A California judge ruled Wednesday that only one item from a list of evidence collected in the case of a man convicted of murdering his pregnant wife 20 years ago can undergo new DNA testing.
The Los Angeles Innocence Project argued in court that several pieces of evidence were suppressed during Scott Peterson’s trial. However, the judge ruled that only a piece of duct tape found on Laci Peterson’s pants needed to be retested.
The defense had argued that the tape contained human DNA that could point to someone other than Peterson as the perpetrator of his wife’s death. A hearing is scheduled for July 1 to discuss the testing provisions.
Prosecutors had pushed back on the testing requests, telling the court that the evidence had already been tested in 2019, but Peterson’s attorneys maintained that the limited testing produced inconclusive results.
They had also sought new tests on a bloody mattress discovered in a burned-out van the day after Laci disappeared.
The judge ruled that tests in 2019 showed that there was no blood on the mattress cloth that Peterson’s team had retested. The judge also agreed with the prosecution’s argument that the van was not related to the Peterson case and that the defense failed to prove that it was.
Similarly, the judge ruled that the defense failed to prove that items found near where Laci Peterson’s body washed up were directly linked to her and her unborn child.
The judge said a glove and hammer found in the home of one of the Petersons’ neighbors were never taken into police custody and therefore did not qualify for retesting.
A jury found Peterson guilty of the death of his wife, who was eight months pregnant with their son when her body washed ashore. Prosecutors at the time alleged that Peterson faked her disappearance to cover up the fact that he dumped her body in the Berkeley marina on Christmas Eve in 2002.
He was initially given the death penalty, but the California Supreme Court overturned the sentence in 2020. He was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Peterson has always maintained his innocence, and his defense at trial suggested Laci was murdered after stumbling upon a burglary.
Last year, he filed a request to be seen by a judge based on new evidence and possible juror misconduct, arguing that one of the jurors hid details and had been untruthful about her personal life.
Peterson’s legal team argued that the juror’s failure to disclose that she had been a victim of domestic violence led to “harmful misconduct.” The woman wrote a book about the case with other jurors and denied that she was influenced by her personal experiences.
Peterson was previously denied a new trial in 2022 based on the claim of juror misconduct. High Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo ruled that although the woman made false statements in her jury questionnaire, the answers were the result of “a combination of good faith misunderstanding of the questions and carelessness in answering”.
The Los Angeles Innocence Project, known for its mission to exonerate the wrongly convicted, has taken on Peterson’s case.
The nonprofit filed a request for post-conviction discovery as well as a request for new DNA testing in an effort to overturn Peterson’s conviction.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
