Non-profit says it is investigating 51-year-old’s ‘claim of actual innocence’ over high-profile killing of pregnant wife

Two decades after Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for the murder of his pregnant wife in a high-profile trial, the Los Angeles Innocence Project said this week that it had taken up the case.

The development marks a significant breakthrough for the 51-year-old, who has long maintained his innocence and has claimed he received an unfair trial.

In court filings this week, which were first reported by ABC News, the project, which seeks to exonerate those who have been wrongfully convicted, argued that new evidence supports Peterson’s “claim of actual innocence” and “raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson”.

  • JoBo
    1·
    8 months ago

    You know precisely nothing about their reasoning. Public opinion has no bearing. It was formed on the basis of police and media reports that may have led to the conviction of an innocent man. He’s already had the death sentence lifted because the jury was rigged.

    In the court filings this week, the Los Angeles Innocence Project said it was seeking evidence from the 2004 trial that it was unable to find among trial files from Peterson’s former counsel.

    “In the course of LAIP’s review and after some preliminary investigation, it became apparent to me that numerous items referred to throughout the police reports in Mr Peterson’s case were not included in the discovery that was provided to the defense at the time of trial,” Paula Mitchell, director of the Los Angeles Innocence Project, said in the court filing.

    It appears that there were failures of disclosure, and quite possibly an incompetent defence team. You don’t need to have an opinion about this until they present their case.