Scott Peterson allegedly killed his pregnant wife on Christmas eve and dumped her body in the bay. He’s already been convicted of it and has been sitting on death row since 2004. A California judge wasn’t convinced the new evidence was good enough for a whole new trial but did agree to a new and lighter sentence. Sometime in November, he’ll be given a reprieve down to “life without parole.”
Peterson will die in jail
The good news is that convicted killer Scott Peterson will die in jail one way or another. It will just take a little longer and cost the taxpayers more. His defense attorneys were thrilled to hear he will be getting off San Quentin’s death row as soon as November.
On Wednesday, September 22, California Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo ruled he “must be re-sentenced.” His lawyers were hoping for a whole new trial but that won’t happen.
Everyone will go back to court on October 6 to set the “exact date for Peterson’s re-sentencing to life in prison without the possibility of parole.” The whole country was gripped when 27-year-old Laci Peterson “disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002 when she was seven months pregnant.”
Scott reported her missing and then in April 2003, “the bodies of Laci and her unborn son were found in San Francisco Bay.”
Scott Peterson told police that “his wife was killed when she was walking their dog.”
When his “extramarital affairs became public” the case gained national attention. Soon there were claims that he “used his fishing boat to dump her body in the San Francisco Bay.”
Death sentence overturned
Last year, California’s Supreme Court flipped over the death Sentence, so there’s nothing the lower judge can do about that. As far as the defense theories that juror error was significant enough to declare a mis-trial, Judge Massullo disagrees.
Peterson remained on death row while the red tape unsnarled. Yes, there was a whole lot of media attention swirling around the case but not enough to make a difference.
The things that Judge Massullo were concerned about were the “errors in jury selection.” The trial judge in the Peterson case messed up bad and “made a series of clear and significant errors.” A few “potential jurors were dismissed because they personally objected to the death penalty but still would have imposed it.”
It’s okay to toss a juror that refuses to impose a death penalty. It’s totally different when they say they disagree but sometimes it has a use and this might be one of them.
After the Peterson trial it turned out that “Richelle Nice was selected as a juror, but she failed to disclose her history of being a victim of intimate partner violence.
Nice was pregnant during the two domestic violence incidents.” Because of that, the killer will definitely get his death sentence removed but will still have a nice long stay at the graybar hotel.