Scott Peterson Who Killed Wife, Unborn Child Moved Off Death Row

Corrections officials said Monday that Scott Peterson, who killed his pregnant wife two decades ago, has been moved off death row.

It comes more than two years after the California Supreme Court overturned his death sentence for the murder of his wife and their unborn child, reported the AP News. Last week he was moved to Mule Creek State Prison east of Sacramento from San Quentin State Prison north of San Francisco. He will serve his sentence of life without the possibility of parole there, reported CNN.

Peterson's lawyer Cliff Gardner found "nothing unusual in this." The attorney said that because the California Supreme Court held that his death sentence was unconstitutional, and the "state elected not to seek death again in light of the evidence of innocence put forward in our habeas petition, Scott is no longer a capital defendant." He added that as such, Peterson "was taken off death row and transferred to another facility."

A new mug shot was taken Friday and it showed the 50-year-old inmate with salt-and-pepper stubble. Earlier he sported a clean-shaven look.

The death penalty was imposed by jurors after Peterson was convicted of the first-degree murder of his 27-year-old wife Laci. He was also convicted of second-degree murder of the unborn son they were going to name Conner. He dumped the mother and unborn child into San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve of 2002.

In August 2020, the state's high court overturned that sentence. It was done after it was found that potential jurors were improperly dismissed for saying that they personally disagreed with the death penalty, but would be willing to follow the law and impose it.

A state judge is now considering if the inmate deserves a new trial. The justices separately said that his jury might have been tainted by a biased juror.

In 2021, Peterson was resentenced by a San Mateo County Superior Court judge to life in prison without parole. It happened under the glaring eyes of Laci's family, reported CBS Bay Area. During the victim's statements at the resentencing, Laci's mother Sharon Rocha said that no matter what happens, "no matter what transpires in the future, there are two things that will never change." She added that Laci and Connor "will always be dead, and you will always be their murderer."