Following the Innocence Project taking up the case of notorious wife-killer Scott Peterson, a California judge has granted a status hearing in the case. Peterson, now 51, was convicted of murdering his 27-year-old wife Laci, who was eight and a half months pregnant, on Christmas Eve in 2002. But the Innocence Project says new evidence supports his claim of innocence and raises questions about the true killer, and Peterson's Innocence Project lawyers are seeking dozens of items, including evidence and documents, they claim could not be located while reviewing files from the trial. Peterson, who is serving a life sentence, will appear remotely at the hearing, ABC News reports.
In January, Aja Romano at Vox took a deep dive into the Peterson case, reminding readers of the mountains of circumstantial evidence against Peterson, who had been cheating on his wife since they were first married, made it clear to relatives that he did not want a child, was under severe financial strain, and had told his mistress, Amber Frey, he'd recently lost his wife—while she was still very much alive. The "fishing trip" he used as an alibi was also very fishy; he lied to police; was only "conditionally" cooperative with the investigation; and made a run for the Mexico border after the bodies of his wife and their unborn child were found. Writing at SFGate more recently, Katie Dowd said Peterson's lawyers' strategy (they appear to be zeroing in on the unrelated burglary of a nearby home in December 2002) seems to be "a tenuous one at best." (More Scott Peterson stories.)