How Scott Peterson Could be Unleashed: The Loophole Offering Caged Killer of Pregnant Wife and Son His Escape From Jail After 20 Years Behind Bars
Oct. 22 2024, Published 10:21 a.m. ET
Convicted killer Scott Peterson – who's spent two decades behind bars in California for murdering his pregnant 27-year-old wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner – may walk free after a bombshell ruling.
Peterson, 51, was recently granted access to crucial evidence related to the 2002 deaths, potentially paving the way for a retrial – and acquittal!
A San Mateo County Superior Court judge approved Peterson's request for a post-conviction discovery period on the basis of the state's Penal Code 1054.9, which went into effect January 1, 2003.
The law allows defendants who were found guilty of serious or violent felonies and sentenced to 15 or more years in jail access to previously unobtained materials "in possession of the prosecution and law enforcement authorities to which the same defendant would have been entitled at the time of trial".
Laci was eight months pregnant when she vanished on Christmas Eve in 2002, and Peterson reported her missing from their Modesto home.
The jailbird claims after he returned home from a solo fishing trip, his dimple-cheeked wife of five years was nowhere to be found.
But less than four months later, her headless, rotting torso – and the fetal remains of the couple's son – were discovered along the Point Isabel shoreline.
Laci's cause of death could not be determined, but lawmen believe her body may have been weighted at the wrists and ankles and submerged in seawater.
Investigators accused Peterson of murdering his wife so he could run off with his mistress Amber Frey who helped cops build their case against her onetime flame.
The Los Angeles Innocence Project – a nonprofit that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted – has recently suggested in court documents Laci may have witnessed a neighborhood break-in and been kidnapped by burglars.
The group is demanding DNA tests on materials connected to the robbery, as well as police reports and audio and video recordings from interviews of suspects and witnesses.
They're also requesting DNA information from tarps and a plastic bag found near Laci and Conner's remains.
Peterson was convicted in 2004 and sent to death row at California's notorious San Quentin Prison – but 17 years later, he was re-sentenced to life behind bars.
The former fertilizer salesman is currently holed up in Mule Creek State Prison as he works on his bid for freedom and denies any involvement in Laci's disappearance or the death of her and their unborn child.
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