California Supreme Court overturns Scott Peterson death sentence

California’s Supreme Court on Monday overturned the 2004 death sentence for Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson.

The court upheld Peterson’s 2004 murder conviction, rejecting his argument that media coverage prevented him from receiving a fair trial. However, it found “clear and significant errors in jury selection” during the penalty phase on the part of the trial judge, according to The Associated Press.

“Peterson contends his trial was flawed for multiple reasons, beginning with the unusual amount of pretrial publicity that surrounded the case,” the court said. “We reject Peterson’s claim that he received an unfair trial as to guilt and thus affirm his convictions for murder.” However, the judge “made a series of clear and significant errors in jury selection that, under long-standing United States Supreme Court precedent, undermined Peterson’s right to an impartial jury at the penalty phase,” the court ruled.

Attorneys for Peterson had argued the judge wrongly dismissed prospective jurors who said they were personally opposed to the death penalty but would follow the law and levy a death sentence.

“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 unanimous ruling stated.

The court gave prosecutors the option to seek the death penalty again, according to the AP. Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager did not say whether she would do so.

Peterson was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife and the second-degree murder of their unborn child in 2004. Prosecutors said Peterson dumped the bodies into the San Francisco Bay from his fishing boat on Christmas Eve 2002.