A California judge denied convicted murderer Scott Peterson a new trial for the 2002 Christmas Eve killing of his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn son.
Peterson’s attorney’s argued that one of the jurors in his trial–juror number seven, Richelle Nice–did not disclose personal information of past abuse when being selected and thus presented a conflict of interest.
According to the Associated Press, Nice omitted before the trial that she wanted a restraining order in 2000 against her boyfriend’s former girlfriend, saying at the time she “really fears for her unborn child.” The defense team argued that Nice sought to join the jury to seek revenge on Peterson for killing his unborn child. Nice denied that she had any bias against Peterson.
Despite Nice’s “undisputed” error during the pre-trial screening process, Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo ruled Tuesday that Peterson did not deserve a new trial on the murder charges.
“The Court concludes that Juror No. 7’s responses were not motivated by pre-existing or improper bias against Petitioner, but instead were the result of a combination of good faith misunderstanding of the questions and sloppiness in answering,” Massullo wrote in her ruling, per ABC News.
Peterson, now 50, was convicted in 2004 for murdering his pregnant wife Laci Peterson, 27, and their eight-month unborn child they planned on naming Connor.
Peterson dumped Laci and Connor into the San Francisco Bay, intending to make it seem like she disappeared, but in April 2003, Laci and Connor washed on the shore in Richmond at Point Isabel Regional Shoreline.
Peterson was arrested shortly afterward, and his trial was moved from where the couple resided in Modesto, California, to approximately 90 miles away in Redwood City due to public hostility against him.
He was sentenced to the death penalty in 2004 and was further sentenced in 2005 to receive a lethal injection and placed on death row.
However, in 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a moratorium on all executions for 737 death row convicts, which meant Peterson’s was postponed too. The state has not carried out an execution since 2006.
Peterson was moved off death row to a state prison in October 2021, the AP reported.
Peterson’s death penalty sentence was reversed in 2020 when the California Supreme Court determined Nice’s actions meant jurors were improperly screened, but his murder conviction was still upheld. The Supreme Court then ordered the Superior Court to decide whether or not he deserved a new trial.
Judge Massullo resentenced Peterson to life in prison without parole in December 2021. She was still deciding at the time whether he deserved a new trial before determining Tuesday that he would not receive one.
Laci Peterson’s mother, Sharon Rocha, said last year that another trial would have been arduous for her and would likely produce the same outcome as the first murder trial.
“To have to go through a trial again, of course, would be excruciating. But if that’s what it takes, I’ll be there,” Rocha told ABC News. “And I’m sure they’ll find him guilty again.”
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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