The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence for Scott Peterson, convicted in the Christmas Eve murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, and her unborn son, Conner.
The court’s decision came about 15 years after Laci, a Modesto, California, schoolmaster, was murdered. Investigators said Peterson dumped his wife’s body from his fishing boat in San Francisco Bay in 2002. The bodies reappeared months later.
While the murder trial against Peterson remained in place, the court ordered a new sentencing trial.
“Peterson claims that his lawsuit was flawed for several reasons, starting with the unusual amount of pretrial publicity surrounding the case,” the court found. “We reject Peterson’s allegation that he was given an unfair trial on guilt and thereby confirm his convictions for murder.”
However, the court found the judge in Peterson’s case “made a series of clear and significant errors in the selection of the jury that, under longtime president of the United States Supreme Court, Peterson’s court on an impartial jury in the penal phase. “
The court also agreed that potential jurors were wrongly fired from the jury pool after they said they personally did not agree with the death penalty but would be willing to stand trial by law in California.
Peterson has been on death row in San Quentin State Prison since being sentenced to death in 2005 by lethal injection.
This is an evolving story; check back for updates.
