The Los Angeles Innocence Project is helping Scott Peterson, who was found guilty in 2004 of killing his pregnant wife.
The non-profit organization helps people who were accused of a crime they didn’t do. They are looking for new evidence to prove their innocence from their first trial.
It said in legal papers that it is “looking into his claim that he didn’t do the crime”.
Laci Peterson was going to have a baby soon when she disappeared on Christmas Eve 22 years ago.
“We are really happy that the lawyers from the LA Innocence Project are going to help prove that Scott is innocent,” said Pat Harris, who is Scott Peterson’s lawyer. This was reported by CBS, the BBC’s partner in the US.
In April, Peterson’s lawyers asked the court to investigate the jury for not following the rules at his trial. They also said they had new evidence that showed Peterson is not guilty. This information was in court documents filed on Wednesday.
The lawyers said Peterson murdered Laci and threw her body into the ocean on Christmas Eve 2002. Then he tried to make it look like she was missing to cover up the crime.
Four months later, they found her body when it came up on the shore.
During the trial, Peterson’s lawyers said that a burglar was the one who killed his wife.
The jury said he did a bad thing and he was given the punishment of death a year later.
In 2020, the California Supreme Court cancelled his death sentence because the judge in the first trial had sent away some jurors unfairly.
The next year, he was given a life in prison sentence with no chance of getting out.
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Scott Peterson: Famous US murder case taken on by Los Angeles Innocence Project
