Los Angeles Innocence Project takes Scott Peterson’s case, decades after conviction

Twenty years after he was convicted of murdering his pregnant spouse, Laci Peterson, Scott Peterson has a brand new ally in his struggle to show he did not commit the crime. The Los Angeles Innocence Undertaking is now working with Peterson, in accordance with information retailers in California.

It is an vital shift in Peterson’s case. Thus far, lots of his attorneys’ efforts have centered on overturning his demise sentence — an effort that succeeded in 2020. Peterson, 51, is now in search of exoneration and to free himself from serving a life sentence.

The Los Angeles Innocence Undertaking issued a extensively cited assertion Thursday saying it “represents Scott Peterson and is investigating his declare of precise innocence.”

Laci Peterson and her unborn youngster, Connor, disappeared in December of 2002. Scott Peterson, who was discovered to be having an affair, was charged with homicide in April of 2003, nearly instantly after his spouse’s decomposed physique was discovered alongside the shore of San Francisco Bay. He pleaded not responsible and has maintained his innocence within the years since.

On the finish of a five-month trial, a jury convicted Peterson in November of 2004, after two jurors had been dismissed from the panel throughout deliberations.

A jury authorised the demise penalty for Peterson, solely to have that punishment rolled again by a discovering that jurors hadn’t been correctly screened. In December of 2022, a courtroom rejected Peterson’s name for a brand new trial.

This week, Peterson’s workforce filed a discovery movement, referring to proof associated to his case, in accordance with information on the San Mateo Superior Court docket. His attorneys additionally filed a movement for DNA testing, in addition to a movement to seal some courtroom information. They’re the primary new courtroom filings in his homicide case in a 12 months.

Feedback from Peterson’s present and former attorneys counsel the brand new effort could concentrate on a housebreaking close to the household’s residence in Modesto, Calif., across the time Laci Peterson disappeared, in accordance with ABC, which first reported the Los Angeles Innocence Undertaking’s involvement in his case.

In 2022, the Los Angeles Innocence Undertaking used DNA proof to overturn the wrongful homicide conviction of Maurice Hastings, who spent greater than 38 years in jail.

The group says its mission is “to exonerate the wrongly convicted; free the wrongfully incarcerated; uncover and treatment previous misuse of forensic and different scientific proof within the courtroom,” and push for enhancements within the felony authorized system, together with requirements for utilizing forensic proof within the courtroom.