The L.A. Innocence Project says new evidence supports Scott Peterson’s “longstanding claim of innocence.”
Peterson, 51, was convicted in 2004 of killing his wife, Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old substitute teacher who was pregnant with the couple’s eight-month-old son Conner when she went missing in 2002.
Laci’s body was found floating in the San Francisco Bay in April 2003. The body of her unborn baby was found washed up on a San Francisco Bay shore not far away.
Prosecutors accused Peterson of killing his wife and dumping her body from his fishing boat.
Peterson was arrested the same day his wife and son’s remains were found. Prosecutors say he was planning to flee to Mexico. He disguised his appearance by dying his hair blond and growing a goatee.
Peterson’s million-dollar defense team, including famed attorney Mark Geragos (left), argued that burglars across the street from Laci’s Modesto, California home kidnapped and killed Laci as she walked the couple’s dog.
Peterson was convicted and sentenced to death, but his death sentence was overturned on appeal and he was given life in prison.
New evidence uncovered by the L.A. Innocence Project also points to a burglary that occurred at a house across the street around the time Laci went missing.
Legal filings from the L.A. Innocence Project, obtained by ABC News, contain a signed exhibit from a person who claims to have heard a man confess to being one of the burglars.
According to the person who signed the exhibit, one of the burglars said the other burglar kidnapped and killed Laci after she spotted them wheeling a safe out of the house.
The burglar claimed Laci’s body was dumped in the bay after they saw where Peterson went fishing on a TV news report.
“That’s always been our theory,” Peterson’s sister-in-law, Janey Peterson, told People last June. “There’s always been evidence that points to the burglary, but it’s all either been a couple degrees of hearsay or whatever.”
“We are very excited to have the incredible attorneys at the L.A. Innocence Project lend their considerable expertise to helping prove Scott’s innocence,” Peterson’s attorney Pat Harris tells People.com.
