(NewsNation) — Scott Peterson has been granted access to decades-old evidence in his bid for a new trial.
Peterson was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 2004 in connection with the deaths of his wife, Laci, and unborn child.
San Mateo County Super Court Judge Elizabeth Hill released a ruling addressing the Los Angeles Innocence Project’s request for access to hundreds of pieces of evidence.
In January 2024, the group filed a motion to have items in the case tested for DNA evidence. There were reports of an orange van spotted across the street from Scott and Laci Peterson’s home around the time Laci vanished on Christmas Eve 2002. The report came from a former California fire official who claimed he investigated the burned van.
Pictures of the van show it had a mattress in the back, which could contain possible blood or DNA evidence.
“It looks to me like all of a sudden, they now realized there was a connection to the van,” Mark Geragos, a high-profile criminal attorney who represented Peterson during his 2004 trial, said during an appearance on “Banfield.” “And to (fact that) the Department of Justice had all kinds of reports that were not turned over at the time.”
Peterson’s family has been working to get him a new trial for years. His sister-in-law Janey Peterson has maintained Scott’s innocence, collecting photos and evidence to build Scott’s timeline. Janey Peterson believes a burglary that happened across the street may be connected to the van.
Investigators say Scott Peterson dumped Laci’s body during a fishing trip before it was found on the San Francisco shoreline. But his family says the burglars are the ones who placed her there, knowing the fishing trip was Scott Peterson’s only alibi.
In Hill’s ruling, Peterson’s defense team now has access to audio and video recordings of Modesto Police Department interviews with two men who were suspects in the burglary, as well as any handwritten notes taken by Modesto police officers who interviewed the two men.
Geragos added that the day Peterson was found guilty, he received reports from prison that “a lieutenant had overheard an inmate talking about a burglary and the van across the street. … They waited until the day he was convicted to turn that over to me.”