The choose presiding over the Scott Peterson case greenlit a discovery course of for the convicted assassin on Monday, 20 years after he was discovered responsible of killing his pregnant spouse.
The most recent courtroom submitting represents a win for Peterson, who was convicted of murdering Laci Peterson in 2002.
He has been assisted by the Los Angeles Innocence Venture since January of this yr.
Within the doc, which was obtained by Fox Information on Monday, Choose Elizabeth Hill of the San Mateo County Superior Court docket accredited Peterson’s request for a post-conviction discovery interval.
Hill rejected quite a lot of his workforce’s requests for particular proof, whereas approving others.
Peterson is being allowed a discovery interval on the premise of California Penal Code 1054.9, which supplies discovery rights to defendants who have been convicted of great or violent felonies and sentenced to fifteen or extra years in jail.
Peterson is serving a life sentence with out the potential for parole.
The code permits the defendant entry to supplies “in possession of the prosecution and legislation enforcement authorities to which the identical defendant would have been entitled on the time of trial.”
“The Court docket has thought of the filed pleadings submitted by all events and the oral arguments of counsel, and now orders post-conviction discovery pursuant to Penal Code 1054.9 as follows,” the choose wrote.
Whether or not Peterson, who’s incarcerated at Mule Creek State Jail, will probably be granted a retrial is determined by how the invention course of proceeds.
In 2004, Peterson was convicted of murdering his spouse Laci and their unborn son in 2002.
Laci, who was eight months pregnant, had vanished on Christmas Eve and was reported lacking by Peterson a day later.
Peterson claimed that he alerted authorities when he got here again from a solo fishing journey and seen that his residence in Modesto, California, was empty.
4 months later, Laci’s physique washed ashore a couple of miles away from the place Peterson had gone fishing. Peterson – who bleached his hair after the homicide – was later arrested carrying his brother’s passport in San Diego.
Earlier than arresting him, police suspected that he may need tried fleeing to the Mexican border.
Final month, Peterson carried out his first on-camera interview in a Peacock three-part collection known as “Face-to-Face with Scott Peterson,” the place he mentioned that he “remorse not testifying,” throughout his trial.
“I’ve an opportunity to point out folks what the reality is, and in the event that they’re prepared to simply accept it, it might be the most important factor I can accomplish proper now – as a result of I didn’t kill my household,” he claimed.
The convict additionally theorized that Laci was murdered by burglars who had focused a close-by residence on the time of the killing.
The burglars later testified that they’d damaged into a close-by residence on December 26, 2002, after Laci went lacking.
“There was a housebreaking throughout the road from our residence,” Peterson mentioned within the TV collection. “And I imagine that Laci went over there to see what was occurring, and that’s when she was taken.”
Fox Information Digital’s Christina Coulter and Michael Lundin contributed to this report.
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