A bombshell new documentary reveals essential, never-before-seen proof that would clear notorious wife-killer Scott Peterson greater than twenty years after his conviction, supporters say.
Peterson, 53, has been serving a life sentence in California since a jury discovered him responsible of murdering his pregnant spouse, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, on Christmas Eve 2002 — a conviction based mostly partly on how he removed his spouse’s physique aboard his fishing boat.
A&E’s two-part documentary, “Scott Peterson: The New Proof” — set to air July 16 and 17 — is now providing newly unearthed footage, alleged handwritten notes from Laci, and professional opinions that it says significantly throw that damning state of affairs into doubt.
“I lose sleep – and with Scott, in all probability greater than every other case – after I imagine [a client] is harmless,” stated Mark Geragos, Peterson’s lawyer throughout his sensational 2004 trial, to The Put up in protection of the convicted killer.
“You may have an intuition or a intestine feeling that’s honed by doing 10,000 reps, so to talk, and you recognize when somebody is sweet for against the law or after they’re not,” stated Geragos, whose high-profile purchasers have included Sean “Diddy” Combs, Michael Jackson and the Menendez brothers.
Peterson has repeatedly did not overturn his conviction by means of the appeals courts.
In a tawdry case that grabbed nationwide headlines, the Petersons have been a seemingly picture-perfect couple — however in actuality, he was dishonest on his very pregnant spouse with massage-therapist mistress Amber Frey and cruelly killed Laci and their unborn son to pave the best way for him to get pleasure from a jet-setting bachelor life-style, prosecutors stated.
Years after Peterson’s conviction, in 2024, the Los Angeles Innocence Venture took over his case, arguing in courtroom filings that “new proof now helps Mr. Peterson’s long-standing declare of innocence and raises many questions into who kidnapped and killed Laci and Conner Peterson.”
The brand new documentary was filmed to “stress-test” that proof, in response to host Chris Pixley, an Atlanta-based protection lawyer and authorized analyst for ABC Information.
The practically three hours of footage kick off with Pixley and retired Los Angeles Detective Ninette Toosbuy retracing Peterson’s Christmas Eve drive to the Berkeley Marina, the place prosecutors stated he dumped Laci’s physique from his small fishing boat.
Pixley and Toosbuy declare it could have been practically not possible for Peterson to get rid of the physique with none witnesses in broad daylight or abandoning any important DNA proof.
Two strands of Laci’s hair have been discovered wrapped round a pair of pliers discovered beneath a seat on his boat after her dying, though no blood or tissue was recovered from them, and the instrument was rusty from obvious lack of use, in response to trial testimony.
The sequence additionally reveals beforehand unseen protection footage displaying a weighted dummy, meant to duplicate Laci’s physique, inflicting the tiny vessel to capsize whereas it was being thrown overboard — proof the jury by no means noticed, the documentary says.
It additionally highlights handwritten notes allegedly written by Laci that counsel that she knew about Peterson’s buying of the fishing boat — undercutting the prosecution’s declare that he had secretly purchased it to hold out the killing.
New consultants featured within the sequence additionally problem the tidal and wind evaluation introduced on the trial, claiming that Laci’s physique couldn’t have washed up the place investigators discovered it if Peterson dumped it the place he was fishing.
Advances in fetal biometric science additionally counsel that Laci and Conner may have died later than Dec. 24, in response to the consultants and LAIP — a timeline that casts doubt on the state’s principle that Peterson killed them that day.
Laci spoke along with her mom on the cellphone the evening of Dec. 23. By Dec. 25, the Petersons’ Modesto dwelling was swarming with household, investigators, and hordes of reporters.
The documentary, in the meantime, revisits another principle centered on a housebreaking throughout the road from the Petersons’ dwelling across the time Laci went lacking. It cites seven witnesses who reported seeing a suspicious van within the neighborhood on Dec. 24, together with a reserve police officer who allegedly advised police he noticed a pregnant girl being compelled right into a van.
A van was later discovered burned in an obvious arson incident about 1.5 miles away in Modesto’s Airport District – a seedy space the place a police canine had allegedly tracked Laci’s scent throughout the preliminary investigation, in response to the documentary.
Geragos and his protection crew didn’t study in regards to the torched van till greater than a decade after Peterson’s conviction, the lawyer stated.
Lastly, the documentary and the LAIP accuse the Modesto police of mishandling and even destroying doubtlessly important proof within the case, together with witness interviews, investigator notes, and property recovered from the housebreaking.
Peterson was initially sentenced to dying, however that punishment was later overturned.
The Innocence Venture offers professional bono authorized assist to inmates convicted of crimes in Central and Southern California.
Modesto police didn’t reply to a Put up request for remark.
