A California judge has allowed Scott Peterson’s defense team access to some decades-old evidence as they appeal his murder convictions.
The approval of some post-conviction discovery materials comes nearly two decades after Peterson was convicted of the 2002 killing of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner.
In her 207-page ruling, San Mateo County Super Court Judge Elizabeth Hill addressed the Los Angeles Innocence Project’s request for access to hundreds of pieces of evidence.
In January 2024, the nonprofit organization, known for their work to exonerate wrongly convicted and incarcerated individuals, said they were “investigating [Peterson’s] claim of actual innocence.”
In her ruling, Hill granted access to some post-conviction material, including audio and video recordings of Modesto Police Department interviews with two men who were suspects in a burglary at a home across from the Petersons’, as well as any handwritten notes taken by Modesto Police Officers who interviewed the two men in the back of a police patrol vehicle.
Peterson is allowed access to some discovery materials under a California law that allows a defendant access to materials “in the possession of the prosecution and law enforcement authorities to which the same defendant would have been entitled at the time of trial,” according to the state’s penal code.
Scott and Laci Peterson.
Courtesy of Netflix
The code only applies to serious or violent felonies where the defendant was sentenced to 15 or more years in prison.
Peterson is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of Laci, 27, who was last seen on December 23, 2002. Her unborn son was found in San Francisco Bay on April 13, 2003, by a couple walking their dog. A day later, the body of Laci washed onto the shore one mile away from where the baby’s body was found.
Laci Peterson.
Justin Sullivan/Getty
Authorities were unable to determine a cause of death because the bodies were badly decomposed — and Laci’s body was missing the head and both forearms.
In January, the Los Angeles Innocence Project took up Peterson’s latest efforts to be released, claiming that Peterson’s state and federal constitutional rights were violated.
The attorneys cited updated witness statements that allegedly pointed to multiple areas of interest including the burglary at the Modesto home across the street from the Petersons. Scott’s attorneys have previously argued his wife was killed after she witnessed the men breaking into the neighbor’s house during a dog walk while Scott was on a solo fishing trip Christmas Eve morning.
In August, the former fertilizer salesperson spoke out in the three-part docuseries, Face to Face with Scott Peterson, once again denying that he had any involvement in the disappearance and death of Laci and the child she was carrying.
In the series, he appealed to the public to listen to his side of the story of what he termed the “so-called investigation” carried out by police and prosecutors who, he claimed, ignored significant leads and relied solely on circumstantial evidence.
