LA Innocence Project takes on Scott Peterson case

The Los Angeles Innocence Project has taken up the case of Scott Peterson, who was convicted in 2004 of murdering his 27-year-old pregnant wife.

The non-profit helps the wrongfully accused and is seeking new evidence from the original trial.

It said in court filings it is "investigating his claim of actual innocence".

Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant with the couple's son when she went missing on Christmas Eve 22 years ago.

"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," Pat Harris, Peterson's attorney, said in a statement on Thursday according to CBS, the BBC's US partner.

Lawyers for Peterson filed a petition last April alleging juror misconduct at the murder trial and said that "new evidence" would support their client's innocence, court filings on Wednesday show.

Prosecutors said Peterson killed Laci and dumped her body in the Pacific Ocean on Christmas Eve 2002, then tried to hide the murder by making it seem as if she was missing.

Her body was found when it washed ashore four months later.

Peterson's attorneys argued at trial his wife was killed by a burglar.

A jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to death the following year.

In 2020, his death sentence was overturned by the California Supreme Court after it found the judge in the original trial had wrongly dismissed a number of jurors.

He was resentenced the following year to life in prison without parole.