Scott Peterson penalty phase retrial delayed until at least late spring
With the issue of alleged juror misconduct in Scott Peterson’s case still unresolved, the retrial of his penalty phase has been pushed back at least until the end of spring.
During a hearing in San Mateo Superior Court on Thursday, for which Peterson appeared by Zoom from San Quentin Prison, his case was continued to April 27.
The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office is again seeking the death penalty for Peterson after the death sentence handed down by a jury in 2004 was overturned by the California Supreme Court.
In August the court concluded that the trial judge had wrongly excluded potential jurors simply because they stated they were opposed to the death penalty without determining whether they could put their beliefs aside and follow the law.
In a separate issue brought up in his petition for habeas corpus, the Court ruled that allegations of juror misconduct must be heard by the court where his trial took place in Redwood City.
Peterson was convicted of killing wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son Conner around Christmas 2002.
Peterson’s attorneys allege juror Richelle Nice wished “in part to punish him for a crime of harming his unborn child – a crime that she personally experienced when (an assailant) threatened her life and the life of her unborn child.”
They say she lied on a pretrial questionnaire for prospective jurors when she said she’d never been a victim of a crime or party in a lawsuit.
Four years before Peterson’s trial, Nice was pregnant when she obtained a restraining order against her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend for stalking and threatening her.
In a separate incident, Nice’s ex boyfriend was arrested and pleaded no contest to domestic violence.
In their written response filed last month, Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager and Assistant District Attorney Dave Harris said Nice didn’t know that a restraining order was a type of lawsuit. They also included a declaration from Nice regarding the domestic violence incident that said she did not call police about the incident and never considered herself a victim.
Peterson’s attorneys have until March 21 to file a ‘denial’ to the prosecutors’ response and there could be an evidentiary hearing after that.
If the judge concludes juror misconduct did take place then the entire guilt phase would have to be retried as well.
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 1:31 PM.
