A new documentary is drawing attention with what backers describe as significant, previously unseen material that they believe could help exonerate convicted murderer Scott Peterson more than 20 years after he was found guilty.
Peterson, 53, is serving a life sentence in California after jurors convicted him of killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, on Christmas Eve in 2002. The prosecution’s case rested in part on the claim that he disposed of Laci’s body from his fishing boat.
A&E’s two-night special, “Scott Peterson: The New Evidence,” scheduled to air July 16 and 17, presents newly discovered footage, purported handwritten notes from Laci and analysis from experts that the program says cast serious doubt on that incriminating theory.
“I lose sleep – and with Scott, probably more than any other case – when I believe [a client] is innocent,” Mark Geragos, Peterson’s attorney during his highly publicized 2004 trial, told The Post while defending his former client.
“You have an instinct or a gut feeling that is honed by doing 10,000 reps, so to speak, and you know when someone is good for a crime or when they’re not,” added Geragos, whose roster of prominent clients has included Sean “Diddy” Combs, Michael Jackson and the Menendez brothers.
Peterson has made multiple attempts to challenge his conviction in the appeals system, but those efforts have not succeeded.
The sensational case captivated the country: prosecutors portrayed the Petersons as an outwardly ideal couple while alleging that, behind the scenes, Peterson was having an affair with massage therapist Amber Frey and killed his heavily pregnant wife and their unborn child so he could pursue a carefree bachelor life.
In 2024, years after the verdict, the Los Angeles Innocence Project agreed to represent Peterson, asserting in court documents that “new evidence now supports Mr. Peterson’s long-standing claim of innocence and raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson.”
The new documentary was filmed to “stress-test” that evidence, according to host Chris Pixley, an Atlanta-based defense lawyer and legal analyst for ABC News.
The nearly three hours of footage kick off with Pixley and retired Los Angeles Detective Ninette Toosbuy retracing Peterson’s Christmas Eve drive to the Berkeley Marina, where prosecutors said he dumped Laci’s body from his small fishing boat.
Pixley and Toosbuy claim it would have been nearly impossible for Peterson to dispose of the body without any witnesses in broad daylight or leaving behind any significant DNA evidence.
Two strands of Laci’s hair were found wrapped around a pair of pliers found under a seat on his boat after her death, although no blood or tissue was recovered from them, and the instrument was rusty from apparent lack of use, according to trial testimony.
The series also reveals previously unseen defense footage showing a weighted dummy, meant to replicate Laci’s body, causing the tiny vessel to capsize while it was being thrown overboard — evidence the jury never saw, the documentary says.
It also highlights handwritten notes allegedly written by Laci that suggest that she knew about Peterson’s purchasing of the fishing boat — undercutting the prosecution’s claim that he had secretly bought it to carry out the killing.
New experts featured in the series also challenge the tidal and wind analysis presented at the trial, claiming that Laci’s body could not have washed up where investigators found it if Peterson dumped it where he was fishing.
Advances in fetal biometric science also suggest that Laci and Conner could have died later than Dec. 24, according to the experts and LAIP — a timeline that casts doubt on the state’s theory that Peterson killed them that day.
Laci spoke with her mother on the phone the night of Dec. 23. By Dec. 25, the Petersons’ Modesto home was swarming with family, investigators, and hordes of reporters.
The documentary, meanwhile, revisits an alternative theory centered on a burglary across the street from the Petersons’ home around the time Laci went missing. It cites seven witnesses who reported seeing a suspicious van in the neighborhood on Dec. 24, including a reserve police officer who allegedly told police he saw a pregnant woman being forced into a van.
A van was later found burned in an apparent arson incident about 1.5 miles away in Modesto’s Airport District – a seedy area where a police dog had allegedly tracked Laci’s scent during the initial investigation, according to the documentary.
Geragos and his defense team didn’t learn about the torched van until more than a decade after Peterson’s conviction, the lawyer said.
Finally, the documentary and the LAIP accuse the Modesto police of mishandling and even destroying potentially significant evidence in the case, including witness interviews, investigator notes, and property recovered from the burglary.
Peterson was initially sentenced to death, but that punishment was later overturned.
The Innocence Project provides pro bono legal help to inmates convicted of crimes in Central and Southern California.
Modesto police did not respond to a Post request for comment.
