California Supreme Court Overturns Scott Peterson's Death Sentence

The California Supreme Court has revoked on Monday Scott Peterson's death sentence, who was convicted in the Christmas Eve murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, and unborn son, Conner.

The California Supreme Court decision came more than 15 years after Laci, a Modesto, California school teacher, was killed.

Investigators said Peterson dumped Laci's body from his fishing boat into the San Francisco Bay in 2002.

The bodies of Laci and Conner came up months later.

Peterson's murder conviction remained, but the California Supreme Court ordered a new penalty phase trial.

"Peterson contends his trial was flawed for multiple reasons, beginning with the unusual amount of pretrial publicity that surrounded the case," the court was quoted in a report.

The court said it rejects Peterson's claim that he received an unfair trial as to guilt and thus affirm his convictions for murder.

The justices said the trial judge "made a series of clear and significant errors," when it comes to jury selection.

Under long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent, undermined Peterson's right to an impartial jury at the penalty phase.

The court also agreed that potential jurors were improperly dismissed from the jury pool after saying they personally disagreed with the death penalty.

However, the jurors would be willing to follow the law and impose it.

"While a court may dismiss a prospective juror as unqualified to sit on a capital case if the juror's views on capital punishment would substantially impair his or her ability to follow the law, a juror may not be dismissed merely because he or she has expressed opposition to the death penalty as a general matter," the justices said in a unanimous decision.

The justices rejected Peterson's claim that he could not get a fair trail due to the widespread publicity of the case.

Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager did not say right away if she would again seek the death penalty.

Cliff Gardner, Peterson's appellate attorney, said in an email, that they are grateful for the California Supreme Court's unanimous decision.

Gardener said they were glad that the court recognizes that of the state wishes to put someone to death, it must continue trial only with a fairly selected jury.

His well-known trial attorney, Mark Geragos, said he does not expect prosecutors to retry the death penalty phase.

Geragos said that he frankly thinks the only reason that the prosecutors sought the death penalty was to get a guilt-prone jury panel.

California Court

The state of California has not executed anyone since 2006 due to legal challenges to the way that it would cause.

Also, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has a moratorium on executions as long as he is governor of the state..

The moratorium helped lead other California prosecutors to negotiate a plea deal in the more recent high-profile Golden State Killer case.

Peterson's Case

Investigators followed nearly 10,000 tips, as well as considered parolees and convicted sex offenders before apprehending Peterson.

Peterson was then arrested after Amber Fey, a therapist living in Fresno, told police that they had started dating a month before his wife's death.

Fey said his wife was already dead when they started dating.

Check these out:

'Golden State Killer' Faces Surviving Victims on First Day of Sentencing Hearings

Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo Sentenced to Life Imprisonment

California Supreme Court Curbs 'Pension Spiking' Among Public Employees