Scott Peterson is still fighting his murder conviction in court, but one veteran prosecutor says he's unlikely to ever walk free, per Fox News. Exactly 23 years after Laci Peterson disappeared from the couple's home in Modesto, California, on Christmas Eve 2002, her husband remains locked up for killing her and their unborn son, Conner. Peterson's 2004 conviction has withstood multiple challenges, though his death sentence was tossed in 2020 after the California Supreme Court ruled that jurors had been improperly dismissed over their views on capital punishment. Prosecutors declined to pursue a new penalty phase, and Peterson was resentenced to life without parole.
The Los Angeles Innocence Project has since taken on Peterson's case, arguing he is not the killer and promoting an alternative scenario: that Laci was kidnapped by burglars, later murdered, and her body placed in San Francisco Bay in a way that pointed blame at her husband, who had told police he was fishing there. "That's really the alternate theory right now," says former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, who nonetheless calls the original case "strong" based on Peterson's affair, Laci's remains being found weighted with concrete near his stated fishing spot, and his recent purchase of concrete.
The LA Innocence Project requested a new trial this spring, bringing forward a 400-page petition it said showed evidence of trial misconduct and police ignoring evidence that proved Peterson's innocence, per ABC News. Still, Rahmani pushes back on any notion that Peterson is close to walking free. The remaining challenges are "narrow," he says, adding, "I do expect Scott Peterson to die in California state prison." The Innocence Project did not respond to Fox News' request for comment.
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