REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) — A California judge on Tuesday denied Scott Peterson a murder retrial, nearly 20 years after he was accused of dumping the bodies of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn child. he Conner. in San Francisco Bay on Christmas Eve 2002.
Peterson said the resulting trial that gripped the world was marred by a rogue juror who lied about his own history of abuse to get on the panel that originally sent him to death row.
Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo ruled there was no evidence to support the defense’s claim that juror Richelle Nice engaged in misconduct during jury selection.
Nice did not intentionally withhold information about her life from the jury questionnaire or misrepresent her financial situation to remain on the jury, and she did not appear vindictive toward Peterson in letters she later wrote to him in prison, Massullo wrote.
Peterson, now 50, can appeal his decision.
It was undisputed that Nice did not disclose, as she was selected for the Peterson jury in 2004, that she had filed for a restraining order while pregnant four years earlier. Nice said at the time that she was “very scared for her unborn child” because of threats from her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.
In 2020, the California Supreme Court found that Nice’s actions required a hearing to determine whether they denied Peterson a fair trial and granted Judge Massullo. The High Court separately threw out Peterson’s death sentence in 2020, and Stanislaus County prosecutors decided not to seek his execution, although they argued he received a fair trial. He was sentenced to life in prison in December.
Peterson said Nice struggled to serve on the jury despite her financial struggles and that she entered deliberations determined to get revenge on Peterson’s soon-to-be unborn child, the young victim she nicknamed “Little Man.”
But Nice testified that she was not biased against Peterson until hearing the evidence against him.
Nice said in a 2020 affidavit that it did not occur to her to include the threat to her own unborn child on the jury form because she did not “feel ‘victimized’ in the way the law might define that term.” He later testified that he answered truthfully based on his understanding of the questions.
“I didn’t write it on the questionnaire because it never crossed my mind, ever. It was not done on purpose,” he vowed during two days of testimony in February.
She also disputed any financial motive for serving on the jury, swearing that she and other jurors never discussed writing their book, We the Jury, until after the trial and verdict.
And it was Peterson’s star defense attorney, Mark Geragos, who wanted her on the jury, prosecutors said. Geragos called Nice back as she prepared to leave after the judge fired her due to financial hardship, though Geragos said she never would have done so if she had adequately disclosed her story personal.
Nice also denied she was biased, though she said her boyfriend at the time was a serial cheater and denied ever assaulting her, despite her domestic violence arrest.
Peterson was arrested in April 2003 only after his mistress came to tell him that his wife of 27 years had left a month before her actual disappearance.
His lawyers provided Massullo with what they called a “credibility book” that purported to show Nice’s contradictory statements.
“Miss Nice simply forgot,” prosecutors responded in court, arguing that any mistakes she made did not demonstrate bias.
“Her testimony and demeanor … clearly showed that she was not a vindictive, scorned woman seeking to punish him (Peterson),” they argued.
Among other issues Massullo had to decide was which party bore the burden of proof.
Prosecutors said Peterson’s lawyers failed to prove juror misconduct in Nice. Accidental or accidental mistakes don’t matter, they argued.
Peterson’s attorneys said Nice clearly concealed the facts during jury selection, even without knowing it, which they say shifts the burden to prosecutors to prove she was not biased.
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