Judge Rules the Duct Tape That Was Found on Laci Peterson Can Be Tested Again Because Scott Peterson Wants a New Trial for Murder

Lawyers for Scott Peterson wanted new DNA testing in the murder case against him, but on Wednesday, a judge in California said that only DNA testing on duct tape that was stuck to his wife Laci Peterson’s pants would be allowed. Testing of other new and old evidence in the decades-old case would not be allowed.

This is Scott Peterson’s second request for a new murder trial. He was found guilty the first time 20 years ago. He was found guilty of murder in 2004 for the deaths of his wife Laci and their unborn child Conner. He was given the death penalty at first, but it was later overturned, and he was given life in prison without the chance to get out.

Liz Hill, a judge in San Mateo County Superior Court, said she was only deciding what the evidence said, not if Peterson can have a new trial.

A piece of duct tape about 15 inches long was found stuck to Laci’s pants on her right leg.“ “A section of the duct tape that was folded over onto itself was tested for DNA and human DNA was found, but no DNA profile could be obtained,” the motion said.

Lawyers for the Los Angeles Innocence Project, who took over Peterson’s case in January, provided evidence on Wednesday during the post-conviction DNA testing hearing that they said was either never looked at or just left out of the trial.

Judge Hill only allowed one of the 14 things that were asked to be tested again, which was the duct tape that was found on Laci Peterson.

The lawyers for Peterson asked for DNA tests to be done on spots found on a mattress in the back of a burned-out van. The burned-out car was found one day after Laci went missing, about a mile from where the Petersons lived in Modesto.

Lawyers also wanted to look at evidence from a break-in that happened across the street from Peterson’s house. They say Laci may have run into the thieves while they were committing a crime. This theory says she was killed because she saw the thieves break in. The judge said no to the pleas for those things.

The prosecution said Scott Peterson is guilty and went over the proof that helped them convict him of two murders.

At that time and now, the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s office said, “We were right, and it is still right, and it is wrong for the defense to keep trying to find ways to drag this case out.”

“The state of California has a strong stake in making sure that its decisions are final,” Harris said.

In December 2002, Peterson said that his pregnant wife was missing from their home in Modesto, California. After less than four months, Laci and Conner’s bodies were found in the San Francisco Bay.

The trial for Peterson’s murder of Laci took almost six months, and in November 2004, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree murder. Prosecutors said Peterson killed the people to get away from being married and becoming a father. The jury said that the death sentence should be used, and Judge Alfred Delucchi agreed.

In 2020, after Governor Newsom put a stop to killings in 2019, Peterson’s death sentence was thrown out by the California Supreme Court. A few months later, the California Supreme Court told the San Mateo County Superior Court to look again at Peterson’s murder convictions because one of the jurors did not say that they were involved in other court cases, such as “being the victim of a crime.” He got life in prison without the chance to get out in 2021.

Peterson’s lawyers asked for a writ of habeas corpus in 2023 and said that he was being “violated of state and federal constitutional rights and state statutory rights, including a claim of actual innocence that is supported by newly discovered evidence.” Later, the Los Angeles Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to free people who were wrongfully convicted, said it was looking into Peterson’s “claim of actual innocence.”