The LA Innocence Project has decided to represent convicted wife killer Scott Peterson in an attempt to have his conviction thrown out.
According to ABC News, the group says that Peterson’s state and federal constitutional rights were violated and that his claim of innocence “is supported by newly discovered evidence,” court filings say.
Peterson, 51, was convicted in 2005 of the murder of Laci Peterson, who was pregnant at the time, and sentenced to death. The sentence was later changed to life without parole, as CrimeOnline has reported, after the state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence.
The Innocence Project filings say it is seeking dozens of items from Peterson’s original trial that they were unable to locate “after a thorough search.” Included in that list but obviously not from the original trial is evidence from the investigations into a 2022 burglary of a home across the street from the Petersons’ Modesto home and a van fire in the airport district on December 25, 2022.
“New evidence now supports Mr. Peterson’s longstanding claim of innocence and raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson,” the filings state.
Paula Mitchell, the director of the project, sent a letter to Stanislaus County District Attorney Jeff Laugero in November 2023 “seeking information production of numerous specific items of post-conviction discovery,” a declaration included in the filings says.
The letter “includes private identifying information concerning numerous citizens, potential material witnesses, and possible suspects — as well as sensitive investigative leads relating to Mr. Peterson’s claim of innocence-information that was referenced throughout various police reports, tip sheets, and other investigative materials from both the prosecution and the defense that I reviewed,” Mitchell said in the declaration.
Peterson’s attorney, Pat Harris, told ABC News that that they 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.”
The project will be providing the work for free.
California judges have repeatedly rejected Peterson’s claims of innocence and bias against him.
The LA Innocence Project is not connected in any way with the national organization The Innocence Project.
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[Featured image: FILE – This Nov. 29, 2021 photo from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, shows inmate Scott Peterson. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP, File)]
