A California judge has denied all but one request for new DNA testing from convicted murderer Scott Peterson’s new defense team on Wednesday.
Peterson was convicted and sentenced to death in 2004 for the murders of his wife Laci Peterson and their unborn child, as CrimeOnline reported. He was initially sentenced to death but got that sentenced overturned in favor of life in prison.
His new attorneys with the LA Innocence Project, which is not remotedly affiliated with the national Innocence Project, requested new testing on several items. But the judge nixed all the request except for one – testing on duct tape found on Laci Peterson’s pants, KCRA reported.
The judge noted that the pants were tested in 2013 but new testing is available.
The decision came after the judge weighed the defense request with a 337-page rebuttal from prosecutors that rehashed the “overwhelming” evidence presented in 2004 when a jury found Peterson guilty and heard arguments during a hearing on Wednesday.
LA Innocence Project attorney Paula Mitchell said DNA testing was necessary because the prosecution never found a murder weapon or provided a cause, time, or date of death.
But prosecutors argued that DNA testing wasn’t necessary as plenty other evidence led to Peterson’s conviction.
“There is no do over here to create a new set of facts,” special prosecutor David Harris said.
The LA Innocence Project was especially keen to have a mattress found in a burned-out van near the Peterson home tested for blood, but prosecutors noted that no blood had been found on previous tests of the mattress, and the judge agreed that no new testing would find otherwise.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence whatsoever to tie the van or the mattress to Laci Peterson’s death.
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[Featured image: FILE – Photographs of Laci Peterson are placed at a memorial outside the home of Scott and Laci Peterson, Sunday, April 20, 2003 in Modesto, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)]
