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Scott Peterson, who spent more than 15 years on death row in the 2002 murders of his pregnant wife and unborn son, will be sentenced to life in prison this fall, a judge said on Wednesday.
Superior Court judge Anne-Christine Massullo said she wanted to convict Peterson in November before deciding whether he deserved a new trial for alleged juror misconduct. She has set a hearing for October 6 to set a date to sentence him to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The California Supreme Court overturned Peterson’s death sentence last year because jurors who personally disagreed with the death penalty but were prepared to impose it were wrongly removed from office.
SCOTT PETERSON’S DEATH SENTENCE FOR MURDERING PREGNANT WOMAN QUITTED BY SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA
Prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty if Peterson gets a new trial.
The High Court found that there was ample circumstantial evidence incriminating her in the first degree murder of Laci Peterson, 27, eight months pregnant, and the second degree murder of the boy they planned to name Connor.
Prosecutors said Peterson took his wife’s body to their Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002 and dumped it in San Francisco Bay from his fishing boat. The body of his wife and the boy’s fetus was stranded in April 2003.
In this March 17, 2005 file photo, Scott Peterson is escorted by two San Mateo County Sheriff’s deputies to a waiting pickup truck in Redwood City, California.
((AP Photo / Justin Sullivan, file))
Peterson’s attorneys are seeking a new trial over allegations that a juror was at fault by falsely answering questions during the screening process.
Defense attorneys said the woman, who co-authored a book on the case, eagerly sought to be a juror in the case and did not disclose that she was a victim of a crime .
The woman known as Juror 7 did not reveal during jury selection that she was beaten up by a boyfriend while pregnant in 2001. She also did not reveal that during the jury’s selection. Another pregnancy, she had obtained a restraining order against a boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, whom she feared would harm her unborn child.
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The judge rejected a defense request to take testimony from jurors and witnesses to these crimes against her, but said she could be questioned at an evidentiary hearing.
The juror, however, said she would not testify in a hearing unless she is granted immunity from prosecution over a possible charge of perjury, lawyers said. Otherwise, she will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
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