Who was Laci Peterson and why did her husband Scott murder her?
ON Christmas Eve 2002, Laci Peterson was murdered by her husband.
In December 2021, Scott Peterson was sentenced to life without parole for the murder of his wife and their unborn child.
Who was Laci Peterson?
Laci Peterson was the wife of Scott Peterson and a school teacher in Modesto, California.
Scott murdered Laci on Christmas Eve in 2002.
Prosecutors told jurors that Scott either suffocated or strangled his wife before he wrapped her body up in a blue tarp.
Scott maintains his innocence in the case, according to a phone call interview recorded for the six-part A&E series, The Murder Of Laci Peterson, that aired in 2017.
Investigators said that Scott dumped her body from his fishing boat into San Francisco Bay, where she surfaced months later.
Laci was eight months pregnant with their unborn son at the time she was killed.
Who is her husband Scott Peterson?
Scott was arrested for Laci's murder after Amber Frey, a massage therapist living in Fresno, told police that they had begun dating a month before his wife’s death and that he had told her his wife was already dead.
Scott was a ";serial philanderer" who cheated on his wife at least three times before she disappeared, according to the .
Defense attorney Mark Geragos said during the initial trial that Laci knew of at least two of Scott's affairs.
Scott had already been on at least four dates with the massage therapist, Amber Frey, before his wife's murder.
Geragos asserted Scott was forthcoming about his infidelities, presenting email evidence to the court.
Scott wrote to Laci's mother in January 2003: “I never took the time to apologize for my infidelities.
"I’m truly sorry I was not forthcoming with you.”
At trial, Scott was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife and the second-degree murder of their unborn son.
Why was Scott Peterson sentenced to execution?
Scott had his 2005 death sentence overturned by the California Supreme Court on August 24, 2020.
The court said: “Peterson contends his trial was flawed for multiple reasons, beginning with the unusual amount of pretrial publicity that surrounded the case."
The justices said the trial judge “made a series of clear and significant errors in jury selection that, under long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent, undermined Peterson’s right to an impartial jury at the penalty phase."
It agreed with his argument that potential jurors were improperly dismissed from the jury pool after saying they personally disagreed with the death penalty but would be willing to follow the law and impose it.
The justices said in a unanimous decision: “While a court may dismiss a prospective juror as unqualified to sit on a capital case if the juror’s views on capital punishment would substantially impair his or her ability to follow the law, a juror may not be dismissed merely because he or she has expressed opposition to the death penalty as a general matter."
Prosecutors say they may try again for the same sentence in the high-profile case.
Is Scott Peterson getting a new trial?
In August 2020, California Supreme Court justices overturned Scott's death penalty sentencing on the basis that the original trial was "flawed for multiple reasons."
In August 2021, a California judge was deciding whether or not to give Peterson a new trial in the death of Laci.
His next court date was slated for late September 2021 to determine whether there was juror misconduct in his original trial.
On December 8, 2021, Peterson's court hearing for his resentencing was held in the Superior Court of San Francisco County in California.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Judge Anne-Christine Massullo sentenced Scott Peterson to life in prison without parole for the murder of his wife Laci and their unborn child.
On Sunday, April 9, 2023, at 7/6pm central, Dateline is exploring the gruesome details of Laci Peterson's murder.