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LA Innocence Project takes up Scott Peterson’s murder case of pregnant wife Laci
The Los Angeles Innocence Project announced Thursday that it is taking up the Scott Peterson murder case.
Pat Harris, Peterson’s attorney, announced the news in a statement.
“We are very excited to have the incredibly talented attorneys from the LA Innocence Project lend their considerable expertise to helping prove Scott’s innocence,” Harris said.
Peterson was convicted in 2004 for the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner. He was sentenced to death in 2005.
The LA Innocence Project works to exonerate those wrongly convicted through forensic and other scientific evidence.
The organization said it “is investigating his claim of actual innocence” but had no further comment.
In August 2020, the California Supreme Court reversed the death sentence after finding that jurors were erroneously dismissed, partly because they expressed objections to the death penalty on a questionnaire. He was resentenced in 2021 to life without parole.
Peterson’s attorney said at the time of the 2021 resentencing that his client has shown no remorse because he’s not guilty.
Peterson was uniformly described as a loving husband and expectant father, Harris said, until it became public that he was having an affair with Amber Frey at the time of his wife’s disappearance.
Then, “he quickly became the most hated man in America,” Harris said in 2021.
Prosecutors said Peterson took his wife’s body from their Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002 and dumped her from his fishing boat into the San Francisco Bay, where they washed ashore in April 2003.
Peterson admitted he was fishing on the day his wife disappeared. He had researched ocean currents, bought a boat without telling anyone, and could not explain what type of fish he was trying to catch that day.
Also, in the weeks after Laci disappeared, he sold his wife’s car, looked into selling their house, and turned the baby nursery into a storage room.
Peterson was eventually arrested after Frey, a massage therapist living in Fresno, told police that they had begun dating a month before his wife’s death, but that he had told her his wife was dead.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
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A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.