California | Scott Peterson transferred from death row ahead of resentencing

Peterson expected to receive life sentence without possibility of parole after state Supreme Court overturned death penalty

Scott Peterson, who spent more than 15 years on death row in the 2002 murders of his pregnant wife and unborn son, was transferred from death row, officials confirmed Monday.

Ahead of his resentencing where he is expected to receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a spokesperson with San Mateo County's Superior Court told KCRA 3 Peterson was moved to a jail in the county on Monday. He is not able to post bail.

Peterson was convicted in 2004 for the murders of his wife Laci and unborn son Conner. Laci was 28 years old and eight months pregnant at the time of her killing.

He originally received a death sentence but that was overturned last year by the California Supreme Court because jurors who personally disagreed with the death penalty but were willing to impose it were improperly dismissed.

He will no longer face the death penalty, but he continues to try to have his conviction overturned, his attorneys claiming a juror was untruthful when she filled out a juror questionnaire.

The woman, known as Juror 7, did not reveal during jury selection that she had been beaten by a boyfriend while pregnant in 2001. She also didn't disclose that during another pregnancy she had obtained a restraining order against a boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, whom she feared would hurt her unborn child.

The juror later said she didn't think her cases were similar to Peterson's murders, and that it didn't occur to her to disclose that information.

A hearing on the alleged juror misconduct claim is scheduled late February.

Prosecutors said Peterson took his wife's body from their Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002 and dumped her in San Francisco Bay from his fishing boat. The body of his wife and the boy's fetus washed ashore in April 2003.

Source: The Associated Press, Staff, November 29, 2021

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

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