But on Wednesday, after two decades of efforts to overturn the verdict, a fresh group of defense lawyers from the Los Angeles Innocence Project will try to convince a judge that old DNA samples from a bloody mattress in Modesto, and other pieces of evidence that washed up along the San Francisco Bay, must be retested to support Peterson’s claim of “actual innocence.”
It could be his last chance at freedom.
In an extraordinary 337-page argument, however, prosecutors didn’t just lay out why they opposed handing over the evidence. In meticulous detail, they also reminded readers exactly why the handsome fertilizer salesman from Modesto was convicted in the first place. Page by page, they listed nearly every shred of evidence they presented at trial, including photographs and transcript excerpts.
“They want the public to know that, at least in their mind, they got it right,” said Steven Clark, a legal analyst who followed the trial in 2004.
The brief includes memorable highlights as well as deep details that prosecutors presented at trial to convince the jury that although their case was circumstantial, it was more than enough to prove Peterson killed his wife. They include:
- Two weeks before Laci disappeared, Peterson told his secret mistress, Amber Frey, he had “lost” his wife and would be spending his first Christmas without her.
- Days later, he bought an aluminum fishing boat but never told anyone, including his father-in-law who was an avid fisherman. During a family dinner party a week before Laci vanished, they all discussed fishing, but Peterson never mentioned the boat.
- When Peterson returned from the Berkeley marina the afternoon of Christmas Eve, he told a neighbor he had spent the day golfing. He called his mother-in-law and told her “Laci is missing.”
- The bodies washed up not far from where Peterson later told police he fished the day Laci disappeared. In one of his first conversations with a police officer, he hesitated when asked what he was fishing for and what lures he used.
- Police found cement “rings” on the floor of the storage space where they believe he made anchors to sink Laci’s body. Only her torso was found.
- A month after Laci disappeared – and three months before her body was discovered – Peterson traded in her Land Rover for a Dodge truck and called a realtor about selling their house that included the fully furnished nursery for the baby they planned to name Conner.
In meticulous detail, prosecutors laid out nearly every shred of evidence they presented at trial, including photographs and transcript excerpts.
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