Scott Peterson to be resentenced in December for murders of wife, unborn child
When Scott Peterson was sentenced to death in 2005 following convictions for murdering his wife Laci and unborn son Conner, Laci’s mother told him, “You deserve to burn in hell for all eternity.”
Peterson didn’t look at her as she called him “a coward,” “an evil murderer” and “a baby killer” and role-played her daughter’s envisioned reaction to an attack by the man who should have protected her, according to Bee archives.
Now, 16 years later, Peterson will return to the San Mateo County courthouse and Laci’s family again will have the opportunity to confront him. No longer condemned, Peterson will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Dec. 8, a judge announced Wednesday.
Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager previously said Laci’s family indicated they would again want to give victim impact statements.
She said in court Wednesday that a few people would like to speak but she expects the statements will be brief and shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to an hour.
“For many, it really depends on how they happen to be feeling when the moment arrives,” she said in an email to The Bee.
On March 16, 2005 Peterson was sentenced to death for the first degree murder of Laci and given a concurrent sentence of life without parole for the second degree murder of Conner.
The California Supreme Court overturned Peterson’s death sentence last year because it said the trial judge erred by excluding potential jurors opposed to the death penalty.
While Fladager initially said she would retry the penalty phase, she changed her mind a few months later after speaking with Laci’s family.
“The family has decided this process is too painful to endure once again,” she wrote in a notice filed with the court in May.
Since then, Judge Anne-Christine Massullo granted the requests of Peterson’s attorney Pat Harris to postpone the resentencing.
Peterson has the chance to get a new trial as a result of his petition for habeas corpus, part of his appeal process, which alleges a juror lied during the jury selection process for Peterson’s 2004 trial. A hearing on that will likely take place early next year and Harris argued Peterson shouldn’t be resentenced until he knows whether he will get a new trial.
But Massullo said at Peterson’s last hearing in September that it had recently occurred to her that the case is now “fundamentally different” in terms of the avenue of appeal for death penalty cases versus life without parole cases.
Massullo scheduled the December resentencing but acknowledged that there are still factors that could change the date, including a hearing later this month that is set to determine whether appeal attorneys assigned to Paterson’s case can continue to represent him on a habeas petition now that it is no longer a capital case.
The judge said she will sign an order to have Peterson transported from death row at San Quentin State Prison to the San Mateo County Jail so that he can appear in person for the sentencing. He has appeared via Zoom at all other hearings.
Peterson could remain at the San Mateo County Jail at least through the evidentiary hearing on the habeas petition. If he should return to prison anytime after his resentencing, it will not be to death row, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton.
“If Peterson is resentenced, he would be evaluated for appropriate housing consistent with his security, medical, psychiatric, housing and program needs and other case factors,” she said.
He could be housed in a different part of San Quentin or another prison in the state.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 10:47 AM.
