SAN MATEO, Calif. (KRON) — Scott Peterson will return to San Mateo County court after the California Supreme Court ordered a trial judge to consider whether his convictions for murdering his wife Laci and their unborn son should be overturned.
This comes after the state’s highest court already overturned Peterson’s death sentence less than two months ago in August.
The court said a juror committed “prejudicial misconduct” by failing to disclose she’d been involved with other legal proceedings in which she feared for her unborn child.
Investigators said that on Christmas Eve 2002, Peterson dumped the bodies of his wife and unborn son from his fishing boat into the San Francisco Bay, where they surfaced months later.
Peterson, who is now 47, contended on appeal that he couldn’t get a fair trial because of the massive publicity that followed, although the proceedings were moved nearly 90 miles away from his Central Valley home of Modesto to San Mateo County.
He was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his 27-year-old wife and the second-degree murder of their unborn son.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.