Scott Peterson was unfairly targeted by police and prosecutors who destroyed evidence exonerating him of murdering his pregnant wife and unborn child, a justice advocacy group has claimed.
Peterson is seeking to overturn his conviction for the slaying of Laci Peterson, 27, in a petition filed on his behalf by the Los Angeles branch of the Innocence Project (LAIP).
The petition cites new evidence that the organization argues could have changed jurors minds—chiefly about a burglary that happened across the street from the Petersons’ house in Modesto, California, around the time she went missing.
Peterson was convicted and sentenced to death in 2004 for strangling his wife—killing their unborn son, Conner—on Dec. 23, 2002, before dumping the bodies in the San Francisco Bay.
The trial, which captured national attention, saw jurors reject Peterson’s alibi that he was fishing when his wife went missing on Christmas Eve. The prosecution argued that Peterson committed the murders because of an affair he was having with a woman named Amber Frey, who became a witness against Peterson.
Peterson was not initially a suspect, but he drew suspicion from police for his odd behavior after Laci vanished. The tide of public opinion turned when he gave an interview with ABC News’s Diane Sawyer in January 2003 in which he struck many viewers as far too calm and casual about his wife’s disappearance.
Now, Peterson, 52, who evaded death in 2020 when his original sentence was vacated in favor of life imprisonment, is asking the courts to set him free.
After an investigation lasting more than a year, the LA Innocence Project says that it has uncovered evidence that would have secured him a not-guilty verdict, according to ABC news.
It alleges that law enforcement had no interest in identifying suspects other than Peterson or fairly considering the evidence.
“In my opinion, once the police locked onto Mr. Peterson as the prime suspect, they had no interest in finding evidence showing that someone other than Scott may have abducted Laci Peterson,” the organization’s director, Paula Mitchell, wrote in the filing, according to ABC.
Much of the new evidence centers on a burglary at the Medina family home across the street from the Petersons’ home that the LAIP said happened the same day that Laci Peterson was reported missing, rather than two days after, as jurors were told, according to a press release.
It says that a witness overheard the burglars discuss being confronted by Laci while they were committing the burglary. The LAIP argues that this exonerates Scott Peterson since it proves his wife was still alive after he left the house that day.
The LAIP also highlights a blood-stained mattress in the back of a van that was set to fire in Modesto the day after the burglary. A judge didn’t allow the organization to test the blood for a match to Laci Peterson, ABC reported.
The petition argues that the burglary, the van fire, and the murder are all connected.
It says that police failed to investigate the links between the crimes and even “intentionally destroyed critical exculpatory physical evidence related to the burglary, including videotaped interviews police conducted with two of the Medina burglars the night of their arrest.”
Alongside the witness accounts, the petition features new scientific evidence, including modeling of the tide and winds in a marina where Peterson was accused of dumping the bodies when he went fishing. “The new modeling shows that the bodies of Laci and Conner could not have migrated from the area where Scott went fishing to where they were recovered,” the LAIP said in its release.
The filing challenges the fetal growth science that the prosecution used to peg Conner’s death date as the night before Laci Peterson went missing. It cites scientific analyses using more recent methods that would fix the date as much as five to eight days later.
With the new evidence which it quietly filed on Friday, the LAIP believes it has repudiated the case that was used to convict Peterson.
“Every aspect of the prosecution’s theory as to how the crimes in this case were committed has now been shown to be false,” says the petition, which also includes a 126-page declaration of innocence from Peterson, who has never wavered on this point.
“It is important to me that whoever killed my wife and son be found and held accountable,” Peterson said, according to ABC. “If whoever committed such violence against i and Conner is still at large they are a danger to public safety. It is also important to me that I clear my name and my family’s name because I did not and could never harm or kill my family.”
In announcing that it was going to fight Peterson’s legal battle, the LAIP acknowledged that the case would not garner public sympathy.
“We are advocates for truth and justice, no matter who the defendant may be or how controversial the case,” it said. “Mr. Peterson’s case is just one of the cases LAIP is handling. There are many more victims of wrongful convictions who need support.”
The nonprofit is the Southern California branch of the Innocence Project, which is a national organization. It works with the California Forensic Science Institute and Cal State LA’s School of Criminal Justice, according to its site.
Peterson has always maintained his innocence. His fight for freedom—including some of the LAIP’s work on his behalf—was featured in a 2024 Peacock documentary series that included interviews with Peterson.
More than 15 years after he was convicted, Peterson’s death sentence was vacated by California’s supreme court in 2020 along with many others on death row. The following year, he was resentenced to life in prison. At the hearing, members of Laci Peterson’s family called him “evil” and “sociopathic.”
Her family has not yet publicly addressed his latest push for freedom and could not immediately be reached for contact.
Last month, Peterson made the news after he sustained minor injuries from an attack by another inmate during a pickleball match.
The post We Can Prove Scott Peterson Didn’t Murder Laci: Innocence Project appeared first on The Daily Beast.
