A shocking update has been revealed in the case of Scott Peterson, who was infamously convicted of brutally murdering his pregnant wife.
Peterson has spent the last two decades behind bars for massacring Laci, 27, and killing her unborn son, Conner, in 2002. The fertilizer salesman dumped her body in the San Francisco Bay after promising to would elope with his lover.
Now, a California judge has granted the 51-year-old access to crucial evidence in an explosive ruling that could open the door to a re-examination of the case that has garnered national attention.
Peterson is now allowed a period of discovery based on California Penal Code 1054.9, which grants discovery rights to defendants who were convicted of serious or violent crimes and sentenced to 15 or more years in prison.
The code allows the defendant to access materials “in the possession of prosecutors and law enforcement authorities to which the defendant himself would have been entitled at the time of trial.”
Scott Peterson’s, 51, baffling request for post-conviction probation has been surprisingly approved by a California judge.
A shocking update has been revealed in the case of Scott Peterson (right), who was infamously convicted of brutally murdering his 27-year-old wife, Laci (left), and the couple’s unborn son, Conner.
Scott Peterson and Amber Frey, photographed together at a party on December 14, 2002.
Whether Peterson, who is incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, will be granted a new trial depends on how the discovery process progresses.
Peterson had been married to Laci for five years when she disappeared on December 24, 2002, after walking her dog.
The cause of death was never determined as Laci’s body was in poor condition when it was found washed ashore on April 14, 2003, just one day before her unborn child’s fetus was discovered.
Peterson was also having an affair at the time of his wife’s murder with Amber Frey, now 49, who helped police convict her then-boyfriend, contributing to the complexity of the case. Peterson and Frey were photographed together at a Christmas party just 10 days before Laci disappeared.
The most recent filings come just months after the Los Angeles Innocence Project took up Peterson’s notorious case.
The Los Angeles-based group suggests in court documents that Laci may have witnessed a Christmas Eve robbery across the street from the couple’s Modesto home and been kidnapped and then killed by the robbers.
The group is searching for DNA evidence on materials related to the robbery and on tarps and a large plastic bag found on the boardwalk near where the bodies were washed up separately.
Peterson is now allowed a period of discovery based on California Penal Code 1054.9, which grants discovery rights to defendants who were convicted of serious or violent crimes and sentenced to 15 or more years in prison.
The most recent filings come just months after the Los Angeles Innocence Project took up the famous Peterson case.
Peterson had been married to Laci for five years when she disappeared on December 24, 2002, after walking her dog.
Additionally, the group’s attorneys are requesting police reports and audio and video recordings of interviews of suspects and witnesses related to the robbery.
Court documents claim the Modesto Police Department improperly withheld materials and was quick to declare that the thieves had no connection to the murders.
Peterson, who previously worked as a fertilizer salesman, is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
He still denies any involvement in Laci’s disappearance or the deaths of her and her unborn child.