Scott Peterson’s Lawyers: ‘New Evidence’ Shows Convicted Wife Killer’s Innocence: Report

REDWOOD CITY, CA — The Los Angeles Innocence Project has taken up the case of Scott Peterson, whose 2004 conviction of killing his wife, Laci and their unborn son Conner, garnered worldwide media attention, the organization confirmed.

Lawyers for the Innocence Project this week filed several motions in San Mateo County Superior Court aimed at showing others may have killed the pair.

"New evidence now supports Mr. Peterson's longstanding claim of innocence and raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson," the filings state, according to ABC.

Peterson's lawyers are focusing on several men who were involved in a burglary across the street from the Peterson home, ABC7 reporter Dan Noyes said in a social media post.

His attorneys are seeking dozens of items they say they could not locate after reviewing the trial files from his prior counsel "after a thorough search," according to the filings. The filings claim that Peterson's state and federal constitutional rights were violated.

The motions filed Thursday center around efforts for post-conviction discovery, the sealing of court records and DNA testing. The San Mateo court has not yet made the documents available online.

Laci Peterson, 27, was eight-months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002. Her body was found in San Francisco Bay the following April.

Scott Peterson, now 51, was arrested that month on charges of first-degree murder in the death of Laci Person and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son. He was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death the following year, ABC reported.

Peterson's lawyers appealed and in 2020 the state Supreme Court upheld his conviction, but overturned his death sentence. The court found that Peterson's jury was improperly screened for bias against the death penalty, ABC reported.

The following year he was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A judge in 2022 rejected Peterson's bid for a new trial when his lawyers argued that the trial was tainted by a juror who lied about her own history of abuse in order to get a seat on the jury.

Peterson and his legal team have maintained his innocence.

"The Los Angeles Innocence Project (LAIP) represents Scott Peterson and is investigating his claim of actual innocence. We have no further comment at this time," the organization told Patch in a statement.

The LA Innocence Project's work includes a focus on exonerating the wrongly convicted, freeing the wrongly incarcerated and remedying past misuse of evidence, according to its mission statement.

Its past work includes getting Maurice Hastings freed and declared innocent after he spent 38 years in prison for an Inglewood murder.