California | Judge denies Scott Peterson's attempt to present new evidence in fight for freedom

Scott Peterson's attorneys said they plan to appeal to a higher court.

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- A California judge has denied Scott Peterson's attempt to present new evidence that his attorneys claim exonerates him in the murder of his wife and unborn son.

Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002 when she was eight months pregnant. Her body was found in the San Francisco Bay in April 2003.

Scott Peterson, 53, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son. A jury found him guilty following a six-month trial in 2004.

The Los Angeles Innocence Project, which took up his case in recent years, filed a habeas petition in August 2025 alleging that he was wrongfully convicted based on what it called false evidence.

RELATED | LA Innocence Project files 'bombshell' petition in Scott Peterson double murder case

In an order issued on Monday, San Mateo, California Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Hill declined to review the evidence and denied the petition's claims, finding they are procedurally barred or lack merit.

Scott Peterson's attorneys said they plan to appeal to a higher court.

"We disagree with and are disappointed by the court's ruling on every level," LA Innocence Project Deputy Director Hannah Brown said in a statement. "The ruling demonstrates a profound misunderstanding and misapplication of the law applied to habeas corpus petitions."

The LA Innocence Project has claimed Scott Peterson was denied his rights to due process and a fair trial because jurors did not hear evidence that they argue could have affected the outcome of the trial. His attorneys said they have "uncovered compelling new scientific evidence showing that the jury in Mr. Peterson's case relied on unreliable scientific evidence to convict him."

Scott Peterson has previously appealed his conviction, claiming he received an unfair trial based on possible jury misconduct.

A judge denied him a new trial in 2022 following his appeal on stealth juror accusations. The LA Innocence Project said they are challenging that ruling in the California Supreme Court.

Prosecutors and police who were involved in the original trial have stood behind the 2004 conviction.

Scott Peterson was initially sentenced to death for the murders. In 2020, the California Supreme Court overturned his death sentence, citing that his jury was improperly screened for bias against the death penalty, according to court documents. He was later resentenced to life in prison without parole.

Source: abc7chicago.com, Meredith Deliso, April 29, 2026

"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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What Tennessee wants to do next to Christa Pike is beyond grim

Christa Pike, the woman who survived two execution attempts in Tennessee earlier this week, remains hospitalized in critical condition, where presumably medical staff is at work trying to keep her alive. If she wakes from the coma she had entered, Tennessee officials want to start anew to inject lethal drugs into her seemingly too-small veins to kill her and carry out the state death warrant. Pike also is being treated for “significant injuries to both arms” sustained when two lethal injections of pentobarbital failed to kill her. If she dies, there will be no need to try again. As we know by now, Tennessee tried to put Pike to death Wednesday night by lethal injection for a murder she committed when she was 18. She would have been the first woman executed in the state in 200 years.

Tennessee | Christa Pike’s lawyer says she has not regained consciousness since her failed execution

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Tennessee Woman Christa Pike Survives Lethal Injection, Ends Up in Hospital; Governor Halts Executions

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Singapore | Ministry of Home Affairs refutes claims that death penalty was discussed during visit by Israel's security ministry

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Tennessee | Governor permits Christa Pike execution: 'I am upholding the sentence'

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Florida executes Curtis Beasley

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Florida | He executed death row prisoners. Then they came back to haunt him

Dunnellon, Florida—Every night, one of the men Ron McAndrew killed would sit at the foot of his bed and stare, blankly, into his tortured soul. He knew they were coming. He’d shift over in his sheets to make room. “They never said anything,” McAndrew recalls, his aged voice straining from the weight of the memory. “They just sat there and looked at me.” But their eyes would talk. They would ask, "How could you do such a thing?’” says McAndrew. “You always claimed to be a good person. And now you’re killing people.”

Philippines | President Marcos Grants Absolute Pardon to Mary Jane Veloso

President Marcos Confirms Decision to Grant Absolute Pardon to Mary Jane Veloso President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has signed an absolute pardon for Mary Jane Veloso after more than a decade. On Friday (September 25, 2026), the President confirmed the decision during a visit to Guiuan, Eastern Samar. According to him, the pardon was officially signed the previous day, marking a major development in the case.

Tennessee Supreme Court denies stay for death row inmate Christa Pike

(TNND) — As Tennessee prepares for a Sept. 30 execution, the Tennessee Supreme Court has denied death row inmate Christa Gail Pike’s request to stop it. The court rejected Pike’s challenge to the state’s lethal-injection protocol, finding that her thrombocytosis diagnosis, a condition involving elevated blood platelets, did not show the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

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