Where is Scott Peterson today?
The ball is back in Scott’s court when it comes to responding to the state AG’s July filing that called his second appeal for habeas corpus “a baseless fishing expedition.”
In early 2021, Scott’s lawyers presented their case of juror misconduct, having alleged in their (first) habeas corpus appeal that a juror named Richelle Nice purposely didn’t disclose a personal experience that could have affected her view of the case to ensure she made it onto the panel.
Scott’s attorney, Pat Harris, told Today‘s Savannah Guthrie, “We’re cautiously optimistic. I think there’s a great deal of evidence that the juror did commit misconduct, essentially when she filled out the juror form, the juror questionnaire, and also when she was questioned in court, she did not tell the truth about incidents in her own life when she was a victim of domestic violence while she was pregnant. I think that was obviously a very important thing for her, part of her life, and if she had been honest about it, she would not have been selected for the jury.”
Richelle denied the accusations that she was biased, telling the Modesto Bee in 2017, “When I filled out that questionnaire, my situation never came into my mind because it was not similar at all.”
Pat also told TODAY that, should they get that new trial, they’d be presenting evidence that exonerates Scott: “We believe we have evidence that the people who actually were involved are people who have a very violent criminal history, and we believe we can prove that that is much more likely as to what happened than rather than Scott having killed his wife.”
