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Judge denies Scott Peterson's request for new murder trial

Scott Peterson
Posted at 3:00 PM, Dec 20, 2022
and last updated 2022-12-20 17:00:46-05

A California judge denied Scott Peterson's request for a new murder trial, according to The Associated Press.

Peterson's attorneys reportedly claimed a member of the jury that convicted him of murder lied to get on the panel. The Associated Press reports that the judge ruled that there was no evidence to support the defense's claim.

The judge's decision came nearly 20 years after Laci Peterson was killed. Prosecutors say he dumped his wife's body in the San Francisco bay on Christmas Eve in 2002.

The search for Laci was closely followed in the U.S. and worldwide. Her body and her unborn child washed ashore separately in 2003.

Scott Peterson was convicted of multiple murder counts and sentenced to death in 2005. His death sentence was thrown out in 2021 after the California Supreme Court ruled there were issues with how jurors in his murder trial were selected. The court did not vacate Peterson's conviction. He was, instead, sentenced to life in prison.