New evidence could potentially exonerate convicted killer Scott Peterson, a new documentary claims.
In A&E’s forthcoming two-part documentary, Scott Peterson: The New Evidence, former defense attorney Chris Pixley examines the nearly 25-year-old case, in which Peterson was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn child, Conner, in 2002.
The documentary shows never-before-seen evidence that Mark Geragos, Peterson’s lawyer during his trial, says could exonerate him.
“I lose sleep—and with Scott, probably more than any other case—when I believe [a client] is innocent,” Geragos told the New York Post.
The nearly three-hour documentary features interviews with witnesses and experts that Pixley claims police and prosecutors ignored as they pursued a case against Peterson.
The documentary begins with Pixley and retired Los Angeles Detective Ninette Toosbuy retracing Peterson’s Christmas Eve drive to a nearby marina, where prosecutors claimed he dumped Laci’s body from the boat.
But Pixley and Toosbury claim in the film that it would have been impossible for Peterson to get rid of her body in broad daylight without being seen or leaving any significant DNA evidence.
Some of Laci’s hair was found under the seat of the boat after her death, but no blood or bodily tissue was recovered from the scene, the documentary explains.
The documentary also shows unseen footage from the defense, which the jury never saw.
Peterson has been serving a life sentence in a California prison since his 2004 trial. He has petitioned for his trial to be overturned, introducing new evidence, sworn statements, eyewitness accounts, and alternative theories to what happened that ill-fated Christmas Eve.
San Mateo County Superior Court judge Elizabeth Hill has denied Peterson’s latest petition to overturn his murder convictions, calling the new claims “neither new, admissible, nor material.”
“The court remains unpersuaded that petitioner has a claim for relief based on actual innocence,” Hill wrote.
