Face to Face with Scott Peterson

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- Scott and Laci's wedding was quite the event.

Laci looked absolutely gorgeous.

It really was a beautiful day.

Very much in love.

- An intense search is underway

for a missing Modesto woman who is eight months pregnant.

- Her husband had seen her before he went

on a fishing trip.

Did you murder your wife?

- I had absolutely nothing to do

with Laci's disappearance.

- Nothing adds up because he's a man

with something to hide.

- Police in Modesto, California

issued an arrest warrant for Scott Peterson.

- He faces capital murder charges

in the deaths of his pregnant wife

and unborn child.

- We, the jury, find the defendant,

Scott Lee Peterson, guilty of the crime of murder.

- I believe my brother-in-law, Scott,

has been wrongfully convicted of that murder.

He's been in prison since April of 2003.

Scott has not spoken on camera about the case

in those 21 years.

Until today.

Why I want to speak.

I regret not testifying.

I have a chance to show people what the truth is,

and if they're willing to accept it,

it would be the biggest thing

that I can accomplish right now.

Because I didn't kill my family.

* *

Speed.

- Rowlands, take one. Soft sticks.

- I think the public was so interested in this case

initially because of Laci.

This was a beautiful, pregnant, missing woman.

How did she just fall off the face of the Earth?

And then Scott Peterson became

the most hated man on the planet.

His behavior, the things that he did

and said and lied about, but the deeper

you get into this case, the more questions you have.

Because on the surface, oh, he did it.

But how? How did he do it?

And how did he not leave behind

any sort of a trail of evidence?

And if you didn't think Scott Peterson did it,

well, who else did it?

It's the reason that people to this day

are talking about this case and why some people think

that he didn't do it.

- I never dreamed I would put these four words

in the same sentence.

Scott Peterson, Innocence Project.

- 20 years ago, Scott Peterson was convicted

of murdering his wife, Laci.

- Serving life without parole after his death conviction

was overturned in 2020.

- An organization that works to exonerate people

wrongfully convicted of crimes is now reviewing

the Scott Peterson murder case.

- The LA Innocence Project is taking up the effort

to set Peterson free.

I was floored.

It was very, very surprising.

I would say borderline shocking.

- The LA Innocence Project is no joke.

- Over the years, Peterson has made many attempts

to get his case retried.

None of them have been successful.

- The new motion revolves around a theory

that Laci Peterson was killed by burglars.

- There was a van found close to Laci

and Scott's house that has a mattress

in it that has blood stains.

They're trying to get that mattress tested.

- This van is of high interest.

- Could we have gotten it wrong?

- Today, convicted killer Scott Peterson

will attend a court hearing via Zoom

that could allow him to get a new trial.

Good morning.

We are on the record in the matter of

People versus Scott Lee Peterson,

case number SC055500A.

Mr. Peterson is present via Zoom.

Mr. Peterson, can you both see and hear the proceedings?

- Yes, I can. Thank you, Your Honor.

- And do we have your consent to appear

via Zoom this morning?

- Absolutely, Your Honor. Thank you.

- All right. Thank you.

Counsel would like to state their appearances,

starting with counsel for Mr. Peterson.

- Mr. Peterson has two objectives.

One is to get the discovery and the DNA testing

that we're requesting as soon as we possibly can.

- Scott Peterson was back in court today,

seeking a new trial.

- His new attorney argued for the release of evidence

she says should have been made available

at the time of the trial.

- They've raised some things that really have people

all across the country saying,

"Boy, I'm second guessing this now."

- My feeling on that is, where was this claim

when we were in trial?

If there was something missing,

I see them bringing it up and rubbing our face

in it in the original trial.

To me, it seems like it's kind of a wild goose chase.

- I had nothing to do with Laci's disappearance.

- There was no conviction behind what he had to say.

- It's hard to figure out sociopaths.

Controlling, and that they are--

have lack of emotions, lack of sympathy.

And Scott Peterson shows all of that.

Oh, it's polarizing.

You bring up Scott Peterson

to a Scott Peterson hater and...

We, the jury,

find the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson,

guilty of the crime of murder.

- I'm just glad he's guilty, because he is guilty.

- After calling him cruel, uncaring, and heartless.

Scott got what he deserved.

- A lot of people are invested in believing Scott was guilty,

but if you really get into the details,

it gets much more complicated.

My name is Shareen Anderson,

and I am a documentary filmmaker

and an investigative journalist.

In 2013, I started researching this case.

My initial thought was that he was probably guilty.

I mean, he was convicted, sentenced to death.

He deserved to be behind bars.

And it was only when I started looking

at the evidence and the facts that I started to question.

You can interpret a lot of the evidence in a variety of ways.

It is a circumstantial evidence case.

You can take one piece of evidence

and it could be a sign of guilt or the opposite.

And I wanted to dig deeper

and possibly make a documentary about it,

so I reached out to Scott Peterson.

I didn't hear back from him, but I did hear from

someone in his family.

- Are you excited about all the new developments

for the case?

- I think we have more hope than we've had in a long time.

My name is Janey Peterson.

I'm Scott and Laci Peterson's sister-in-law.

Scott Peterson is my husband's younger brother.

For this case, being 20 years old,

there are a lot of things going on

that are very encouraging.

And I think, in the coming year,

we're going to have a lot of answers as to what happened.

I think I first met Shareen Anderson in 2013.

She was interested in doing a documentary.

I was kind of impressed with her knowledge of the case.

She really was digging in.

We hadn't done any interviews in years,

and Scott has not spoken on camera

with the media about his case since before his arrest.

* *

- Scott Peterson can now have video visits up to 15 minutes.

I had a lot of things that I wanted to talk to him about.

Just hearing it in his own words,

whether it be about the evidence

or the lies that he told.

I wanted to see how far he was going to go

in terms of answering questions.

This case is still a mystery.

And whether you think he's innocent or guilty,

there's still a lot of unanswered questions.

* *

OK, here we go.

Hey there, Shareen.

- Hey, how are you? - I'm all right.

How are you doing today? - I'm good.

So you were convicted of a horrible crime,

the murder of your pregnant wife and unborn son.

Why should anyone want to hear your side of the story?

Why should anyone care about

what you have to say 20 years later?

- If I have a chance to get the reality out there,

I have a chance to show people what the truth is,

and if they're willing to accept it,

maybe that takes a little bit of hurt off my family.

And that would be the biggest thing

that I can accomplish right now.

Don't trust me, but look at the evidence.

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- How can I help you? - Yeah, um...