SAN MATEO, Calif. (KRON) — Scott Peterson will return to a California courtroom after the California Supreme Court ordered a trial judge to consider whether his convictions for murdering his wife Laci and their unborn son should be overturned.
The decision comes after the state’s highest court already overturned Peterson’s death sentence back in August.
Peterson’s case drew national attention beginning in 2002 after his pregnant wife disappeared two days before Christmas.
At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Peterson had abducted and killed his pregnant wife and, on Christmas Eve, dumped the bodies from his fishing boat into San Francisco Bay, where they surfaced months later.
Peterson, who is now 47, contended on appeal that he couldn’t get a fair trial because of the massive publicity that followed the case, although the proceedings were moved nearly 90 miles away from his Central Valley home of Modesto to San Mateo County, south of San Francisco.
He was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his 27-year-old wife and the second-degree murder of their unborn son. He has spent more than a decade in San Quentin State Prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.