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LAS VEGAS — Scott Peterson’s veteran attorney says his team has new evidence that could force the courts to reconsider his murder conviction, before a document on the case is released.
The documentary, which will be released this summer, comes after a San Mateo Superior Court judge on April 27 denied his latest request to overturn the murder conviction. The Los Angeles Innocence Project, which represents Peterson, said it will appeal the decision to a higher court.
Peterson was convicted of murdering wife Laci and their unborn son on Dec. 24, 2002, Modesto, California.
His veteran attorney, Mark Geragos, told Fox News Digital at CrimeCon in Las Vegas that he has not seen “anything that connects Scott Peterson to the criminal case in this case.”.”
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Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson appear in stills from the upcoming documentary “American Murder: Laci Peterson.” (Lucky Netflix)
Geragos said a burned van found near the Petersons’ home after the burglary may be connected to the case, and he said prosecutors initially hid that evidence.
“There was a van, it was dropped and burned near the house, several kilometers away,” said Gergaos. “That van contained a trove of evidence that should have been examined in real time, some of which was there, some of which is still there, and that they didn’t try or prevent the defense from doing.”
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Convicted murderer Scott Peterson appeared in court Wednesday, May 29, 2024, seeking a new trial. (Courtesy of KTVU)
In a statement filed in court, his defense team said that Laci Peterson confronted criminals who were trying to break into a house across the street on December 24, 2002. According to Peterson’s lawyers, that would have freed him because it would have happened after the fishing trip, meaning he would not have been in that area when his wife disappeared.
SCOTT PETERSON’S TRIALS SUCCEED IN BID TO SILENCE WITNESSES’ EVIDENCE IN LIFE-LONG SCREENING.
Geragos says the Los Angeles Innocence Project provided the court with an “inventory” of items that could be retested for DNA, which was rejected.
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Scott Peterson appears via video call for a status hearing in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City, Calif., on March 12, 2024. (Andy Alfaro/Modesto Bee/Tribune News Service)
“Why wouldn’t you want to? Why wouldn’t you want to answer for yourself if you’re a prosecutor? The only explanation is because you’re not sure you got the right guy,” Geragos said.
He said “something new is yet to come out,” adding that “bombs are still coming.”
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Scott Peterson sits in court at the San Mateo Superior Courthouse with his attorney Mark Geragos in 2004. Peterson was denied bail ahead of a December hearing where a judge is expected to re-sentence him to life in prison without parole. (Fred Larson-Pool/Getty Images)
Ninette Toosbuy, a retired Los Angeles Police Department detective and private investigator working with Peterson’s defense team, told Fox News Digital that multiple witnesses contacted the Modesto Police Department to report seeing Laci Peterson on the morning of Dec. 24, but she was not interviewed.
“So I think there are two critical areas where security information was not provided to the security team,” Toosbuy said. “One was the many witnesses who contacted Modesto PD claiming to have seen Laci Peterson on the morning of the 24th. Not all of those witnesses were interviewed.”
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Scott Peterson is shown in a still photo at a police interview on Christmas Day 2002, hours after his pregnant wife Laci Peterson was reported missing in San Mateo County, California. (San Mateo County Court)
“If one or two witnesses had been examined and they could confirm that, in fact, they saw Laci Peterson in the park or in the area, and that their statement was reliable, that would have quickly, within the first 48 hours, eliminated Scott Peterson as a suspect. And yet that was an area that the Modesto PD decided not to pursue. And in my opinion as a real investigator, it added to the failure of the investigator.
IA&E will air a two-part documentary, “Scott Peterson: The New Evidence,” on July 16 and 17, which will include witness testimony and interviews with Geragos and others close to the case.
