Scott Peterson hearing canceled after lawyer tests positive for COVID, Peterson exposed
The last hearing before a judge determines if Scott Peterson should get a new trial was postponed Tuesday after the convicted killer was exposed to COVID and one of his lawyers tested positive.
The hearing for oral arguments following an evidentiary hearing in March to determine if a juror on Peterson’s 2004 murder trial committed misconduct was scheduled for Wednesday in San Mateo Superior Court.
But during a hastily called pretrial hearing Tuesday, it was revealed that one of Peterson’s attorneys, Pat Harris, has COVID and that Peterson is on a “loose quarantine” after being exposed to COVID in his pod at San Quentin State Prison, said Sarah Lind, a deputy court executive officer for San Mateo Superior Court.
Peterson still is being housed at San Quentin but no longer is on death row after being resentenced in December to life without the possibility of parole.
The California Supreme Court in 2020 overturned Peterson’s death sentence, saying the trial judge erred by excluding potential jurors opposed to the death penalty. The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office initially said it would seek the death penalty again.
In a separate decision six months later, the state Supreme Court returned the guilt phase of the trial to San Mateo Superior Court for a judge to decide whether a juror committed misconduct when she failed to disclose on a jury questionnaire that she’d been the victim of a crime or party in a lawsuit.
Judge Anne-Christine Massullo has 90 days from the date of the oral arguments to make a decision about whether Peterson should get a new trial. A decision would have been due by the end of September had the hearing gone as planned Wednesday.
The hearing now is scheduled for Aug. 11, Lind said, so a decision will not be due until mid-November.
Peterson was convicted of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, in 2004. A pregnant Laci disappeared from their Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002, and her and Conner’s bodies were found in the San Francisco Bay four months later.
The case was moved from Stanislaus County to San Mateo County due to pretrial publicity.
The oral arguments will likely mirror written briefs filed by both parties earlier this month. Click here to read about their arguments.
This story was originally published June 28, 2022 at 1:47 PM.
