the real killers to know where to dump the body. Sorry, he is a dirtbag, but the evidence didn’t convince me.
At the time she testified she had signed a book deal she never disclosed. Of course if he were to be acquitted the book wouldn’t sell. Major conflict.
You mean like the circumstantial evidence that’s put hundreds of people in prison for the January 6, 2021 ‘insurrection’?
Please don’t conflate Murder with Trespassing. BTW, is it really trespassing if there are no signs posted?
Dan Abrams reminded all of the evidence. Physical evidence! Seems they swept that under the rug. Scott’s jury was right!
“Dan Abrams reminded all of the evidence. Physical evidence! Seems they swept that under the rug. Scott’s jury was right!”
“The physical evidence included nothing more than one single hair linked back to Laci that was found on Scott’s boat.”
Circumstantial evidence is flimsy regardless of the case at hand.
Big Peterson fan, are ya?
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