According to a statement released by the organization on Thursday, Scott Peterson, who was found guilty of killing his wife and their unborn child in 2004, is now being represented by the Los Angeles Innocence Project.
The nonprofit group said it is looking into Peterson’s “claim of actual innocence.” Its mission is to free those who have been wrongfully convicted and imprisoned.
The representation of Peterson by the group was initially reported by ABC News.
After being found guilty of the 2005 murders of his wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son Conner, 51-year-old Peterson was given the death penalty.
In December 2002, Peterson filed a missing person’s report from their Modesto, California, home. When Laci Peterson vanished, she was almost seven months pregnant. According to authorities, Laci and Conner’s remains were discovered separately in April 2003 after they washed ashore in San Francisco Bay.
The execution sentence of Peterson was overturned by the California Supreme Court in 2020 when it was discovered that prospective jurors had been mistakenly excluded, in part because they had indicated on a form that they opposed the death penalty in general.