New Scott Peterson doc claims never-before-seen 'evidence' could clear him of wife Laci's murder
Topics: True crime, Documentaries, Crime, US News
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: Bart Ah You-Pool/Getty Images
Topics: True crime, Documentaries, Crime, US News
A new documentary is reigniting one of America's most notorious murder cases, more than two decades after Scott Peterson was convicted of killing his pregnant wife.
Peterson, now 53, has spent 22 years in prison since being found guilty in 2004 of murdering Laci Peterson and their unborn son, Conner, on Christmas Eve 2002.
Despite maintaining his innocence throughout, Peterson has failed in repeated attempts to overturn his conviction, most recently in April this year, when a California judge rejected a petition from the Los Angeles Innocence Project (LAIP) that introduced 14 new evidentiary claims. The judge described the claims as 'neither new, admissible nor material'.
However, now A&E's two-part documentary, Scott Peterson: The New Evidence, airing July 16 and 17, is putting those rejected claims back in front of the public, with newly unearthed footage, alleged handwritten notes from Laci and expert testimony forming never-before-seen evidence which the makers say seriously undermines the original case against him.
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The case gripped the US after it emerged Peterson had been having an affair with a woman he'd told he was a widower, as prosecutors successfully argued he disposed of Laci's body from his fishing boat.
Speaking to PEOPLE, Chris Pixley, an Atlanta-based defence attorney and legal analyst for ABC News, explained the documentary set out to 'stress-test' the LAIP's findings, rather than just repeat them.
Among the material featured is previously unseen defence footage said to show a weighted dummy, built to replicate Laci's body, capsizing a small boat when thrown overboard, footage the documentary claims the original jury never saw.
It also references new experts disputing the tidal and wind analysis used at trial, along with new research into fetal growth suggesting Laci and Conner may have died later than December 24, a detail the documentary argues could undercut the prosecution's original timeline.
The documentary will also revisit a reported burglary across the street from the Petersons' Modesto home around the time Laci disappeared, citing witnesses who described a suspicious van in the area that day.
It also includes testimony from witnesses who claimed they saw Laci walking her dog after she was believed to have died.
"This is new science and new evidence, and every time you drill down, you find more," Pixley said.
"It deserves an examination."
Mark Geragos, who represented Peterson in his original trial, told PEOPLE he still believes Peterson was wrongly convicted.
"I have always hoped, believed and expected that at some point justice will be done," he said, adding that he doesn't believe 'what happened to Scott is justice'.
Laci's mother, Sharon Rocha, has consistently rejected the idea that anything has changed.
She told PEOPLE: "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."
Retired LAPD detective Ninette Toosbuy, who appears in the documentary, acknowledged that Peterson's own behaviour, including the affair, has made him an easy figure to distrust.
"In many ways Scott is his own worst enemy based on some of the things he did," she said, though she maintains that doesn't prove he's a killer.
UNILAD has contacted representatives for Scott Peterson, the Los Angeles Innocence Project and Modesto Police Department for comment.