Scott Peterson will be re-sentenced to life in prison for murdering his pregnant wife, a judge has ruled
Petersons' death sentence was overturned in 2020. He now will be sentenced to life in prison without parole in November.
Justin Sullivan, Pool/AP
- Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in 2004, will be re-sentenced.
- Peterson was sentenced to death in 2005, but the California Supreme Court tossed that out in 2020.
- The guilty verdict will be upheld, and Peterson will be sentenced to life in prison.
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A California judge ruled on Wednesday that Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in 2004, must be re-sentenced for the crime.
Peterson will be sentenced in November to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the judge ruled, according to KRON-TV.
Peterson was found guilty in 2004 of first-degree murder for killing his wife, Laci, and second-degree murder in the death of their unborn son. Authorities said Peterson used his fishing boat to dump their bodies in the San Francisco Bay, the Associated Press reported.
In 2020, the California Supreme Court overturned Peterson's death sentence, but he had remained on death row ever since.
The court rejected Peterson's claim that he did not get a fair trial due to the media attention surrounding the case, but it conceded the trial judge "made a series of clear and significant errors in jury selection." Some potential jurors were dismissed because they personally objected to the death penalty but still would have imposed it, the AP reported.
"While a court may dismiss a prospective juror as unqualified to sit on a capital case if the juror's views on capital punishment would substantially impair his or her ability to follow the law, a juror may not be dismissed merely because he or she has expressed opposition to the death penalty as a general matter," the California Supreme Court justices said at the time.
Peterson's appellate attorney, Cliff Gardner, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
A court date has been set for October 6 to determine an exact date for Peterson's re-sentencing, KRON-TV reported.