The two-decade-old murder conviction of Scott Peterson was the focus of a court hearing Tuesday when the Los Angeles Innocence Project revived the case in a Northern California courtroom.
Peterson, 51, appeared via live video feed from Mule Creek State Prison for the case status hearing. The hearing is part of what's expected to be a lengthy process that will likely include months of forensics examinations by the Los Angeles Innocence Project, which has taken up the case two decades after Peterson was convicted in the deaths of his pregnant 27-year-old wife Laci and the couple's unborn child.
It was one of California's most infamous murder trials. In motions submitted earlier this year in San Mateo County Superior Court, the LA Innocence Project requested post-conviction discovery -- evidence from Peterson's original murder trial.
LAIP works to exonerate wrongly convicted and incarcerated people through DNA testing and other scientific advances.
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"The Los Angeles Innocence Project filed motions in January asking the Court to order further discovery of evidence and allow new DNA testing to support our investigation into Mr. Peterson’s claim of actual innocence," director Paula Mitchell said in a statement. "Today’s hearing was just the first step in a long process. We have not commented on our motions, and we will continue to present our case in court -- where it should be adjudicated."
Pat Harris, Peterson's attorney, told NBC Los Angeles at the time that he is pleased the LAIP is taking up his client's case.
"I will confirm that we are thrilled to have the incredibly skilled attorneys at the LA Innocence Project and their expertise becoming involved in the efforts to prove Scott’s innocence," said Harris.
One of the motions asks the court for an order directing the testing of evidence from the original trial for DNA. Items mentioned in the court document include cloth from a mattress booked into evidence by police that was recovered from an orange van that was set on fire in Modesto on the morning of Dec. 25, 2002.
The motion also requests testing on other items found in the van, a shopping bag and its contents, including duct tape, found near where Laci Peterson's remains were discovered, items recovered at a home near the Petersons' residence that had been burglarized around Christmas and other evidence.
“That the Innocence Project is taking on the case speaks volumes,” attorney Mark Geragos, who represented Peterson in the murder trial, told NBCLA in January. “It tell you, No. 1 that they have vetted it. No. 2 they have taken a look at this case in every which way. The Innocence Project has a track record that is, nationally, unparalleled.
“It’s every person’s dream who has been falsely convicted to have the Innocence Project take on their case.”
Peterson was convicted in San Mateo County in 2004, two years after the Christmas Eve 2002 disappearance of Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant with their unborn son, Connor. The couple had been married for five years.
Investigators said Peterson took their bodies from their Modesto home and dumped them into San Francisco Bay when he went to Berkeley Marina.
Scott Peterson told investigators that he left that morning to fish in Berkeley. The remains surfaced months later a few miles from where Peterson said he was fishing.
Peterson was arrested in April 2003 after Amber Frey, a massage therapist living in Fresno, told authorities she and Peterson began dating about a month before his wife's death -- but that Peterson had told her his wife was dead. She eventually worked with investigators and testified at the trial.
He was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife and second-degree murder of their unborn son. Peterson is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The California Supreme Court upheld Peterson’s conviction but overturned a death sentence in 2020 due to improper dismissal of some jurors over their disagreement with the death penalty.
Before he was re-sentenced in 2021 to life without parole, Laci Peterson's mother, sister and brother addressed the court.
"I've seen no sorrow or no remorse from you at all," mother Sharon Rocha said. "I know you're going to say you have no remorse because you're innocent, but you haven't shown any grief or sorrow for either of them. I still feel the grief every day after 19 years.
"No matter what happens, no matter what transpires in the future, there are two things that will never change: Laci and Conner will always be dead, and you will always be their murderer."
In December 2022, Peterson was denied a new murder trial. He alleged that a rogue juror lied about her history of abuse to be admitted to the panel that eventually sent him to death row. The judge who heard the request for a new trial said there was no evidence to support his claim.
