A bombshell new documentary reveals crucial, never-before-seen evidence that could clear infamous wife-killer Scott Peterson more than two decades after his conviction, supporters say.
Peterson, 53, has been serving a life sentence in California since a jury found him guilty of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, on Christmas Eve 2002 — a conviction based partly on how he got rid of his wife’s body aboard his fishing boat.
A&E’s two-part documentary, “Scott Peterson: The New Evidence” — set to air July 16 and 17 — is now offering newly unearthed footage, alleged handwritten notes from Laci, and expert opinions that it says seriously throw that damning scenario into doubt.
“I lose sleep – and with Scott, probably more than any other case – when I believe [a client] is innocent,” said Mark Geragos, Peterson’s lawyer during his sensational 2004 trial, to The Post in defense of the convicted killer.
“You have an instinct or a gut feeling that is honed by doing 10,000 reps, so to speak, and you know when someone is good for a crime or when they’re not,” said Geragos, whose high-profile clients have included Sean “Diddy” Combs, Michael Jackson and the Menendez brothers.
Peterson has repeatedly failed to overturn his conviction through the appeals courts.
In a tawdry case that grabbed national headlines, the Petersons were a seemingly picture-perfect couple — but in reality, he was cheating on his very pregnant wife with massage-therapist mistress Amber Frey and cruelly killed Laci and their unborn son to pave the way for him to enjoy a jet-setting bachelor lifestyle, prosecutors said.
Years after Peterson’s conviction, in 2024, the Los Angeles Innocence Project took over his case, arguing in court filings that “new evidence now supports Mr. Peterson’s long-standing claim of innocence and raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson.”
The new documentary was filmed to “stress-test” that evidence, according to host Chris Pixley, an Atlanta-based defense lawyer and legal analyst for ABC News.
The nearly three hours of footage kick off with Pixley and retired Los Angeles Detective Ninette Toosbuy retracing Peterson’s Christmas Eve drive to the Berkeley Marina, where prosecutors said he dumped Laci’s body from his small fishing boat.
Pixley and Toosbuy claim it would have been nearly impossible for Peterson to dispose of the body without any witnesses in broad daylight or leaving behind any significant DNA evidence.
Two strands of Laci’s hair were found wrapped around a pair of pliers found under a seat on his boat after her death, although no blood or tissue was recovered from them, and the instrument was rusty from apparent lack of use, according to trial testimony.
The series also reveals previously unseen defense footage showing a weighted dummy, meant to replicate Laci’s body, causing the tiny vessel to capsize while it was being thrown overboard — evidence the jury never saw, the documentary says.
It also highlights handwritten notes allegedly written by Laci that suggest that she knew about Peterson’s purchasing of the fishing boat — undercutting the prosecution’s claim that he had secretly bought it to carry out the killing.
New experts featured in the series also challenge the tidal and wind analysis presented at the trial, claiming that Laci’s body could not have washed up where investigators found it if Peterson dumped it where he was fishing.
Advances in fetal biometric science also suggest that Laci and Conner could have died later than Dec. 24, according to the experts and LAIP — a timeline that casts doubt on the state’s theory that Peterson killed them that day.
Laci spoke with her mother on the phone the night of Dec. 23. By Dec. 25, the Petersons’ Modesto home was swarming with family, investigators, and hordes of reporters.
The documentary, meanwhile, revisits an alternative theory centered on a burglary across the street from the Petersons’ home around the time Laci went missing. It cites seven witnesses who reported seeing a suspicious van in the neighborhood on Dec. 24, including a reserve police officer who allegedly told police he saw a pregnant woman being forced into a van.
A van was later found burned in an apparent arson incident about 1.5 miles away in Modesto’s Airport District – a seedy area where a police dog had allegedly tracked Laci’s scent during the initial investigation, according to the documentary.
Geragos and his defense team didn’t learn about the torched van until more than a decade after Peterson’s conviction, the lawyer said.
Finally, the documentary and the LAIP accuse the Modesto police of mishandling and even destroying potentially significant evidence in the case, including witness interviews, investigator notes, and property recovered from the burglary.
Peterson was initially sentenced to death, but that punishment was later overturned.
The Innocence Project provides pro bono legal help to inmates convicted of crimes in Central and Southern California.
Modesto police did not respond to a Post request for comment.
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