The California Supreme Court on Monday tossed out the death sentence of a man convicted of murdering rock guitarist Dave Navarro’s mother and her friend nearly 30 years ago — a ruling that could affect the cases of Modesto’s Scott Peterson and other death row inmates.
Among the scores of issues raised in a 470-page appeal, Scott Peterson's attorney contends that pretrial publicity prevented Peterson from getting a fair trial. Cliff Gardner's lengthy document cites that the trial had "surpassed the Manson case … and the O.J. Simpson case."
Scott Peterson's criminal case will return to Stanislaus County this year after his appellate attorney asked the court to unseal evidence used to convict the Modesto man of murder.
