San Quentin, CA—Death row inmate, Scott Peterson got bad news today. His dead wife’s parents Sharon and Dennis Rocha dropped their lawsuit against him.Normally for a defendant that would be a good thing. But in this case Scott Peterson could use the litigation to bring to light new evidence needed to destroy the conviction that got him condemned to die. Peterson was free to examine witnesses, test, re-test and review all the additional evidence he wanted as long as the civil case was ongoing.
I predicted that this lawsuit could do just that on this blog when it was filed long ago.
Peterson’s conviction was a result of disgraceful excuse or a trial. Not a shred of evidence was presented as to how Laci Peterson and her unborn child died. Peterson was a world class cad, womanizer and jerk. There was never a case or murder without the corpus delecti.
I was hoping the greed of the Rochas was going to be their undoing but they finally figured out Peterson would greatly benefit from the lawsuit and dismissed it.
I suspect that the last entries in the civil court file are clues that would tell us just what Scott Peterson’s lawyer was uncovering that led to the Rochas backing out of the civil action.
Now, Peterson will have to wait for his appeal to slowly grind through the system and rely on other tools to force disclosure of new evidence.
Comments
Or figured out he had nothing hand over at judgment time, more likely.
I look forward to the day Scott Peterson is exonerated, the MPD should be ashamed.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense were with her when she was killed.
Another fact is there was lots of circumstantial evidence against him.
Then his most incriminating activities and conduct during the time she was still missing and after she was found were incriminating. It was relevant admissible testimony. .
I believe what her attorney did with that boat and the mannequin in the court parking lot was out of line and even more hurtful for his client.
There's not a client worth that.
We must be impartial.
PI
But further, it turns out that the key evidence against him, according to the petition, was false and misleading. Most remarkably, the expert the state's expert (Dr DeVore) referred to, Dr Jeanty, has recalculated the date of death of the fetus and puts it no earlier than Jan 5th (Jan 3rd if you use the wrong bone as DeVore did). Since the mother was alive that late or later, Scott Peterson is absolutely eliminated. He really was an innocent man.
I see no way any minimally competent DA can prosecute given these facts. As a result, it's all over but the tedious waiting for the terminally slow CA system to work.
And shame to all those howling harpies like Nancy Grace, Gloria Allred and Catherine Crier et al who were "quite certain" he was guilty. I wonder if any will apologize to him now?
Habeas: http://www.scottpetersonappeal.org/uploads/2/4/8/2/24829415/petersonhabeas.pdf