California prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Scott Peterson as a judge considers throwing out his conviction for murdering his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, because of juror misconduct during a 2005 trial that riveted the nation, reports the Associated Press. Stanislaus County Assistant District Attorney Dave Harris made the announcement at a court hearing. Peterson, 47, wearing a mask designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, appeared remotely in a Modesto courtroom from San Quentin State Prison. The Caifornia Supreme Court in August upheld Peterson’s conviction but overturned his death sentence. Then the high court 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,” said attorney Pat Harris, a member of Peterson’s original trial team. Peterson was convicted in San Mateo Superior Court after his trial was moved from Stanislaus County due to massive pre-trial publicity after 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 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 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.