
Topics: US News, True crime, Crime, Documentaries
22 years after Scott Peterson was convicted of killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Connor, a new documentary focuses on the Los Angeles Innocence Project's (LAIP) motion seeking a new trial, which was filed in 2025.
The two-part A&E documentary, Scott Peterson: The New Evidence, explores the evidence provided by the Project, which was rejected by a California judge in April.
The 116 page order introduced 14 new evidentiary claims, all of which were said to be 'neither new, admissible nor material' by Judge Elizabeth M. Hill.
Included in this were handwritten notes found in the couple's home, which the documentary claims the defense wasn't aware of until 2024, two decades after Peterson was found guilty of first and second degree murder for the crime which took place on December 24, 2002.
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At the trial, prosecutors claimed Peterson had bought a fishing boat on December 9 2002, two weeks before Laci went missing. They said he had bought and stored this with the intention of disposing of his wife's body in the San Francisco Bay.
However, the LAIP claimed Peterson said he had bought the boat as a Christmas gift for his father-in-law and was out in the water testing it out, as heard in the new documentary.
The handwritten notes presented by the LAIP contain notes with numbers of marine supply stores, and notes about equipment.

They turned to forensic handwriting expert Dr Linton Mohammed, who believed that it was Laci's handwriting on the notes, and not Peterson's.
Therefore, if this were true, they claim the theory that Laci's murder was premeditated, and that Peterson bought the boat with the sole purpose of murdering his wife without her knowledge, would be undermined.
Forensic Document Examiner Jennifer Naso, who began her career with the Secret Service, appears in the new documentary, where she's shown the notes that were found in the home.

After examination, and comparing the notes with 'sample sets', Naso agrees with the conclusion made by Dr Mohammed, which was that 'Scott Peterson probably did not write the questioned materials'.
She also examined samples of Laci's handwriting against the notes in question, and arrived at the conclusion that 'Laci Peterson probably did write the questioned materials on the Post-it notes'.
However, it was claimed the evidence wasn’t 'material to the degree that it would have changed the outcome of the case', by Judge Hill, as per PEOPLE.
In a statement, responding to the Superior Court judge's decision not to take a look at the new evidence, the LAIP claimed: "In the court’s ruling, strong exculpatory evidence was disregarded as ‘inadmissible’ which is not the correct legal standard.
"The LAIP is undeterred and will continue to fight for Mr. Peterson’s innocence."
On the 'claims', Laci's mom Sharon Rocha told PEOPLE: "There is no new evidence.
"We constantly hear that they have new evidence, but there is no new evidence. Twelve people found him guilty of murder, but he doesn't admit to that."
Scott Peterson: The New Evidence on July 16 and 17 on A&E.