California prosecutors again seek death for Scott Peterson

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California prosecutors said Friday they again will seek the death penalty for Scott Peterson even as a county judge considers throwing out his conviction for murdering his pregnant wife because of juror misconduct during a 2005 trial that riveted the nation.

Stanislaus
County Assistant District Attorney Dave Harris announced that it is
prosecutors’ intention to retry the penalty phase of the case, spokesman
John Goold said after a court hearing. He said prosecutors otherwise
won’t comment or discuss the decision.

Peterson, 47, wearing a buzz haircut and a mask designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, appeared remotely in the Modesto courtroom from San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco, home to the state’s death row.

District
Attorney Birgit Fladager acted after the California Supreme Court in
August overturned Peterson’s 2005 death sentence in a case that
attracted worldwide attention.

The state’s high court upheld his
conviction in that ruling. But the same justices in October ordered a
new hearing in San Mateo Superior Court to determine whether his
underlying murder conviction must also be tossed out if a juror
committed “prejudicial misconduct.”

“He’s innocent — an innocent
man’s been sitting in jail for 15 years. It’s time to get him out,”
attorney Pat Harris told reporters outside the courtroom in explaining
why he is again taking the case. He also was on Peterson’s original
trial team alongside celebrity attorney Mark Geragos.

Janey Peterson, his sister-in-law, said the family is looking forward to his new day in court.

“We
still need justice for Laci, Connor and Scott,” she told reporters. “We
don’t have justice for Laci with Scott on death row, because Scott is
innocent.”

Peterson was convicted in San Mateo Superior Court
after his trial was moved from Stanislaus County due to the massive
pre-trial publicity that followed the Christmas Eve 2002 disappearance
of 27-year-old Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant with their
unborn son, Connor.

Investigators say Peterson took the bodies
from their Modesto home and dumped them from his fishing boat into San
Francisco Bay, where they surfaced months later.

The Supreme Court
said his death sentence could not stand because potential jurors were
improperly dismissed from the jury pool after saying they personally
disagreed with the death penalty but would be willing to follow the law
and impose it.

In the second ruling, it ordered a San Mateo judge
to decide whether the conviction itself must be overturned because one
juror failed to disclose that she had sought a restraining order in 2000
against her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.

The juror said in seeking the order that she feared for her unborn child.

The
San Mateo judge will have to decide if that was juror misconduct, and
if so if it was so prejudicial that a new trial is warranted.

Pat
Harris said he was “sandbagged” by prosecutors’ surprisingly swift
announcement that they would again seek the death penalty, and said he
needs to consult with Peterson before agreeing to put off the penalty
phase until the judge decides whether to throw out underlying
conviction.

They set a new court appearance for Nov. 6.

“It’s
been 15 long years, and as you can imagine there are ups and downs, but
overall he was very happy that the court is basically taking a look at
the motions, taking a look at the evidence, and has given him two
separate chances here. So we’re excited about that,” Pat Harris said of
Peterson’s reaction to the high court’s dual rulings.

Peterson was
convicted of first-degree murder of his wife and second-degree murder
of his unborn son. Peterson was arrested after Amber Frey, a massage
therapist living in Fresno, told police that they began dating a month
before his wife’s death, but that he had told her his wife was dead.

Despite
throwing out the death penalty, the Supreme Court said there was
considerable incriminating circumstantial evidence against Peterson,
including that he researched ocean currents, bought a boat without
telling anyone, and couldn’t explain what type of fish he was trying to
catch that day.

He also sold his wife’s car, considered selling
their house, and turned the baby nursery into a storage room before
their bodies were found, the court said in August, all indicating that
“he already knew Laci and Conner were never coming back.”

California
has not executed anyone since 2006 because of legal challenges, and
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a moratorium on executions for as
long as he is governor.