On Monday, the California Supreme Court made the shocking decision to overturn the death sentence of Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Laci and their unborn son Connor on Christmas Eve back in 2002.
Fox News [1] reported that Laci was murdered in Modesto, California, with police saying that Peterson dumped his wife’s body from his fishing boat into the San Francisco Bay. It took months for authorities to finally find the bodies of Laci, who was a school teacher, and their unborn son.
Though the murder conviction remained in place, the California Supreme Court ordered a new penalty phase trial today.
“Peterson contends his trial was flawed for multiple reasons, beginning with the unusual amount of pretrial publicity that surrounded the case,” the court found. “We reject Peterson’s claim that he received an unfair trial as to guilt and thus affirm his convictions for murder.”
However, the court then ruled that the trial judge in Peterson’s case “made a series of clear and significant errors in jury selection that, under long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent, undermined Peterson’s right to an impartial jury at the penalty phase.” The court also concluded that potential jurors were improperly dismissed from the jury pool after saying they personally disagreed with the death penalty, but would be willing to impose it per California law.
Peterson, who is now 47, alleged in his appeal that it was impossible for him to receive a fair trial because of the massive publicity that surrounded his case, despite the fact that his trial was held nearly 90 miles away from his Central Valley home of Modesto to San Mateo County, south of San Francisco. Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager has yet to reveal whether or not she plans to seek the death penalty again.
Peterson has been incarcerated in California ever since he was convicted of first-degree murder for killing his wife, and second-degree murder for killing Connor. There was a major media firestorm surrounding the case, with it quickly becoming a national frenzy. Given the intense emotions surrounding this case, it will not be surprising if there is mass outrage from Americans all over the country that Peterson’s death sentence has been overturned.
This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com [2] and is used by permission.
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