Scott Peterson back in court to fight murder conviction
Criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos says he still believes his former client is innocent in the killing of his pregnant wife as Peterson seeks a new trial and discusses the sentencing of ‘Rust’ armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed.
Scott Peterson was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of his wife Laci and their unborn son, but could new evidence in the high-profile case eventually set him free?
Backed by a new team of lawyers, the possibility lies on the table.
Fox Nation’s latest special, “Scott Peterson: The Appeal of a Convicted Killer,” looks into this persistent push for a shot at freedom as Peterson maintains his innocence and his legal team seeks to bring in new evidence they say may help exonerate him.
Hosted by Judge Jeanine Pirro, the episode explores new evidence, eyewitness accounts and Peterson’s years-long quest to be exonerated.
WHAT SCOTT PETERSON’S RECENT COURT WIN COULD MEAN FOR HIS YEARSLONG QUEST FOR FREEDOM
“Scott Peterson: The Appeal of a Convicted Killer” explores new evidence, firsthand accounts and the decades-long quest for Peterson to be freed. (Fox Nation)
As the story goes, a 7-and-a-half month pregnant Laci Peterson disappeared from the home she shared with Scott on Christmas Eve in 2002. Months later, in April 2003, a pedestrian found her unborn son’s decomposed body in San Francisco Bay.
Authorities discovered Laci’s body in the Bay soon after, just a few miles from where her husband had gone for a solo fishing trip that Christmas Eve.
Peterson claimed he had come home to discover an empty house and reported his wife missing the next day. Add his sudden decision to bleach his hair and the police speculation that he carried his brother’s passport in an effort to flee to Mexico to the mounting number of coincidences that fueled the investigation.
What was not brought into the equation, Peterson’s attorneys say, are a number of reports and recordings – and mention of a nearby burglary that may have happened while Laci was still alive.
“Mr. Peterson’s been waiting for 20 years for police reports and audio recordings and video recordings that should have been provided,” Paula Mitchell, executive director of The Innocence Project, which took up the case earlier this year, said during a court hearing, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We are eager to get our investigation underway.”
Peterson was convicted of murder in 2004 and received the death sentence the following year, but that sentence was overturned in 2020, leaving him to serve a life sentence.
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12-year-old Danny Lewin, Geoff Shenk, Katherine Lewin and 12-year-old Katie Lewin, read Extra edition put out by the Redwood City Daily News after the verdict came in in the Scott Peterson murder trial November 12, 2004, in Redwood City, California. (Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images)
Amber Frey, Peterson’s former mistress, would become a game-changing element in the investigation.
Her contribution to the Peterson case – recorded phone calls and the 911 tip – are also explored in the Fox Nation special.
“Six days after Laci vanished about 100 miles away… [she] picked up the phone and called the Modesto Police. She had information that would finally give them a potential motive,” Pirro narrated.
She had been seeing him romantically while he operated under the guise of being single. She’d become aware that she was unwillingly Peterson’s mistress in his extramarital affair, and police brought her in for her help, asking that she record conversations with Peterson.
“The recordings helped paint Scott not only as a cheater, but also as a compulsive liar,” Pirro said.
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To learn more about the case, sign up for Fox Nation to stream part one of “Scott Peterson: The Appeal of a Convicted Killer.”
Fox News’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.