Judge grants hearing for Scott Peterson, serving life sentence for wife’s murder

After serving 20 years in prison, convicted of murdering his pregnant wife on Christmas Eve, Scott Peterson has been granted a status hearing by a California judge.

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Peterson, who was convicted in 2004 of killing his pregnant wife, Laci, had his case taken up by the Los Angeles Innocence Project. The group, which looks at cases of people who could have been wrongly convicted of felonies, asked in January for a hearing over evidence they hope will clear Peterson, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Peterson will appear remotely for the hearing, according to the court. His LA Innocence Project counsel will be in person before Judge Elizabeth Hill, ABC News reported.

“We are very excited that the incredibly talented attorneys at the L.A. Innocence Project are lending their considerable expertise to helping prove that Scott Peterson is innocent,” Peterson’s attorney, Pat Harris, said in January in a statement to The Times.

According to an Innocence Project filing, “New evidence now supports Mr. Peterson’s longstanding claim of innocence and raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson.”

Laci Peterson, was 27 years old and eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve in 2002.

Her body and the body of her son were found in San Francisco Bay in April 2003.

Peterson was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of Laci, and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son, Connor. He was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to death in 2005. He was later sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In their filing attorneys with the LA Innocence Project claimed that Peterson’s state and federal constitutional rights were violated, including a “claim of actual innocence that is supported by newly discovered evidence,” according to the court filings.

“New evidence now supports Mr. Peterson’s longstanding claim of innocence and raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson,” the filings state.

A status hearing is a hearing to assess the status of a case. The Innocence Project is requesting DNA testing of the hammer that robbers are believed to have left at the scene of a burglary that happened across the street from the Peterson’s home in the days before Laci Peterson’s disappearance.

There has also been a request for DNA testing on cloth from a blood-stained mattress found on Dec. 25, 2002, in a burned-out van parked in the nearby area.

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