By Dave Andrusko
Scott Peterson, convicted of murdering his wife and eight month old unborn son, was denied his bid for a new trial.
Peterson’s attorneys “have argued that a new trial is warranted because juror Richelle Nice was biased and lied in her questionnaire to get on the jury,” according to Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones. “[P]rosecutors have argued that Nice ‘did the best that she could when faced with a 23-page questionnaire that had 163 questions.
“She’s inconsistent on her answers,” prosecutor David Harris previously told the court. “But being wrong does not necessarily make it false or make her a liar. It just might be that she’s really bad at filling out forms.”
Nice previously testified that she did not have any bias against Peterson until after hearing the evidence presented at trial.
In her 55-page ruling delivered today, Judge Anne-Christine Massullo seemed clearly to side with Harris. She wrote that the juror accused of wrongdoing “had acted out of emotion, rather than a bias against Peterson,” and she had made ‘honest mistakes.’”
Peterson is currently serving a life sentence at California’s Mule Creek State Prison. December 24 –Christmas Eve–will mark 20 years to the day since Laci Peterson disappeared.
Laci’s badly decomposed body and that of her unborn son Conner was found in San Francisco
Bay. Authorities said Peterson killed his wife on Christmas Eve in 2002 and then threw her body into the Bay.
The brutal murders of mother and unborn child captured the public’s attention for months. A jury eventually convicted Peterson of first-degree murder in the death of Laci and second-degree murder in Conner’s death.
Laci’s and Conner’s murders were the driving force behind the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as “Laci and Conner’s Law,” which President George W. Bush signed on April 6, 2004.
President Bush’s action culminated a five-year campaign by the National Right to Life Committee to win enactment of the legislation, which recognizes unborn children as victims when they are injured or killed during the commission of federal or military crimes of violence.
Peterson was sentenced to death but was moved off death row in 2021. “The California Supreme Court overturned Peterson’s death sentence in 2020, after news that prospective jury candidates were improperly dismissed came to light, but maintained his conviction,” according to Pagones.