Sentencing Phase Of Scott Peterson Trial Continues

Scott Peterson: Guilty, Or The Unluckiest Cheater In History?

California

California Supreme Court

Court

Death Penalty

Innocence Project

Murder

Readers Pass

Scott Peterson

True Crime

The infamous Scott Peterson <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/murder">murder</a> case from 2002 is being taken on by the Los Angeles <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/innocence-project">Innocence Project</a> as the 51-year-old convicted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/crime">felon</a> continues serving out his sentence in a California prison.
Peterson was found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder of his 27-year-old wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn son Conner in 2004. 
Now the L.A. Innocence Project will explore what they’re describing as new evidence which could help prove Peterson is innocent.
&#8220;The Los Angeles Innocence Project (LAIP) represents Scott Peterson and is investigating his claim of actual innocence,&#8221; a spokesperson for the organization said in a statement, per <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/scott-peterson-case-los-angeles-innocence-project-takes-case-man-convi-rcna134567">ABC News</a>.
Filings obtained by the outlet claim that &#8220;new evidence now supports Mr. Peterson&#8217;s longstanding claim of innocence and raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson.&#8221;
Specifically, they’ll be looking into witness statements regarding the break-ins across the street which Laci may have witnessed, plus will analyze DNA from a blood-stained mattress found in a van near the couple’s home.
Laci was eight months pregnant when she went missing on Christmas Eve 2002, prompting a nationwide manhunt which ended when her body was discovered in the San Francisco Bay four months later. The couple’s son’s body was found less than a mile away.
At first Peterson helped search parties, but soon became a prime suspect in the criminal investigation after it was discovered that he was having an extramarital affair. Scott was eventually convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 2004 and sentenced to death row in 2005, where he remained for about 15 years.
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In 2020, his original death penalty sentence was overturned by the California Supreme Court because of jury selection errors by the trial judge. Peterson’s death sentence was vacated in 2021 and changed to life in prison.
Scott&#8217;s family has believed in his innocence for years. &#8220;There is no forensic evidence, there is no timeline to this crime,&#8221; his sister-in-law Janey Peterson said in 2021, per <a href="https://people.com/scott-petersons-case-taken-up-by-innocence-project-8536165">People</a>. &#8220;Scott Peterson is innocent, and we are now trying to reverse that.&#8221; 
Scott’s defense attorney Pat Harris told the outlet, “We are very excited to have the incredible attorneys at the L.A. Innocence Project lend their considerable expertise to helping prove Scott Peter’s Innocence.&#8221;

L.A. Innocence Project Takes On Scott Peterson Case, Says New Evidence ‘Supports’ Claim He Didn’t Murder Pregnant Wife

L.A. Innocence Project Takes On Scott Peterson Case, Says New Evidence 'Supports' Claim He Didn't Murder Pregnant Wife

Crime

U.S.

On March 11, 1985, Harold and Thelma Swain were leading a bible study at the Rising Daughter Baptist Church, a predominantly black church where Harold was a deacon, in Waverly, Georgia. At some point during the study, a white man entered the church and murdered the Swains. Witnesses were able to briefly see the murderer, but their descriptions were not that helpful to law enforcement.
Three years later, lead investigators Georgia Bureau of Investigation Agent Joe Gregory and Camden County Sheriff Deputy Butch Kennedy were still trying to figure out who murdered the Swains. The name Dennis Perry was among the hundreds of suspects in the shooting, but the investigators were able to rule him out as a suspect because he had an alibi: He was working in the Atlanta area at the time of the shooting. A key witness was also unable to pick Perry’s photo out of a lineup to identify him as the shooter.
The murders went cold and were even featured on popular television shows like “Unsolved Mysteries” and “Crime Watch.” Hundreds of tips flowed in, but the case still went cold. In 1998, 13 years after the shooting, Camden County Sheriff Bill Smith made a stunning decision: He promised former deputy Dale Bundy a job if Bundy could solve the cold case.
Bundy immediately zeroed in on Perry, according to the Georgia Innocence Project (GIP), due primarily to the testimony of Jane Beaver, the mother of Perry’s ex-girlfriend. By pointing the finger at Perry, Beaver sought a reward of $25,000 for her information. She eventually received $12,000 to testify against Perry &#8212; but this payment was never disclosed to Perry’s defense attorneys.
“Eighteen years after the murders, the State, seeking a death sentence, prosecuted Perry in a trial characterized by unreliable evidence and prosecutorial misconduct,” the GIP said in a press release. “After the jury convicted Perry, Assistant District Attorney John Johnson offered Perry a deal: if Perry waived his right to file a direct appeal, Johnson would ensure he would not be executed. Perry agreed and in turn received two consecutive life sentences in prison.”
More from GIP:
<blockquote>The years ticked by as Perry fought to prove his innocence from prison, and the Georgia Innocence Project accepted and worked on his case, ultimately recruiting King &amp; Spalding as co-counsel. The case received renewed media attention in 2018 as the focus of <a href="https://undisclosed-podcast.com/episodes/season-3/">Undisclosed podcast’s third season</a> in which dedicated reporters thoroughly reinvestigated the case, distilling thousands of pages and hundreds of suspects into a few promising leads. Building on that, a reporter from the <a href="https://www.ajc.com/alibi-story/">Atlanta Journal-Constitution</a> then honed in on one suspect in particular after uncovering that his original alibi had been fabricated. GIP Investigator Ron Grosse then collected DNA evidence from a relative of that suspect which was then matched to evidence from the crime scene.</blockquote>
Last year, the GIP and King &amp; Spalding presented all this to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson, who refused to grant Perry a new trial. Instead, Johnson asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to reopen its investigation into the murders of Harold and Thelma Swain.
Perry’s defense team filed an Extraordinary Motion for New Trial. Johnson, the original trial prosecutor, and a contract attorney fought against the motion, but Brunswick Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Stephen Scarlett granted it and ordered Perry to be released from prison on his own recognizance to await Johnson’s decision whether to hold a new trial or dismiss the charges against Perry.
It has been a year since Perry was released from prison, and on Monday, Judge Scarlett granted Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins’ motion to dismiss the charges against Perry, officially exonerating a man who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
It took a long time, but I never gave up,” Perry said in the GIP’s press release. “I knew that eventually someone else would see the truth, and I’m so grateful to the Georgia Innocence Project and King &amp; Spalding for bringing the truth to light. This indictment has been hanging over my head for over 20 years, and it&#8217;s such a relief to finally not have to worry about being accused of this awful thing.”

Dennis Perry

He Spent 20 Years In Prison For A Double Murder He Didn’t Commit. DNA Evidence Exonerated Him.

Wrongful Conviction

On January 5, 1987, 64-year-old Adeline Wilford was found dead in her home in Easton, Maryland, the victim of a murder after she tried to stop a burglary in process. Wilford was stabbed to death and her home had been “ransacked,” according to police, with her purse, wallet, and some jewelry stolen.
Police determined that whoever killed her must have entered her home through a window in the laundry room, as they found palm prints on the glass and the washing machine. Underneath the window on the inside were also bits of shrubbery similar to what was outside the window.
For 13 years, police searched for Wilford’s killer or killers, compiling a list of more than two dozen suspects. They attempted to match the palm prints to find the perpetrators and “performed 72 manual comparisons” over the years, according to the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP). It wasn’t until January 2000, however, when a witness came forward to collect the $25,000 reward money. The witness, Beverly Haddaway, claimed David Faulkner, Jonathan Smith, and Ray Andrews were the ones who murdered Wilford. She claimed that she saw three men leaving a corn field a few miles away from Wilford’s home the day of the murder and that one of them – Smith – was wearing a bloody shirt.
The palm print didn’t match any of the men’s, but coerced confessions led to a plea agreement with Andrews and the convictions of Faulkner and Smith. Andrews agreed to 10 years in prison for a burglary charge in exchange for his testimony against Faulkner and Smith, who were convicted of murder.
When MAIP began working with Smith and Faulkner in 2011, they filed Public Information Act requests to obtain police recordings of conversations between police and Haddaway.
“These recordings revealed that Haddaway demanded that the state dismiss unrelated drug charges against her grandson in exchange for her testimony against Faulkner and Smith. The state, in fact, dismissed the charges three days before Andrews’s trial was scheduled to begin,” MAIP <a href="https://innocenceproject.org/maryland-court-of-appeals-reverses-murder-convictions-of-david-faulkner-and-jonathan-smith-granting-writs-of-actual-innocence/">reported</a> last year when Faulkner and Smith’s convictions were overturned.
Haddaway received $10,000 of the reward money before she testified against the men and later sued Wilford’s family for the remaining $15,000 after Faulkner and Smith were convicted.
In 2013, the two convicted men filed to re-open post-conviction proceedings based on the police recordings of Haddaway. MAIP also requested a palm print comparison.
“In March 2014, the state’s attorney acknowledged that the prints matched an offender in the database, but refused to disclose the identity for a year. When the identity was finally <a href="https://www.innocenceproject.org/innocence-project-and-mid-atlantic-innocence-project-asks-maryland-judge-to-reverse-1987-murder-convictions/">revealed in 2015,</a> lawyers discovered that the prints matched those of Ty Anthony Brooks, who was incarcerated at the time and had previously served prison time for a similar burglary in which he was alleged to have assaulted an elderly woman within months of Wilford’s murder,” MAIP reported.
Not only that, but it turned out Brooks was one of the alternative suspects in the original case.
The prosecutor and judge tried to minimize the palm-print evidence, and it took until April 2020 for Faulkner and Smith were granted new trials. Even with the new evidence, and a lack of evidence suggesting Faulkner and Smith new Brooks, the two men have remained in jail awaiting their new trials. Finally, after a lengthy battle, Faulkner was released on January 29, 2021. His new trial is scheduled for May 2021. Smith is still incarcerated.

Prisoner

He Spent Nearly 20 Years In Prison For A Murder He Didn’t Commit. He Was Just Released.

In 2001, a man survived being shot outside a bar in East Baltimore. Shortly after the shooting, the victim, who has not been named, told police that he had seen his shooter with someone he knew, a man named Donte Lyle. The victim did not know the shooter, however.
The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP) <a href="https://exonerate.org/welcome-home-melvin-thomas/">reported</a> that during the investigation, police started to suspect one man, but for some reason, put a picture of that man’s brother, Melvin Thomas, in the photo lineup for the victim to overlook. The victim identified Thomas as his shooter and Thomas was arrested and charged with attempted murder. “Melvin was convicted based solely on that testimony, even though Melvin didn’t match the description of the shooter and had no other known connection to the victim, the shooting, or the bar,” reported the organization, which helps to free wrongly convicted individuals.
Thomas sat in prison for years, even after the victim realized the real shooter was still on the street. The victim told police that he was at a flea market in Baltimore when he noticed a person he realized at that moment was the real shooter. He told attorney Booth Ripke of the Nathans &amp; Biddle law firm about this revelation. Ripke took the recantation and additional evidence to MAIP and suggested they present the case to Baltimore’s Conviction Integrity Unit.
“In June 2019, Booth, accompanied by MAIP Legal Director Frances Walters and Baltimore City Paralegal/Investigator Emily Pate, presented the case to the CIU. Despite the pandemic and the limitations that places on investigation, the CIU was able to corroborate the victim’s recantation and gather additional evidence of Melvin’s innocence. Based on that evidence of innocence, the CIU agreed to seek Melvin’s release through a Writ of Actual Innocence. In granting the writ, the court made Melvin the ninth person exonerated through the CIU-MAIP partnership since 2015,” MAIP reported.
On December 15, 2020, nearly 19 years after he was convicted of attempted murder, Thomas was released from prison.
Earlier this year, The Daily Wire reported the story of Robert DuBoise, who was also released from prison with the help of the Innocence Project. DuBoise was just 18 years old when he was arrested for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman. He was convicted of the crime in March 1985 and spent a total of 37 years in prison before he was released after DNA evidence concluded he didn’t commit the crime.
On August 19, 1983, the body of a young woman was found behind a dentist’s office in Tampa, Florida. An autopsy alleged that she had a human bite mark on her face. Police were told to collect bite mark impressions from suspects.
DuBoise’s name came to police after a local resident claimed he “caused problems” where they regularly spent time. DuBoise had never been convicted of a violent crime and cooperated with police, even allowing them to take a mold of his teeth, according to <a href="https://www.innocenceproject.org/innocence-project-robert-duboise-is-released-37-years-1983-tampa-murder/">a summary of the case</a> from the Innocence Project.
Bite marks are not a scientifically validated form of forensics, yet DuBoise was arrested and eventually convicted. In 2020, DNA testing found DNA from two males present on the victim, neither of which belonged to DuBoise or the two other men who were implicated in the crime but never charged.
DuBoise was released from prison on August 27.

Cropped Hand Holding Gun Against Black Background

He Spent Nearly 19 Years In Jail For A Murder He Didn’t Commit. He Was Just Exonerated And Released.

Robert DuBoise was just 18 years old when he was arrested for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman. He was convicted of the crime in March 1985 and spent a total of 37 years in prison before he was released after DNA evidence concluded he didn’t commit the crime.
On August 19, 1983, the body of a young woman was found behind a dentist’s office in Tampa, Florida. An autopsy alleged that she had a human bite mark on her face. Police were told to collect bite mark impressions from suspects.
DuBoise’s name came to police after a local resident claimed he “caused problems” where they regularly spent time. DuBoise had never been convicted of a violent crime and cooperated with police, even allowing them to take a mold of his teeth, according to <a href="https://www.innocenceproject.org/innocence-project-robert-duboise-is-released-37-years-1983-tampa-murder/">a summary of the case</a> from the Innocence Project.
Dr. Richard Souviron, an odontologist, determined the mold of DuBoise’s teeth matched the bite mark on the woman’s face, leading to DuBoise’s arrest. Bite mark analysis, however, is not a scientifically validated form of forensics. A study from the American Board of Forensic Odontology found that its members couldn’t even agree on whether images they were shown contained bite marks at all.
“That was so horrifying. If experts can’t agree on the answer to that initial question: Is this or is this not a bite mark? That should trouble anybody,” former ABFO president Dr. Adam Freeman said of the study, <a href="https://www.innocenceproject.org/what-is-bite-mark-evidence-forensic-science/">according to the Innocence Project</a>.
Yet in 1983, bite-mark analysis was still considered enough evidence to arrest DuBoise. The only other evidence against DuBoise came from a jailhouse informant who claimed the suspect incriminated himself. This informant was facing life in prison for multiple charges, “including kidnapping, armed robbery and battery on a law enforcement officer,” the Innocence Project explained, yet he was given a plea deal and sentenced to just five years in prison.
“In August 2006, DuBoise filed a motion for post-conviction DNA testing. In 2007, pursuant to a court order the state responded that in 1990 the Hillsborough County Clerk’s Office disposed of the evidence “in the regular course of business.” Defense counsel met with a Tampa Police Department detective to determine whether any items not admitted at trial were in the police department’s custody, at which time approximately ten boxes of evidence were found–mostly trace evidence. After a 2008 hearing, a judge concluded that even if the evidence was suitable for testing, it would not exonerate DuBoise because the state’s theory was that two other individuals participated in the crime,” the Innocence Project reported.
In 2020, slides from the victim’s autopsy were discovered. DNA testing found DNA from two males present on the victim, neither of which belonged to DuBoise or the two other men who were implicated in the crime but never charged.
The DNA evidence led to DuBoise’s release from prison on August 27. He spent nearly 37 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit and was convicted of based on extremely weak “evidence.” At least 33 known wrongful convictions and indictments came as a result of bite mark evidence, the Innocence Project explained. Seventeen percent of the 375 DNA-based exonerations involved false accusations from jailhouse informants.

Prisoner Behind Bars

He Spent 37 Years In Prison For A Crime He Didn’t Commit. DNA Finally Cleared Him.