Scott Peterson: California judge rejects new trial for convicted murderer who killed pregnant wife
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: A California judge has denied convicted murderer Scott Peterson's request for a second chance to try his case. Scott Peterson will continue to serve a life sentence for killing his pregnant wife Laci and the unborn child they named Conner on Christmas Eve 2002. Initially, there was speculation that Laci had disappeared, but it was not until four months later that Laci's body and that of her unborn son, Conner, were discovered in San Francisco Bay. He was charged with Laci's murder after his lover, Amber Frey, whom prosecutors believed committed the crime, alerted police to his crime.
In 2004, Scott was sentenced to death, but it wasn't until 2020 that he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole due to jury misconduct. Scott and his lawyers claimed Richelle Nice intentionally concealed her own domestic violence case during jury selection. She was also accused of influencing her fellow jurors against Scott, which directly led to his guilty verdict. After months of litigation, Judge Anne-Christine Massullo, the same judge who commuted the death sentence to life in prison in 2020, said there was no evidence of misconduct by Nice during jury selection.
READ MORE
Nice had filed a restraining order during her pregnancy because her boyfriend's ex made threats to her life, however, this incident occurred four years before Scott's trials. Nice did not mention the incident in her 20-plus page jurors filing questionnaire as she didn’t think it was relevant. “I didn’t write it on the questionnaire because it never crossed my mind, ever. It wasn’t done intentionally,” she swore in February, according to New York Post. She even claimed she wasn't for any financial benefit adding that she and the other jurors did not discuss writing their joint book, “We, the Jury,” until after the trial had ended.
Judge Anne-Christine Massullo claimed Nice did not intentionally conceal information about her life on the jury questionnaire or misrepresent her financial situation to stay on the jury and did not appear vengeful toward Scott in letters she later wrote him in prison, Massullo wrote, reported New York Post. Prosecutors admitted Nice failed to disclose her civil domestic dispute case during jury selection, but claimed it was a simple error and not a deliberate attempt to seek revenge for Scott's unborn baby, as his team claimed. Scott is currently incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison east of Sacramento.