The Los Angeles Innocence Project, a non-profit organization, filed documents in court earlier this week to re-examine the case of Scott Peterson, who has been serving his sentence in a California prison since the murder of his eight-month-pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn child in 2002.
The organization had emailed The New York Times a statement stating that “it represents Scott Peterson and is investigating his claim of actual innocence as it is.” On Friday, the San Mateo County Superior Court confirmed the filing submitted by the organization.
Who is the new support of Scott Peterson?
This decision of the Los Angeles Innocence Project to take up the case has raised all the attention again that was on the murder convection, which has been generated for years and has widespread coverage by news organizations, books, etc.
The group from the organization, which has been looking over the case of Scott Peterson, says that after reviewing the trial files by their attorneys, they could not locate any evidence that relates to the investigations about the events that took place during the month Laci Peterson went missing, as reported by ABC News while quoting the documents.
As per the ABC reports, Ms. Mitchell shared the information that was based on the newly discovered evidence, which says there are deficiencies in the police reports, tips sheets, and other materials that were used by both the prosecution and the defense.
Further, she mentions that there were items found in the police report that were not presented to defense attorneys during this discovery and also that the witnesses were ‘hesitant’ or ‘unwilling’ to provide any information in the high-profile case.
Before now, when he had the support of the Los Angeles Innocence Project, Scott Peterson had always been supported by his sister-in-law Janey Peterson, who remained by his side even after he was convicted of the murder of his 8-month-pregnant wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son Conner Peterson.
In 2004, a California jury found Scott Peterson guilty of two counts of first-degree murder of his eight-month pregnant wife Laci (27). On Christmas Eve of 2002, Laci went missing and was initially helped by Scott to be looked for by the police. Later, it came out that she had been having an affair with some other guy, following which Scott came under the name of the prime suspect in the case.
Other than being a prime suspect, no action was taken against Scott until four months later, when Laci was found dead in Saint Francisco Bay, just a mile away from where the dead body of her unborn baby was found.
From the beginning of the case, Scott has been maintaining his innocence in The Murder of Laci Peterson case and his sister-in-law, Janey Peterson, who is married to the brother of Scott. She told the Today show in 2021 that Laci was not killed on Christmas in 2002 but later.
She also added that there was evidence that was ignored completely, that shows Laci was alive after Scott left for the day, but there was also no evidence that he had anything to do with what happened to Laci.”
Scott, months after, stated that the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, was caused by an unknown assailant while she was walking the dog after he left her on Christmas Eve morning for a solo fishing trip.
Following the case, it also came out a month later that even Scott was having an affair with a woman named Amber Frey, who was unaware of the fact that he was already married. After Laci went missing, Frey herself disclosed this affair to the police in December 2002; she even testified during the trial of Scott.
In defense of her brother-in-law, Janey said that being an adult does not mean he is a killer, and “I don’t think you can take that leap.” She also said, “We don’t have justice; this crime is not solved.”.
According to ABC, the filing that was submitted also stated that now there is a shred of new evidence that supports the long-standing claim of innocence of Mr. Peterson, and this has raised many questions about who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson.
The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office said, “Mr. Peterson, like all individuals convicted of crimes, is afforded that legal right to appeal his conviction with a representation of his choosing” on Friday in a statement.
