Laci Peterson’s murder revisited after killer husband Scott has his death sentence overturned 18 years later
California's Supreme Court reversed the death sentence of Scott Peterson for the 2002 deaths of his wife Laci and their unborn son. The trial itself was fair, the state's highest court found, and that the murder convictions stand nonetheless.
The court found that potential jurors were dismissed erroneously, partly because they had objected to the death penalty on a questionnaire. "While a court may dismiss a prospective juror as unqualified to sit on a capital case if the juror's views on capital punishment would substantially impair his or her ability to follow the law, a juror may not be dismissed merely because he or she has expressed opposition to the death penalty as a general matter," the justices stated.
"The death sentence must be reversed, and the people given another opportunity to seek that penalty before a properly selected jury if they so choose," it added. The case has now been transferred to Stanislaus County Superior Court to handle the sentencing
That said, did Peterson's crime warrant the death knell in the first place?
What happened?
Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve of 2002, when she was eight months pregnant. The chilling story that unraveled later became the subject of a six-part docuseries released by A&E in 2017.
On December 24, Scott went fishing while his wife Laci went to walk the dog. Later in the day, however, a neighbor found the pooch in front of their residence with his leash still on. Meanwhile, Laci's whereabouts couldn't be traced.
Reports at the time said Scott had gone to his warehouse to send emails and get his boat so he would spend the next ninety minutes fishing before returning to the warehouse. His alibi, at the time, seemed to align with timestamped emails and a marina receipt obtained by the authorities.
Scott said he came home to an empty house and "assumed" Laci had gone to her mother's place, but when he called her parents they informed him she wasn't there. Laci's stepfather filed a missing person's report about a half-hour later.
Scott immediately became the prime suspect in Laci's disappearance. Investigators were more convinced after he seemed rather nonchalant about his missing wife and how the investigation was proceeding. On top of that, Scott repeatedly refused to take a lie detector test and refused to cooperate with the authorities when they obtained a warrant to search the home he and Laci were living in.
Meanwhile, Scott also became the number one suspect in the eyes of the public, especially after photos of him laughing and smiling during a vigil for his deceased family surfaced shortly after. Enter Amber Frey, a single mother who met Scott in November of 2002 and entered a romantic relationship with him. She later revealed that Scott told her his wife had passed away and how he was going to spend his first Christmas without her.
When Frey came across a headline about Laci's December 24 disappearance, she quickly realized Scott had lied to her. The distraught mom immediately contacted the authorities and offered her full cooperation. She eventually ended up recording almost thirty hours of phone calls with her then-boyfriend without his knowledge.
In April 2003, authorities found two maimed and decaying bodies in a marshy area of the San Francisco Bay shore -- one of an adult woman and the other a baby. Forensic tests would later confirm they were, in fact, Laci and her unborn son. Scott was apprehended in San Diego, where authorities found him with dyed blonde hair, a beard, his brother’s ID, four cell phones, and $10,000 in cash. Investigators said they were forced to assume he was planning to cross the border over to Mexico.
In November 2004, Scott was found guilty of first-degree murder in his wife's death and second-degree murder in the death of his unborn son, later identified as Conner. He was sentenced to death the following month. Over the years, Scott continued to claim innocence and put forth multiple appeals to reverse the death penalty. His appeal was finally heard by the California Supreme Court on June 2, 2020.
Having said that, it is unclear if the district attorney's office will now seek the death penalty again for Scott. Attorney Mark Geragos, who formerly represented Scott, said that "if the state wishes to put someone to death, it must proceed to trial only with a fairly selected jury." California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a moratorium on the death penalty in 2019. The moratorium, however, is only in effect while Newsom is in office, per CNN.